A Labour MP who experienced grooming as a teenager has launched a fierce defence of Jess Phillips after Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch branded her "the worst safeguarding minister we have ever had".
Natalie Fleet expressed fury at Badenoch's criticism, revealing that Phillips had been instrumental in helping her overcome her traumatic past and enter Parliament.
Last July shortly after being elected, Fleet revealed that she became pregnant at the age of 15 after being groomed and raped by an older man.
Labour's Natalie Fleet told GB News she has "weekly nightmares" about what she said happened to her 23 years ago.
Labour's Natalie Fleet told GB News she has 'weekly nightmares' about what she said happened to her 23 years ago.
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"I'm really, really angry. And that's why I am here today. So, as somebody who has been groomed, I didn't think that I should ever be in Parliament.
"The reason that I am in Parliament is because of people like Jess Phillips. Jess has not only told me that I am not responsible for my experience, she said that Parliament would benefit from people like me being in it.
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"I look at Keir Starmer, and I think that we've got people that take it really seriously the stuff he did around Rochdale, the stuff Jess did in 20 years for Women's Aid.
"The first person that reached out to me in my constituency was somebody who had been raped and waited for years and five months from rape to prosecution. The Home Secretary came to meet that woman.
"This is a government that is absolutely committed to halving violence against women and girls. Then we've got a Leader of the Opposition that, for point-scoring reasons, dares to send an email out to Conservative members saying that they have won.
"How has anybody won? It’s an absolutely abhorrent situation that we are in."
WATCH: Kemi Badenoch says Jess Phillips is the 'worst Safeguarding Minister ever' in blistering attack on grooming gangs
Badenoch's assessment came during a GB News appearance earlier where she defended the Conservative record on tackling grooming gangs.
"Jess Phillips is the worst safeguarding minister we have ever had," she declared.
The Conservative leader insisted her party had taken the issue seriously whilst in government as she said: "I spoke about this issue during the leadership contest.
"I stood on a stage and I made the point about this being something that I was going to campaign on long before all of the furore that we saw this year."
Kemi Badenoch accused Jess Phillips of being the 'worst Safeguarding Minister ever' in a scathing attack following the latest grooming gangs reviewGB NewsShe highlighted previous Conservative efforts, citing work by "colleagues of mine, from Theresa May to Suella Braverman" who "had taken a lot of time and did a lot of work."
Badenoch maintained that Labour had misrepresented Conservative work, claiming a bill addressing grooming gangs "fell" when Parliament was dissolved for the election.
She concluded: "So I'm not taking any lectures from Jess Phillips.
"She needs to go sit down and look at how she has let down quite a lot of people, including survivors, who told me today that she let them down."
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