Braintree's outgoing MP Brooks Newmark still takes “full responsilbity” for his actions after a Sunday newspaper was cleared of running a sting operation against him.

Mr Newmark was forced to quit his post as minister for civil society in September following sexting revelations in the Sunday Mirror.

The Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) opened an investigation even though Mr Newmark did not make a complaint.

When asked if he thought the decision was fair, Mr Newmark said: “I’m not commenting on it because I didn’t bring the action.

“I think all they wanted to do was to talk to the Mirror about why they did it.

“I never wanted to get involved in the investigation because it would have looked defensive and I always said I took full responsibility for my actions.

“They did ask me if I would come in and comment, but I didn’t want to.”

Alex Wickham- a male undercover reporter working for the Guido Fawkes political website- set up a fake Twitter profile of an attractive female activist and exchanged sexual messages and pictures with the minister online.

IPSO found that the reporter had sources who told him Mr Newmark, who is married, had approached women online, therefore the subterfuge was acceptable.

The regulator also said the story was in the public interest.

IPSO said: “Mr Wickham considered that there was a significant public interest in investigating this further, given the imbalance of power between an MP at the top of the political ladder, and a woman involved at a low level in party politics.

“None of the sources was willing to speak on the record, and Mr Wickham therefore concluded that it would not be possible to corroborate the allegations without using subterfuge.

“He elected to set up the Twitter account to test whether it would receive contacts of the kind that his sources had described.”

Mr Newmark announced he would step down at May’s General Election following further revelations about relationships with other women.