The secretary of Italy’s staunchly Catholic UDC party, Lorenzo Cesa, has asked that MPs be given an allowance to pay for their wives to come to Rome, to discourage them from turning to prostitutes to satisfy their sexual needs.

Mr Cesa’s proposal came after one of his own MPs, Cosimo Mele, married with three children and expecting a fourth, admitted to spending the night in a luxury hotel suite with two prostitutes, one of whom was taken to hospital with an overdose of cocaine.