A Tory MP's chief of staff said allegations he raped a woman in a parliamentary office have left him unable to eat and sleep, a court heard.

Samuel Armstrong, 24, top aide to South Thanet MP Craig Mackinlay, is accused of forcing himself on the alleged victim in October last year.

The pair had been drinking together earlier in the evening at the Sports and Social Bar in parliament and were described as friends.

At Southwark Crown Court this afternoon in cross examination at he was asked if he found the woman sexually attractive.

He said: "Well it was her character I found interesting. She was very funny and confident and she was flirtatious."

He was asked for what reason he took her to see the crypt in parliament, and he said: "She was interested in it and I wanted to show her it to make her happy and she seemed interested."

He added: "At that stage it was an end in itself. The thought had crossed my mind."

Asked what that thought was, he said: "I thought she she would make a nice girlfriend. It was romantic rather than sexual."

At one point he had offered to take the woman to see Jeremy Corbyn's office upstairs in the Norman Shaw building.

Asked about his romantic intentions while on the way to his boss Craig Mackinlay's office, he said: "At that stage I thought it might to be possibly in the future.

"But it was when she mentioned the wine in the lift, I thought it was 12am and I thought perhaps maybe she was becoming interested. But I had no expectations."

He was asked by prosecutor Mark Heywood QC, whether Mr Mackinlay would have approved of him having sex in the office, and he said: "Probably not."

He added: "I trusted her enormously as someone who shared an awful lot with me. It was foolish.

"It was an act of enormous foolishness and as a consequence I have had the worst year of my life.

"I have been unable to work, unable to sleep for several weeks, I have been unable to eat and I've been very sick.

"While what I did was foolish, the point is I am innocent of this for and whatever reason someone has made this horrible horrible horrible allegation.

"I've been embarrassed and I have suffered and I am never ever ever going to get my career back, that is not the point.

"The point on this allegation someone is trying to send me to prison for a very long time for something I didn't do."

Asked if any point he thought there might be a romantic encounter, he said: "When she mentioned in the lift why don't we drink the red wine in the office, and at that time I thought there was the possibility things may be progressing.

"There was something there, she said there was something there. When a girl says do you want to stay to drink some red wine, of course it becomes apparent things might progress."

When asked whether he forced the alleged victim to give him oral sex he said: "I don't think I would put that piece of my anatomy between someone's teeth if they didn't want it to be there."

It was also put to him by the prosecution the victim was in fact wearing a bralet, and not a sports bra as he had told the court, to which Armstrong said: "I defer to your knowledge of lingerie."

He pointed out he tried to find the clasps on the garment but it did not have any and it was the woman who took it off while she was sitting on his lap.

Armstrong, of Danbury, Essex, denies two counts of rape, one count of assault by penetration, and one count of sexual assault.

The trial continues.