New MP Natalie Fleet discusses being ‘groomed’ at 15 and wanting to be a voice for women
A new MP who became pregnant at 15 has revealed she was “groomed” by an older man and now wants to be a voice for “all of those women that have children in far from ideal circumstances”.
MP Natalie Fleet said her family had struggled when she was growing up, at one stage finding themselves homeless before she gave birth to her daughter “at a very young age”.
In an interview with GB News’ Gloria De Piero to be broadcast on Sunday, she said: “At the time, when I was 15, I felt full of shame and guilt and responsibility.
“And 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, with her daughter now 23 and “the absolute love of my life”, Ms Fleet said she could look back and think “that wasn’t okay”.
She said: “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.”
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 in her situation.
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.”
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Ms Fleet is now a mother of four and a Labour MP, elected earlier this month in the Bolsover seat represented for decades by Dennis Skinner before being won by the Conservatives in 2019.
In that position, she said she wanted to use her platform to talk more about women in her situation “and do something about it”.
She said: “I really want to be a voice for all of those people, all of those women that have children in far from ideal circumstances.”
Adding that her childhood experiences still had an impact on her, including “weekly nightmares”, she said she was still “so excited about what the next Labour government is going to do”.
She said: “We’re going to make sure that we’re smashing down barriers to opportunity so that there can be 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.”