Natalie Fleet has stepped down as safeguarding minister, telling the BBC that the job was making her ill. Fleet, who worked in the Home Office as the minister responsible for protecting children and women from violence, announced her departure on X (Twitter) on 22 July 2026. BBC News

Fleet wrote that the role was the "honour of a lifetime" but she "quickly found contents overwhelmingly triggering". She told the BBC she called stepping down the "bravest thing I've ever done" and told the team of Prime Minister Andy Burnham that she "sadly couldn't stay". BBC News

Fleet was groomed and raped as a teenager. She told GB News in 2024 that she became pregnant at 15 after being groomed and raped by an older man. She has said she still gets "weekly nightmares" about what happened to her. The safeguarding job meant regularly reading about child sexual exploitation, abuse and violence against women and girls. That brought her close to cases that closely matched her own experiences. Fleet told the BBC she received support from the Home Office while in the role. BBC News

She was appointed to the role, a junior ministerial position in the Home Office, on 12 May 2026. She took over from Jess Phillips, who had resigned. Fleet's time in the job lasted just over two months. gov.uk BBC News

During her time in the role, Fleet was linked to several government initiatives. She was quoted in a BBC article on 22 May 2026 about police scoring train companies on tackling sexual harassment. She said she knows "what it is like to experience this kind of behaviour – the fear, the anger". Government press releases from May and June 2026 list her as Minister for Safeguarding and Violence against Women and Girls. They cover announcements including £25 million in support for child trafficking victims, domestic abuse specialists placed in 12 more 999 control rooms, and hospitality sector safety standards. BBC News gov.uk gov.uk gov.uk gov.uk

Fleet has been the Labour MP for Bolsover since July 2024. She succeeded Dennis Skinner, who held the seat for 49 years. She gave her first speech in the House of Commons in October 2024. BBC News

The broader question this raises is whether it is realistic to ask someone who has lived through abuse to work every day on the details of that same abuse. Fleet's departure highlights the difficulty. The Home Office did provide support, and Fleet acknowledged that. But for someone with post-traumatic symptoms, the problem is not only about workplace welfare. The work itself, reading case reviews and victim testimony, is what the job involves. Fleet's honesty about the personal cost is a break from the usual vague language of ministerial exits, which tend to cite "personal reasons" or "family circumstances" without saying more.

Her departure also leaves a gap. Phillips resigned before Fleet was appointed in May. The next person to take the role will be Burnham's third safeguarding minister in a matter of months. The job covers England and Wales for most policy areas on violence against women and girls. Some elements are handled separately by the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood), the Welsh Parliament (the Senedd) and the Northern Ireland Assembly (Stormont). Whoever takes over will inherit work including the 999 control room domestic abuse programme, the child trafficking support fund and the hospitality sector safety standards that Fleet was associated with.

Speaking openly about trauma, triggers and illness is rare in Westminster. Ministerial departures are usually managed through carefully worded letters and brief tributes. Fleet's account to the BBC and her posts on X frame the resignation not as a political failure but as an act of self-preservation. She called it brave. It is certainly candid.