MINISTERS and the Charity Commission have “serious questions to answer” over alleged sex abuse by Oxfam aid workers, Labour said today as the watchdog opened an inquiry.

The charity has faced widespread criticism over allegations that its aid workers paid for prostituted women and girls when they were responding to the massive 2010 earthquake in Haiti, which killed 220,000 people and left 1.5 million homeless.

Deputy chief executive Penny Lawrence’s resignation yesterday was followed by an explosive interview with Oxfam’s former global head of safeguarding Helen Evans, who told Channel 4 News that she had begged senior staff, ministers and the regulator to act on the allegations.