A Labour MP has joked about being branded “the sex MP“ but warned that lifelong education is needed to tackle abuse and problems with sex and relationships.
South Derbyshire MP Samantha Niblett made headlines when she suggested that fellow parliamentarians bring sex toys to the Palace of Westminster and called for “a summer of sex”.
But Ms Niblett, who recently became chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Sex and Reproductive Health, has won the backing of actress Dame Emma Thompson and specialists for launching a campaign to improve sex education.
She told the BBC: “I think if some of my colleagues – who should be some of the most progressive MPs that there are – are finding it amusing, then I look forward to seeing the goodness that will come off the back of the campaign.”
She said she did not regret the attention her views have brought her.
“It’s just been wonderful,” she said. “People are now starting to recognise me… it’s, ‘oh, you’re that sex MP, aren’t you?’
“I think as it picks up support across the country, you’ll probably find more of my colleagues feeling comfortable to put their head above the parapet and talk about it.
“It’s really important – that when somebody else tries to grab the microphone and diminish what you’re doing – you grab it back.”
Defending her views on sex toys she said that there needs to be a move “away from shame and stigma” in discussing these issues.
Ms Niblett claimed: “A significant part of sex between people is communication and it is pleasure. And one of the ways we can get pleasure is through the use of sex toys.
“Trying to take away the stigma or shame around even talking about them is why the campaign is absolutely talking about sex toys.”
She added that people are expected to speak in court about “horrifying things that have happened to them, when we don’t openly talk about good sex”.
She said: “How can we talk about bad sex if we can’t talk about good sex?”
Ms Niblett pointed to how a lack of openness is feeding sexual abuse and crime, rather than healthy open discussion.
The Crime Survey for England and Wales found, for the year ending March 2025, that about 15.9 per cent of people aged 16 or over (7.7 million people) had experienced sexual assault since the age of 16.
The is included 1.9 million victims of rape, and 1.8 million of rape victims were females, according to figures published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Campaigners have been demanding improvements to sex education in England.
In 2017, the Local Government Association (LGA) warned that the lack of sex and relationships education in some of the country’s secondary schools was creating a “ticking sexual health time bomb”.
But after her campaign drew party political attacks from Tory leader Kemi Badenoch she urged people to look beyond the party politics.
In a recent set of exchanges in the Commons, Ms Badenoch said: “What are they [Labour] doing? They’re promoting sex toys in Parliament. It gives a whole new meaning to ‘fiddling while Rome burns’.”
But Ms Niblett insisted: “I would be doing this no matter what party I was sitting in, and I really hope the campaign itself is not diminished because people want to use it as a weapon to make it party political.
“It is absolutely political. There are things that we need to do within the system to offer better sex education and support that can only really happen from the top down from the government.”
One of Ms Niblett’s allies is Labour MP, Alistair Strathern who wants the government to make relationships and sex education mandatory for 16 to 18-year-olds.
He has introduced the Relationships and Sex Education (Further Education Sector) Bill to Parliament in June.
That followed a petition by the survivor-led campaign group Make It Mandatory, which called for sex education to be mandated to 18 and gathered more than 106,000 signatures.
