MPs have accused Save the Children of paying Harbottle & Lewis £100,000 to "shut down" reporting of allegations of sexual harassment by the charity's staff.

Sir Alan Parker, who resigned as chairman of the charity in April this year, was questioned by a parliamentary committee investigating sexual abuse in the aid sector about the sums spent on legal advice, following allegations made against former senior executives Justin Forsyth and Brendan Cox, the widower of murdered MP Jo Cox.

The International Development Committee, which is chaired by Labour MP Stephen Twigg, quizzed Sir Alan on the use of donated funds, with Conservative MP Pauline Latham accusing the charity of spending £100,000 on lawyers "to shut the story down".

The firm took advice from West End firm Harbottle following the scandal, with The Times reporting that the newspaper received "aggressive" letters from the firm in relation to stories.

Harbottle, which is based in Hanover Square in Mayfair, is well known for its work for high-profile clients such as the Royal Family, David and Victoria Beckham, and Roman Abramovich, and in 2015 was instructed by British American Tobacco over bribery allegations made in a BBC Panorama programme.

Sir Alan denied that Save the Children had sought to quash stories about sexual harassment allegations, saying: "There was a lot of media interest at the time, and I think that I felt very clearly that the most important thing was accuracy of reporting. We felt very clearly that the facts should be put down by a lawyer rather than just a communications department, so that they were seen to have absolute veracity.

"It was not an attempt to close anything down – it was just an attempt to make sure the organisation was protected."

Latham – who said she is a fundraiser for the charity – replied that she did not think it had been interpreted that way by the recipients of the letters.

The news comes after the charity instructed employment specialist firm Lewis Silkin to conduct a review of how the charity handled complaints of inappropriate behaviour in 2015. Sir Alan described to the committee that after hearing the allegations against Cox, he called a full board meeting the next day before deciding to seek "the best independent advice".

He added: "We asked the law firm [Lewis Silkin] to go and do a wider cultural review of the organisation at that point. The board wanted a third-party, completely unconnected law firm, that is actually a specialist in this subject."

Details of Lewis Silkin's report from October 2015 were leaked to Radio 4's PM programme in March and described "significant employee engagement issues" within the organisation.

Harbottle and Lewis Silkin were contacted for comment.