She also described Harman's decision to refer to her

ex-husband by name in the book years after his death as "ethically despicable".

"Sathya obviously cannot give his version of the event.

The pain caused to his family, his daughter in particular, seems completely gratuitous. Perhaps Harman's publisher pressed her to provide a name with a view to stirring prurient interest in the book. Whatever the reason, I find what she has done ethically despicable," she added.

But Harman found that a friend who was on the same politics course had a similar experience with the professor.

"She didn't dare risk returning home with a 2:2 and so had succumbed to his pressure to have sex with him. It was only years later that we discovered he'd tried the same thing with both of us," writes Harman, who graduated from the course in 1972.

The Labour party's former deputy leader goes on to explain that at the time neither of them had considered telling anyone else. "There wasn't anyone to complain to, he'd only deny it, and though it was vile, it seemed to be just the way things were," she says.

York University described the allegations published in the new book as "extremely concerning". "Behaviour of the sort described by Ms Harman would constitute gross misconduct and would lead to dismissal," a spokesperson said.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)