OXFAM has lost regular donations from 7,000 people over the past 10 days following the eruption of a sex scandal, its chief executive has said.

Mark Goldring told MPs this afternoon that corporate sponsors are ‘reserving judgement’ on whether to withdraw support.

Since the scandal was first reported nearly two weeks ago, 26 allegations of misconduct have been reported to the Oxford-based charity, Mr Goldring said.

He said 16 of the claims stemmed from abroad, while 10 came from the UK.

Giving evidence to the Commons International Development Committee, Mr Goldring publicly apologised for the actions of charity staff who sexually exploited female victims of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

And he also apologised for his own comments which appeared to play down the seriousness of the scandal, when he told a newspaper that the charity was being attacked as if it had "murdered babies in their cots".

The parliamentary hearing comes in the wake of the news of resignations and dismissals of Oxfam staff in Haiti following allegations of "sex parties" involving prostitutes.

Asked how many more revelations had come to his notice since newspaper reports of the Haiti scandal emerged earlier this month, Mr Goldring said: "We really want people to come forward wherever they are and whenever this happened. Some of those cases relate to the UK, some of them relate to our international programme."

Mr Goldring apologised after committee chairman Stephen Twigg said that the parallel the charity chief drew with the murder of babies in an interview with the Guardian was regarded by many people as "grossly inappropriate".

Mr Goldring responded: "I do apologise. I was under stress, I'd given many interviews, I'd made many decisions to try to lead Oxfam's response to this. I was thinking about amazing work I've seen Oxfam do across the world, most recently with refugees coming from Myanmar.

"I should not have said those things. It is not for Oxfam to judge issues of proportionality or motivation."

Oxfam International's executive director Winnie Byanyima told the committee: "Some hideous men came into our organisation and abused the trust of the British people, the supporters.

"But they were able to get away, to get a recommendation to leave. This was wrong."