A Conservative party minister is being investigated by the Cabinet Office after he admitted sending his former assistant to buy sex toys.

Mark Garnier confirmed to the Mail on Sunday that he had called Caroline Edmondson “sugar tits”, and accompanied her on a visit to a sex shop in Soho in 2010.

Edmondson claims that he gave her cash to buy vibrators, and waited outside on the street while she purchased them.

But Garnier, the MP for Wyre Forest in Worcestershire – who is also an undersecretary of state for international trade – rejected the assertion that his behaviour amounted to sexual harassment.

“It absolutely does not constitute harassment,” he said.

The Cabinet Office inquiry into Garnier’s alleged behaviour was announced by health secretary Jeremy Hunt on BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday 29 October, The Guardian reports.

“The stories, if they are true, are obviously totally unacceptable and the Cabinet Office will be conducting an investigation into whether there’s been a breach of ministerial code in this particular case,” said Hunt.

MP admits asking secretary to buy vibrators – but denies sexual harassment