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Natalie Fleet says she is speaking out about being groomed because “if I don’t speak out about it, who does?”

The Labour MP is speaking about the issue ahead of a review into grooming gangs being published next week. 

Fleet was 15-years-old when she became pregnant and described the whole situation as “really tough”, with teachers telling her that her life as she knew it was over. 

She says her message to every woman who has been groomed is that she believes them and that it is “not your fault”. 

Fleet says she has been under lots of pressure not to speak out about her experience of being groomed and statutory rape.

She tells Politics Hub With Ali Fortescue many people including her own husband asked her to keep her story private.

“He said, ‘I don’t want you to be the rape-y MP.’ I said, ‘I don’t want to be the rape-y MP, either.’

“But if I don’t speak out about it, who does?”

‘We’re going backwards’

Fleet adds there are 10 births every day in the UK from rape – including six in her own constituency every year. 

“What I would like to say to those women is, ‘I believe you, I’m talking out about it so you can feel more comfortable sharing your story.’

“But – this is the important part – the state will believe you, as well,” she says.

Street says that even now, she still sometimes believes being groomed was her own fault. 

“We have got a culture where women are taught from a very young age to believe that this is their issue, and in so many ways, we’re going backwards”, she says.

The backbencher MP adds that she receives rape threats and death threats as a female politician.

Calls for another inquiry ‘make me angry’

“We have to be brave even when it is difficult”, she says. 

“I can speak on behalf of women that don’t have a voice, that is the best privilege”, she concludes.

Turning to politics, Fleet says the thought of another national inquiry – something called for by the Tories – “just makes me angry”.

“They take years, they cost a lot of money and the last government ignored the recommendations,” Fleet says.

She says the issue of grooming gangs has become politicised. 

“It really, really, really annoys me,” she adds.