Safeguarding minister Natalie Fleet has stepped down from her role with immediate effect.
Announcing her departure on social media, the Labour MP for Bolsover said: “Honour of lifetime to be Minister for Safeguarding. Quickly found contents overwhelmingly triggering. Did bravest thing I’ve ever done & told PMs team I sadly couldn’t stay. Victims deserve someone at their best. I wish my successor well & will do all I can to support them.”
Fleet replaced Jess Phillips, who resigned in May after saying she felt unable to continue to serve as a minister under former prime minster Sir Keir Starmer. In her resignation letter Phillips was critical of what she described as “dilly dallying” and being “worried about tech bosses” in response to efforts to legislate against the ability of children to take inappropriate images of themselves online.
Fleet was groomed and raped as a teenager and said she found the experience of being safeguarding minister “overwhelmingly triggering”. Speaking to the BBC, she added: “I know how important this job is and I know how much it needs a good and competent minister. It quickly became apparent how ill it was making me.”
Even with the support of the Home Office Fleet said the nature of the post “means that you hear the worst of humanity. Anybody would struggle hearing that but not everyone would react in the same way as someone who has gone through what I have.
“For me it is one of the most important jobs in government. It was the honour of my life to be able to do it.
“Nothing can compare to being asked to make a difference to the lives of women and girls. It was incredible.”
The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Safeguarding) is responsible for tackling violence against women and girls, domestic abuse, female genital mutilation, forced marriage, and child sexual abuse and exploitation, amongst other safeguarding issues.
