“I remember saying to him, I’m going to go to the police. And he said to me, nobody’s going to believe you Kate,” she claimed on a podcast by Tortoise Media.

“I’m a Member of Parliament, the blue eyed boy, everyone thinks I’m fabulous. I have a good relationship with businesses, police.

“Nobody will believe you.”

It is understood that the now Conservative MP for Burton did not make a rape complaint to the police. 

Mr Griffiths resigned as a business minister in July 2018 after it emerged he had sent 2,000 sexually explicit and “depraved” messages to two female constituents.

When his local Conservative association decided on whether he would be their candidate for the 2019 general election, the vote was evenly split – 117 for and 117 against.

Ms Griffiths claimed that he had joined a local church to drum up support for his candidacy, despite not being a Christian.

“So he joined Renew Church in Uttoxeter and he got a large number of the congregation there to become members of the local association,” she said.

“And I think it was, it was their votes on the night that made it to a draw. It was a level draw on the night.”

Asked whether he was a believer, she claimed: “Not when I was with him.”

Ms Griffiths said that she felt “trapped in a relationship”, a situation that she never thought she would be in.

“I must admit, I’m one of these people that, before I ever got into this relationship, I would read stuff in the papers about women who’d been in this sort of situation, and I would always think: `Why didn’t you leave?’”, she said.

“But when you’re actually in the situation, it’s very different. You’re in love with this person, even though you’ve seen the really unpleasant side of them and you always want to believe the excuse you’re given and the promise that it won’t happen again.

“And you don’t want people out there to think that you’ve not got this perfect life.”