An opposition Liberal Party senator facing allegations of sexual misconduct by female politicians has resigned from the party but remains in parliament, the senator’s office announced today.

The allegations against Liberal senator David Vann follow a 2021 inquiry into the work culture in Australia’s parliament, which found one in three workers there had experienced sexual harassment.

Vann, who denies the allegations, said in a message to the president of the Victorian branch of the Liberals that he would immediately resign as a member of the party.

Vann will remain in parliament as an independent senator, a spokesman for the senator said.

Liberal leader Peter Dutton last Friday called on Vann to resign after independent senator Lydia Thorpe, using parliamentary privilege, said she had been sexually assaulted during the previous parliamentary term, an allegation Vann immediately denied.

Following Thorpe’s claims, former Liberal senator Amanda Stoker said Vann touched her inappropriately at a party in 2020 by squeezing her bottom twice.

A third allegation against Van also surfaced, Dutton told reporters Friday, without elaborating.

Wan said this week that he was “absolutely devastated” and “shocked that my good reputation could be so savagely devoured”.

The episode comes after the previous Liberal-led government of Prime Minister Scott Morrison was rocked by the case of a former government adviser who was accused of sexually assaulting a colleague in the parliament building in 2019.