When Samantha Niblett launched the Yes Sex Please, We're British! campaign earlier this year, the jokes and criticism came thick and fast – along with a new nickname: the 'sex MP'. But the Labour MP for South Derbyshire is unapologetic. "Now in times gone by, being referred to as a 'sex MP' would've been something quite sleazy and seedy. But thankfully, and hopefully, I'm helping to change that," she said.
Niblett's campaign aims to push education around consent, respect and healthy relationships to prevent abuse and violence. The backlash, she says, is "half the reason" for running it. This week she formally launched what she calls a "summer of sex" at an event in London, alongside sex educator Cindy Gallop and Lucy Litwick, the CEO of Coco De Mer. In autumn, Niblett will display sex toys and sex education aids in Parliament.
“Labour MP Samantha Niblett launches summer of sex campaign as statistics reveal 7.7m sexual assault victims.”
The push for better sex education comes amid stark figures. The Crime Survey for England and Wales, for the year ending March 2025, found that about 15.9% of people aged 16 or over – 7.7 million – had experienced sexual assault since the age of 16. Of those, 1.9 million were victims of rape, and 1.8 million of those were females, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Campaigners have long called for improvement. In 2017, the Local Government Association warned that a lack of sex and relationships education in some secondary schools was creating a "ticking sexual health time bomb". More recently, Labour MP Alistair Strathern introduced the Relationships and Sex Education (Further Education Sector) Bill to Parliament in June, calling for mandatory lessons for 16- to 18-year-olds. That followed a petition by the survivor-led group Make It Mandatory, which gathered more than 106,000 signatures.
Niblett's partner, Cindy Gallop, has argued that online pornography has become the "default sex education" because society is reluctant to talk about sex – a point she made at a TED conference. Niblett hopes her campaign will "silence some critics, or at least make them think again".