A veteran Kent MP caught up in a media storm after making comments branded sexist has dismissed the whole affair as “quite extraordinary”.

Sir Roger Gale sparked an online backlash yesterday after referring to women working in his office as “girls” during an interview with BBC Radio 4.

Listeners quickly took to social media to round on the 73-year-old Tory, with one saying her throat was sore from yelling at the radio.

But Sir Roger insists he is “entirely unrepentant” about his comments.

“I find it quite extraordinary,” he said. “I’ve never come across anything like it in my life. It’s bizarre.

“There’s a famine in South Sudan, a famine in Nigeria, President Trump is building a wall across the United States, the far right are marching through Europe and Nicola Sturgeon is trying to break up the UK – but what’s trending on Twitter is Roger Gale daring to call his office staff ‘girls’, which I’ve done since the beginning of time.

“It’s so completely irrelevant to everything that’s happening in the world.”

The North Thanet Conservative – who employs his wife Suzy - had been invited onto the Today programme to talk about a ban on future MPs hiring family members.

He told the show his wife works up to 60 hours a week, starting at 7am most mornings.

“She is utterly dedicated to her job, as indeed are the other girls in my office, but they don't work in the same way and the same hours,” he said.

'I know if I am away on parliamentary business Suzy will deal with all sorts of things. She knows what I think, she knows what I will say, she knows what I want done.

'She will go and visit constituents if they are in distress, as indeed will the other girls, I have to say.”

Among those to criticise his comments was Twitter user Cecilia Farren, who said: “Roger Gale's praise of his wife and his 'team of girls' did not do him favours and gave me a sore throat yelling! Pompous.”

Another, Lisa Fleisher, tweeted: “Whoa. On BBC Radio 4, MP Sir Roger Gale refers to the women who work in his constituency office as ‘the girls’ What is this, the 1960s?”

But Sir Roger – an MP since 1983 – has dismissed the volatile reaction.

“I’m entirely unrepentant, as you can probably tell,” he said. “It’s the thought police attempting to intimidate those who don’t act and speak exactly as they do.”

“I grew up in a time when you opened doors for ladies and stood up when they approached a table. That’s what I did and that’s what I still do. It’s called manners.

“The fact I call my girls ‘my girls’ is a term of great affection, and they take it that way.”

Sir Roger’s response has been supported by both current and former staff members at his constituency office in Birchington.

Debi Hill, who has worked for Sir Roger for 18 years, told the Today programme this morning: "As I am in my late 40s I like to be referred to as one of the girls.

"I’ve worked with Roger for nearly 18 years and I really enjoy being there. We are a very happy team.

"We feel very valued and appreciated for what we do, and there's nothing wrong with how we're treated.

"Roger certainly isn’t sexist and it shocks me to see how much attention this has received.”

Ex-employee Jen Edwards, a self-styled feminist and former Canterbury city councillor, also defended her old boss.

She said: "I can tell you now that man is anything but sexist.

“He's a kind man that does nothing but encourage you. He inspired me in many ways to push forward, especially as a young female in politics.

"He always called us the girls purely because we were a close-knit team.

“He also called us 'the gang' or 'the cogs' in the office, amongst many other nicknames.

“Flyaway comment maybe, but never meant as anything more, let alone anti-women."

Professor and feminist BJ Epstein has a different view, however.

Responding to Mrs Hill on the Today programme, she said: "We know looking in the dictionary that girl means a young woman only up to the age of 11 or 12.

"It's diminishing and demeaning to refer to women who are older than 12 as a child, really.

"These are working women who are doing a job and have a career.”