Culture secretary John Whittingdale has admitted to having a relationship with a sex worker, but said he was unaware of her real occupation.

Whittingdale gave a statement to BBC’s Newsnight saying that he did have relationship with a dominatrix, but he did not know what was her real job.

Whittingdale met the sex worker on Match.com and they had a relationship between August 2013 and February 2014. As he said, when he found out what her real occupation, he ended their relationship.

He also added that his position as the boss of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport had not been compromised, as Mirror reports.

In the statement, read out on the program, he said the story was a “bit embarrassing”.

Mr Whittingdale said in a statement: “Between August 2013 and February 2014, I had a relationship with someone who I first met through Match.com. She was a similar age and lived close to me. At no time did she give me any indication of her real occupation and I only discovered this when I was made aware that someone was trying to sell a story about me to tabloid newspapers. As soon as I discovered, I ended the relationship.”

Mr Whittingdale has been a Tory MP for 24 years and he began his career in the 1980s as a close aide to Margaret Thatcher.