RIBBLE Valley MP Nigel Evans has told a jury it is; ridiculous’ that he is being depicted as ‘a cross between Alan Clark, Benny Hill and Oscar Wilde’.

The 56-year-old is on trial over allegations that he sexually abused seven men on various dates between 2002 and last year by using his ‘powerful’ political influence to take advantage of them, often while drunk.

Yesterday, former deputy speaker Evans was cross-examined on the nine separate allegations he faces by prosecutor Mark Heywood QC in often heated exchanges.

Referring to the first two allegations that, while in public, he placed his hand in the trousers of men, Mr Heywood asked him: “There is evidence in each of these two incidents that what took place was without any eye contact. Was this you using hands where words were not available to you?”

Evans replied: “No. It is trying to make me out to be a cross between Alan Clark (the late Tory politician), Benny Hill and Oscar Wilde.

“It’s ridiculous. The answer is no.”

The gay MP said he had no recollection of the two events – one said to have taken place in a bar in London's Soho in late 2002 or early 2003 and the other at the 2003 Conservatives conference in Blackpool.

The jury has heard that Evans was celibate for a long period until he began actively seeking sexual relationships from 2000.

He denied he had made a pass in the two alleged instances and also when with a young man on his first visit to the Houses of Parliament in the summer of 2009.

He also denied indecently touching another man after being introduced to him in the Strangers Bar.

Evans said: “With several people watching? No.”

Evans has also denied sexually assaulting a Westminster worker in a darkened kitchen near his then deputy speaker's offices last March.

Referring to an excerpt from one of his police interviews in which he said he had been ‘in the frame’ to be the next Commons Speaker, Evans said: “The reality to me is what has happened to me is that I will not be the Speaker of the House.”

Evans claims he ‘misread the signals’ when he made a pass at a 22-year-old man at his home in Pendleton, Lancashire, in 2009.

He said: “I was waiting to see what his reaction was. Hopefully that he might turn round and something may happen.”

Giving evidence, the daughter of Tory MP Nadine Dorries told the jury that she recalled a conversation with the complainant in which he referred to the alleged incident but appeared to ‘make light of it’.

Jennifer Dorries said when she saw the breaking news that Evans had first been arrested last May she said to her mother: “I bet you that is (the alleged victim). That is the kind of thing he would do.”

Evans denies raping a 21-year-old at his home last year. He also says he did not commit two sexual assaults on the same occasion. The trial continues tomorrow.