Labour MP Natalie Fleet has resigned from her position as safeguarding minister, citing that the responsibilities of the role were overwhelmingly triggering due to her history as a grooming and sexual assault survivor. Fleet, who represents Bolsover, revealed that discussions of cases involving drugging and rape, such as that of Gisèle Pelicot, prompted her decision to step down earlier this week.
Pelicot's ex-husband was sentenced to 20 years in prison for drugging and raping her and allowing others to assault her while she was unconscious over a decade. Fleet told The Times that the National Crime Agency's media outreach about such cases, where women were drugged and raped while sleeping, served as the "straw that broke the camel's back."
Fleet, who had been appointed to the Home Office role in May, has previously spoken about her own experience of being groomed at age 15 by an older man, which resulted in her becoming pregnant. In her interview, she disclosed a more recent assault where she was raped while sleeping. "I don't want to go into detail, but I know what it's like to wake up in a daze, and you don't quite know where you are or what day it is, but there's a man inside you," she stated.
The MP explained that her role involved meetings with charities like Women's Aid and Rape Crisis, where discussions of data sets by civil servants would bring the human impact of these cases to the forefront for her. "When you're carrying this much (trauma), you avoid things that make you feel uncomfortable," she said, recalling an instance where she was offered information about a charity that provided furniture for women fleeing domestic abuse, an organization she had used herself.
Fleet described her resignation as the "bravest" decision she has made, aiming to regain control from her perpetrators and recognizing that survivors deserved someone functioning at their best in the role. She shared that fellow MP Shabana Mahmood had encouraged her to seek counseling with a trauma specialist, and her family provided support during her recovery. Despite the personal toll, Fleet noted achievements during her brief tenure, including facilitating a meeting between Sir Keir Starmer and survivors of abuse by the late Harrods owner Mohammed Al Fayed.
Fleet initially announced her resignation on social media, stating it was an "honour of a lifetime to be Minister for Safeguarding" but she "quickly found contents overwhelmingly triggering." She expressed well wishes to her successor and pledged her support. Her bravery was acknowledged by fellow politicians following the announcement. In an earlier interview, Fleet had described feeling "full of shame and guilt and responsibility" about her grooming experience as a child and expressed difficulty finding resources for women in similar situations, noting over 3,000 conceptions annually from rape without dedicated support charities.
Upon returning to the back benches, some senior figures within the Labour party reportedly expressed frustration with Prime Minister's team for not reassigning Fleet to a different ministerial role, with one party insider calling her "one of the best communicators in the 2024 intake."