4 min read27 August
The Labour MP behind the campaign to make 2026 the “summer of sex” said she wants to talk about the subject so much in Parliament that it becomes “boring”.
The MP for South Derbyshire, Samantha Niblett, said she wanted to shift the Overton window – a term which means ideas being accepted as mainstream – so that talking about consent, intimacy and pleasure is entirely normalised.
Speaking on the latest episode of PoliticsHome podcast The Rundown, which will be published on Friday (28 August), Niblett said she hopes her campaign for lifelong sex education will help her MP colleagues feel more comfortable talking about the subject in the House of Commons.
“I have spoken to male MPs who are really supportive, but who are really scared about talking about it when it comes to the debate in the chamber, because they don’t want to be known as the ‘pervy male MP’, and that’s part of the problem,” Niblett said.
“But you know how we see the Overton window shift what we think of as normal in politics, I kind of want to be doing the same thing with sex. So, the more I talk about it, the more it’ll be boring, and when it’s boring, then won’t that be great?”
The Labour MP faced criticism, some of it from MPs in her own party, when in an interview with PoliticsHome earlier this year she announced her campaign to overhaul sex education in Britain.
Niblett said a more “inclusive” approach would encourage people to talk about sexual pleasure without feeling “ashamed”, as well as help people better understand consent, prevent abuse and violence, and raise awareness of how childbirth, the menopause, stress and other health conditions can impact sexual satisfaction.
She hosted a campaign launch party at a rooftop bar in London last month, where she told PoliticsHome that some MPs were “on a journey” to supporting it.
Speaking on the podcast, Niblett said the negative responses and becoming known as the “sex MP” have not put her off: “I am happy to take it on. I’m a belligerent swine.”
However, she admitted that some of the criticism had affected her, including a recent article which asked if she was “the most ridiculous MP in Britain”. “I am only human. Of course, there are going to be some times where it’s knocking me down,” she said.
“But that’s also why it’s absolutely delightful when I have Thames Valley Police reach out to me to say, thank you so much for your campaign. When I have spoken to the first-ever occupational therapist to work in a sexual health clinic in a hospital, saying, brilliant, thanks for your campaign’.
“I feel I’m justified in the work that I am doing, but I don’t think I will be alone for long.
“I think there will be more and more MPs who feel that they can talk about it, and then we can share the load.”
The Labour backbencher has secured a debate in Parliament on the topic in the autumn, and is currently working on a briefing for her MP colleagues about her campaign, which hopes to normalise conversations about sex that politicians usually shy away.
“If we start to normalise it, then it’s going to hopefully make it easier for some of my colleagues,” she said.
“I know there are loads of them that feel the same. They’re just a bit uncomfortable about getting the conversation started because they are nervous about the pushback, because they are nervous about the single clips for headlines.”
The Rundown is presented by Alain Tolhurst, and is produced and edited by Lulu Goad and Ewan Cameron for Podot
- Click here to listen to the latest episode of The Rundown, or search for ‘PoliticsHome’ wherever you get your podcasts.