Politics Home Article | Labour MP Launches ‘Summer Of Sex’ Campaign To Overhaul Sex Education

Labour MP Samantha Niblett, 46, wants to fight against societal stigma around sex (Samantha Niblett)

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Niblett, who was elected as MP for Derbyshire South in 2024, has secured a debate in Parliament on lifelong sex education in the early autumn.

The MP is working with Cindy Gallop, a sextech entrepreneur and founder of MakeLoveNotPorn, an adult video website that aims to offer an alternative to hardcore pornography.

On Monday, Niblett and Gallop launched a campaign calling for better lifelong, inclusive sex education in the UK to help people understand consent, prevent abuse and violence, and raise awareness of how childbirth, the menopause, stress and other health conditions can impact sexual satisfaction.

In an interview with PoliticsHome, Niblett said she wants to make 2026 the “summer of sex”. 

“It sounds like we’re going on a bit of a tour!” she joked.

“What I am hoping is that by the time we get to summer recess, I have got a whole bank of organisations to visit and speak with and gather information, so we can talk about sex all summer, so that I can help shape that speech for the chamber, but then also we shape our next steps.”

The campaign’s tagline – ‘Yes Sex Please, We’re British!’ – plays on No Sex Please, We’re British, a 1973 British comedy film in which a clerk in a small town bank is horrified when he receives a package containing pornography, rather than a new calculator.

Niblett said she wants the campaign to be about “taking control of our patriotism, about taking control of our Britishness, and not feeling ashamed”.

As part of the campaign, she is hoping to arrange two events before the summer recess, including one where she intends to bring sex toys into Parliament to encourage open conversation about sexual pleasure – though she is currently in conversation with parliamentary security over whether the devices will be allowed onto the estate.

The 46-year-old MP recently met with sexual product retailer Love Honey, and told PoliticsHome that she learned that “as well as making you feel good, [masturbation] is good for your health”, with some medical research showing that it is good for stress and pain relief, menstrual cramps, and reducing the risk of prostate cancer.

For Niblett, the campaign is personal, and she wants to talk more openly about sex herself to encourage others to feel comfortable doing so.

“The first time I remember seeing pornography, I was 10, I saw it on a videotape, I saw it in magazines,” she said.

“And I sometimes wonder, having seen it so young but without being able to talk about it, whether that has shaped the person that I am today. It’s funny, just because I’m doing a campaign on sex education, it’s not because I’m this massively empowered, sexually flamboyant person. I’m not. I wish I were. 

“If I could rewire my brain… It’s not too late, I’m hoping that, actually, this summer of sex is also an education for me.”

She described how the sex education she had at school was “pretty medical”.

“It was all focused on what you shouldn’t do, not what you should do,” she continued.

“Pleasure certainly didn’t play a part in it. And as a girl, you’re just worried about either getting an STD or getting pregnant. I don’t remember talking about contraception much either.”

Niblett said that she has watched porn herself – “like lots of people” – and has recently watched content on Gallop’s MakeLoveNotPorn website, which she said featured “real people who are having messy, funny, intimate, sensual sex together”.

“It’s a turn on, it helps you masturbate, helps you cum,” she said.

“The sections that I always prefer the most are the intimate sections. I am not saying that anybody else’s preferences are wrong, but I think if you’re desensitised to think that some things are normal, it skews your view about what real sex is like with real people who are not acting in a porn film.”

Asked whether she would support the BBC creating and publishing more educational adult content, Niblett said she would “happily” have a conversation with the public broadcaster about the topic. 

Niblett wants to involve Gallop, as well as TV presenter Davina McCall, who has advocated for more open sex education, and relationship expert and presenter Paul Bruson, and various sex education content creators to spread awareness, attend the government’s national summit on the challenges facing men and boys – expected to take place this year – and engage with ministers Alex Davies-Jones and Jess Phillips. 

Davies-Jones and Phillips have both been involved in bringing forward regulations on porn in the Crime and Policing Bill, which is currently making its way through Parliament. The new laws include banning nudity apps and banning the depiction of strangulation in pornography to protect women from violence.

The Labour government has now also agreed to press ahead with a ban on certain types of online pornography, including so-called “barely legal” content depicting adults role-playing as children and some forms of step-incest pornography, following pressure from MPs and defeats in the House of Lords.

While Niblett welcomed the banning of nudification apps, she said that while you can “ban all things and come down on people with a ton of bricks legally”, she wanted to see education used as the “biggest tool”.

On the potential ban on step incest in porn, Niblett said that although she understood the rationale behind it, she could also see why it might be a challenge to implement when step incest is not illegal in the real world. 

“So it’ll be interesting to see what happens with that particular piece of legislation,” she said.

Reflecting on why she wants to fight against societal stigma surrounding sex, Niblett said: “We just need to acknowledge that humans have a natural interest in sex. It’s one of the things that nearly all of us want to do, nearly all of us do.

“It just feels like there is an opportunity to remind people that it is a joyful thing.”