Delyn MP Rob Roberts “facing allegations of inappropriate behaviour” according to the BBC

Delyn’s Conservative MP Rob Roberts is facing “allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards two junior members of parliamentary staff” according to BBC Wales.

Right-wing blog Guido Fawkes first revealed last month that Parliament’s Complaints and Standards body had instigated a formal investigation into the behaviour Mr Roberts.

In an article published overnight, BBC journalists Ione Wells and Catrin Haf Jones now say they have seen messages which claim to show Roberts had invited a 21-year-old female intern to “fool around” with him.

A former intern working in Parliament at the time, was sent a series of messages in April this year from Mr Roberts, the article states.

In one of the messages, Mr Roberts asks if she might want to “fool around with no strings, you might come and visit me in London”.

The BBC has published an image with some of the messages on.

Speaking to BBC Wales, the former intern said the exchange made her feel “incredibly sick”.

“I had had one of the worst days ever, and then I messaged him saying I’m crying, I’m not okay – and his solution to that was to proposition me,” 

BBC Wales said that in a separate series of messages Mr Roberts told a male parliamentary staffer “that I liked him and asked him to dinner” it resulted in the resulting in him moving positions.

In response, Rob Roberts told BBC Wales that earlier this year he invited a parliamentary staff member to dinner.

He said: “My invitation was not accepted and the staff member did not feel comfortable about it.

I do now recognise that it was inappropriate to have extended the invitation to a member of staff in the first place.

However, I have found the last few months and the ‘coming out’ process to have been particularly challenging and the cause of a great deal of mental stress to me.

Creating a story from this interaction which has been dealt with amicably seems calculated to add to that stress, which is distressing.”

A Conservative Party spokesperson said: “An investigation into Rob Roberts MP’s conduct is ongoing.

“While Mr Roberts has apologised for his behaviour and has been undertaking safeguarding and social media protection training we are clear such conduct is completely unacceptable.”