A Labour MP has revealed that she was threated with gang rape and subject to sexual harassment while at Cambridge University.
Stella Creasy, MP for Walthamstow, said college authorities “admonished” her instead of punishing the abusers when she made the complaint after running for a student council role at Magdalene College in the 1990s.
She said the sexual harassment, which lasted two years, began in her first year at the college in 1996 and included a campaign of abusive posters when she ran for the role of president of the college’s student council.
The MP, now 45, said the abuse will always affect her and that she remains “terrified” of seeing the men, who have gone on to become doctors, civil servants and “high-fliers”.
Ms Creasy entered the Commons in 2010 and is a prominent campaigner for women’s rights including fighting for maternity leave for MPs.
The MP told GB News that, now in her mid-40s, “it’s the first time I’ve really felt even willing to talk about it”.
Ms Creasy told the broadcaster: “I’ll never forget the night that I was in a room with them all and they threatened to gang rape me, let alone the posters that they put up around the college when I had the temerity to stand for a position in the student union, telling people not to vote for me because of who I’d slept with, and that happened at a Cambridge college.”
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She added that alongside sexual harassment, people also spat in her room and she had rubbish thrown at her.
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Ms Creasy said that a culture of “privilege and entitlement” is behind the string of allegations of misconduct that politicians have been sharing, and warned it is not unique to parliament.
She added that sexual harassment remains a major issue in universities.
In the interview with broadcaster and former Labour MP Gloria De Piero, Ms Creasy said she was reprimanded by college authorities rather than them taking action against the individuals involved.
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She said that she was accused of trying to cause trouble for the men involved when she complained to a college admissions tutor, during her time studying social and political sciences.
Cambridge University apologised to Ms Creasy for her “horrific ordeal”, and was expected to be in contact with the MP personally.
A university spokesman said: “We are extremely sorry to hear of the horrific ordeal which Stella Creasy experienced.
“Sexual harassment of any sort has absolutely no place at the university.”
They added that in recent years significant steps had been taken to provide support and improve the system for reporting incidents.