The Mid Beds MP on the debate over her call for girls to be taught how to say no to sex

Given the fuss, you could be forgiven for thinking I had stood in parliament and called for the compulsory wearing of chastity belts for all teenage girls.

Of course, I had done nothing of the sort.

However, I called for an emphasis on educating girls, as it is the girl left holding the baby, losing her place in education, finding it impossible to get back into training, living on benefits and who will enter old age in poverty.

It is the taxpayer who funds this futile and repetitive cycle, which is most commonly witnessed across the council estates of Britain.

We live in an over-sexualised culture and witness an unprecedented increase in the sheer volume of sexual imagery young children are exposed to on a daily basis.

From teenage magazines which promote the ‘sexual position of the week’ to porn channels, lads’ mags, computer images, TV, films and provocative advertising, each with the drip, drip effect and eventual acceptance that this is ‘normal’ behaviour.

Some of the literature I have been sent, which is being distributed within primary schools, is simply disturbing and inappropriate. The subliminal message to any youngster must surely be “Now go and try this for yourself”.

Parents feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of overt sexualisation their children are exposed to. Who can blame them? A typical primetime TV hour contains 2.6 references to intercourse, 1.2 references to prostitution and rape, 4.7 sexual innuendos, 1.8 kisses and one suggestive gesture.

If girls and boys are taught only safe sex and the mechanics of sex in school, then something is missing. You wouldn’t teach history and leave out the Middle Ages.

Teenagers should be taught to say No until they are truly comfortable. Dare I say it, that they wait for love and a stable relationship? How different a message would that be?

We should empower girls and boys who feel the weight of expectation upon them and give them a safe place to go.

‘Say No’ should be taught as an acceptable, natural option in a world full of confusing messages.