Warrington MP Charlotte Nichols tells Parliament she was raped while at work event

An MP has waived her anonymity to tell Parliament she was raped while in her role.

Labour’s Warrington North representative Charlotte Nichols, who has not previously spoken in the Commons about her experience, said it happened at an event she attended as a member of Parliament.

She shared her story as she hit out at the Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy’s plans to curb access to jury trials as MPs debated the Courts and Tribunals Bill.

If passed, the measure would see cases with a likely sentence of three years or less being heard by a single crown court judge.

Ms Nichols accused Mr Lammy of using victims as a “cudgel” to drive through reforms to the courts system, as she spoke of her own experience.

She told the Commons on Tuesday 10 March: “I waited 1,088 days to go to court.

“Every single one of those days was agony, made worse by having a role in public life that meant that the mental health consequences of my trauma were played out in public, with the event that led to my eventual sectioning for my own safety, still being something that I receive regular social media abuse from strangers about to this day.

“But here’s the kicker, in this debate, experiences like mine feel like they’ve been weaponised and are being used for rhetorical misdirection, for what this Bill actually is.

“The violence against women and girls sector haven’t had the opportunity to come together to discuss it, and the Government’s framing and narrative has been to pit survivors and defendants against each other in a way I think is deeply damaging.

“We have been told that if we have concerns about this Bill, it is because we have not been raped or because we don’t care enough for rape victims.

“The opposite is true in my case, it is because I have been raped that I am as passionate as I am about what it means for a justice system to be truly victim focused.

“It is because I have endured every indignity that our broken criminal justice system could mete out that I care what kind of reform will actually deliver justice for survivors and victims of crime more widely.”

She added: “There is so much that we can be doing for rape victims that isn’t the Lord Chancellor using them as a cudgel to drive through reforms that aren’t directly relevant to them.

“As a starting point, Rape Crisis England and Wales have called for five key demands in their Living in Limbo report. Don’t say that this Bill helps deliver justice for rape victims, until it actually, materially does.”