Labour MP – ‘I became a mum at 15 and what happened to me was not okay, but now I’m determined to fight for change’
Newly elected Labour MP Natalie Fleet has bravely revealed how she was raped at the age of 15.
In a harrowing GB News interview to be broadcast this Sunday, July 21, Ms Fleet says she nonetheless has “weekly nightmares” about what happened twenty years on from the assault.
After being raped, Ms Fleet fell pregnant but says the daughter she gave delivery to is now the “love of her life”.
Sitting down with GB News’ Gloria De Piero in an unique interview she explains that she’s determined to discuss what happened as a result of the actions of her attacker – who instructed her to have an abortion – had been “not ok”.
Natalie Fleet says she was groomed as a 15-year-previous
GB News
Ms Fleet additionally fears many ladies are struggling and unable to get the assist they want.
That’s why she plans to use her platform in Parliament to use her teenage experiences, which additionally noticed her spent a interval homeless, as a catalyst for change.
Reflecting on what happened to her twenty years in the past, Ms Fleet, now a mom-of-4, stated: “Today, 23 years later, I look again and I believe, it wasn’t okay. That was an older man.
“I did not know we had been having unprotected intercourse. I was a youngster and (it) is statutory rape. At the time this is not one thing that we had been speaking about. It’s not how I noticed myself. I nonetheless have weekly nightmares about it.
“I’ve a large privilege and benefit to be in Parliament and I’m thrilled to be right here. But what happened in my childhood nonetheless has a large impression on me, which is why I’m so enthusiastic about what the following Labour authorities goes to do.
“At 15, you undoubtedly assume you are sufficiently old to do all these items. I wished to give my daughter one of the best life.
But one other factor that I can do now I’m in Parliament is I would like to be a voice for all of these individuals, all of these girls which have youngsters in removed from perfect circumstances.
“That’s why I wished to speak about the place my daughter got here from and about what happened. It was actually tough for me to say to her, ‘I don’t think this was entirely consensual, and I think I might have been groomed, and I don’t think this is an appropriate relationship’. She took it rather well.
“I Googled upfront for some suggestions, simply a reality sheet or ‘how to deal with this’ and I discovered nothing.
“I discovered completely nothing. I discovered there have been reality sheets about rape getting used as a conflict crime. But there was nothing else. There’s no acknowledgement that it occurs within the UK.
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Natalie Fleet spoke to Gloria De Piero about her life
GB News
“And the extra analysis I’ve achieved, I’ve discovered that there are over 3,000 conceptions yearly from rape. But there isn’t any charity to assist these girls.
“There’s no assist, recommendation, or assist helpline which you can go to. No assistance on ‘how do I tell my child, that I love, that is everything to me, that this is where they came from?’”
Explaining why additional assist on this space is so desperately wanted she continued: “It is biologically very clear what happened to me as a result of I was 15 years previous, and he was older.
“I can show the place she got here from, in order that’s statutory rape. But there are such a lot of girls that this occurs too who don’t discuss it.
“They dare not discuss it as a result of they know they gained’t be believed. And then even when by some miracle, we transfer to a society the place girls are believed, when you say that is your youngster, then that man can come and have entry to that youngster.
“Even in the event you show it is rape, that man can have entry to that youngster and assist carry it up. And that is completely terrifying. This is a perpetrator that has harm the mom, who can then have entry to the kid.
“He instructed me to have an abortion at the time. He’s by no means met her. He by no means wished something to do with it. And he was very dismissive. He instructed me many instances that he knew a number of ways in which he would not have to pay a penny in direction of her, as a result of all his pals had already evaded the CSA.”
Describing the connection she now has along with her daughter, Ms Fleet stated: “So she’s 23 now and is absolutely the love of my life. I’m so pleased with every part she is. I’m thrilled. She makes me proud each single day.
“But at the time, after I was 15, I felt stuffed with disgrace and guilt and accountability. And all I was determined to do was be sure that she had a life that was nearly as good as she would have had to any age dad or mum. That was what I was determined to do.”
Outlining how she plans to use her position as an MP to push for change, she stated: “I’m a product of the final Labour authorities. It wasn’t a good Government, but it modified my life and it was transformational. When I was youthful, issues had been powerful and I had a Labour authorities.
Natalie Fleet was sworn in because the MP for Bolsover
BBC
“When we had been homeless, the Labour authorities made certain that there was sufficient housing inventory for us to be rehoused.
“And then after I had my first youngster at a very younger age, I may ship her to a Sure Start nursery. I may keep on, go to college with a first within the household scholarship.
“I may work in a minimal wage job. I may ship my youngsters as a result of I’d received two by then, to a Sure Start nursery, and it simply felt like I wanted the assist of the state. And my God, I received it.
“And, earlier than I became an MP, I labored for a commerce union and I was completely determined to give again to my lecturers. My lecturers had invested in me.
“The Labour authorities made certain that my lecturers had time to train me and take care of me, and I then noticed that I was paying taxes and they weren’t being invested in younger youngsters like me or lecturers. That’s why we would have liked a new Government.
“On my property, the property the place we had been rehoused, I appeared round and individuals struggled. And I see now there are people who I was shut to after I was youthful who’re now struggling with habit and poverty scars.
“What poverty has achieved to me has meant that I work and work and work and work and work. If any person knocks on my door, I will not reply it as a result of I’m nonetheless scared it is the bailiffs.
“That’s what occurs to you in your childhood, it stays with you. In areas of Bolsover it is completely coronary heart-breaking.
“But I may both be offended about what’s happened over the previous 14 years, unhappy and really feel powerless, or I may come into Parliament and strive and do one thing about it. I imply, what an honour.”
