A MARRIED Conservative MP had a one night stand with a colleague and then treated her unfairly at work when she said it would not happen again, a tribunal heard.

Dad of three Huw Merriman, MP for Bexhill and Battle, told solicitor Patronia Campbell he was turned on by her legs and said he wanted to marry her, it is claimed.

He is facing an employment tribunal in London.

Yesterday, the panel was told he was heard "giggling" in a colleague's bedroom the night before "sheepishly" emerging from the bathroom in his pants.

Solicitor Ms Campbell, 42, claims they had a drunken one night stand.

In June 2011, Ms Campbell asked her friend, Simon Carter, if Mr Merriman could stay on his sofa in London as he had missed his last train home.

In statement to East London Employment Tribunal, Mr Carter said: "Ms Campbell and Mr Merriman were drunk and decided to cook something to eat.

"It was clear that Mr Merriman spent the night in Ms Campbell's bedroom.

"I did see Mr Merriman the next morning. I woke up to hear a sound in my bathroom. Mr Merriman opened the door and sheepishly said 'good morning' before walking up the stairs to Patti's room.

"I saw the claimant the next morning. She was sheepish and admitted Mr Merriman had stayed in her bed."

Mr Carter told the hearing he woke up in the middle of the night because the pair were loudly making risotto in the kitchen.

But he added that they retired to the lawyer's bedroom shortly after he had asked them to stop what they were doing.

Mr Carter continued: "Briefly afterwards I did hear them both talking and giggling in the room next door."

Asked to expand on the MP's sheepish expression, the recruitment consultant said: "He is in his pants coming out of my bathroom in the morning. I would be sheepish if I was in that position."

The tribunal heard that it was unlike Ms Campbell to have a "casual fling" but that she told Mr Carter she and Mr Merriman had a brief relationship some years back.

Miss Campbell claims that 18 months after they spent the night together - at a work Christmas party in 2012 - insinuated that he wanted to have a sexual relationship with her.

She turned him down on this occasion and Mr Merriman allegedly began unjustly criticising her where they worked at Lehman Brothers International, and harassing her, the tribunal heard.

Mr Merriman, who was managing director at the time, denies the one night stand, but accepts he stayed at the house.

Ms Campbell claims she was unfairly dismissed when she was made redundant from Lehman Brothers in 2014.

She is also bringing a case for harassment and victimisation against Mr Merriman, Lehman Brothers International and another managing director, Tim Parsons.

The tribunal continues.