A new Labour MP has bravely opened up about being groomed when she was just 15.
Natalie Fleet, who represents Bolsover, said she was sharing her experiences in the hope that she can become a voice for ‘all those women that have children in far from ideal circumstances.’
She said her family had been ‘struggling’ when she was growing up and even found themselves homeless at one point.
Ms Fleet told the presenter that giving birth at a ‘very, very young age’ left her with feelings ‘full of shame and guilt and responsibility’.
She said that at the time she hadn’t understood what the older man had done was wrong or how it had affected her.
She said: ‘All I was determined to do was make sure that she had a life that was as good as she would have had to any age parent. That was what I was determined to do, I didn’t think about me or the impact.’
But Ms Fleet, who described her oldest daughter as the ‘love of my life’, said she can now look back and think what the man did ‘wasn’t okay’.
‘That was an older man. That was potentially, I mean now we have labels like grooming that we didn’t have then.
‘I didn’t know we were having unprotected sex. I was a child and this is statutory rape. You know, at the time this isn’t something that we were talking about. It’s not how I saw myself.’
She said what happened had a ‘massive’ lasting impact on her, adding that she still has ‘weekly nightmares’.
When she came to tell her daughter about what happened, Ms Fleet said she had been shocked that she was unable to find any advice for women experiencing her situation now.
She said: ‘There was nothing. There’s no acknowledgement that it happens in the UK.
‘And the more research I’ve done, I’ve found that there are over 3,000 conceptions every year from rape, but there’s no charity to support these women.’
Ms Fleet said she wanted to use her new platform as MP to talk more about women in her situation ‘and do something about it’.
‘I really want to be a voice for all of those people, all of those women that have children in far from ideal circumstances,’ she added.
Speaking about Labour’s coming term in government, she said the party would be ‘smashing down barriers to opportunity so that there can be more stories like mine’.
‘I am a product of the last Labour government. It wasn’t a perfect government, but it changed my life and it was transformational.
‘And that’s the reason that it’s worth doing a job where you can’t go to the shop in your pyjamas anymore, but where you still have a panic alarm in your bag, your own children are potentially at risk, that’s really awful.
‘But when it means that you can make other children’s lives, who aren’t as fortunate, better, that’s incredible.’
The interview is to be broadcast on GB News between 1pm and 3pm on Sunday afternoon.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
