'Captain Underpants' MP who posed on gay dating site wants children as young as nine to be given sex advice

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Under-11s should be given explicit sex education to help reduce teenage pregnancies, a Labour MP has said.

Chris Bryant, who made the headlines in 2003 after appearing on a gay dating website in his underwear, also recommended distributing condoms in schools.

His proposals, in a pamphlet published yesterday, include giving parents advice on how to talk about sex when their children turn 11.

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Chris Bryant: The MP believes teenagers need proper information but is he setting an example by posing in a gay dating site photo

The MP for Rhondda also warned that many young girls get pregnant deliberately to secure a council flat.

The rate of teenage pregnancies in Britain has fallen from the peak years of the late 1990s but is still the highest in Western Europe and the second highest in the world after the U.S, according to his report.

Mr Bryant is parliamentary aide to Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman. He was among MPs implicated in the attempted 'coup' against Tony Blair in 2006 that helped drive him from office.

An admission by a highprofile Labour figure that teenage pregnancy remains a critical issue after ten years of Labour government is potentially awkward for Gordon Brown.

Mr Bryant described how some areas are "blighted" by the social consequences of teenage pregnancies.

Advice: The Government is considering giving sex advice pamphlets to parents of under-10s to cut teenage pregnancy

His report, based on extensive interviews with teenage mothers, said that in 2005, MP who posed in his Y-fronts backs sex lessons at ten there were 39,804 conceptions among under-18s in England - a rate of 41.3 per thousand.

Teenage pregnancy is closely linked with deprivation, leading to a "vicious cycle of underachievement, benefit dependency, ill health, lack of aspiration, poor parenting and child poverty", the report added.

It called for all children to have a course of sex and relationship classes before 11, unless their parents opt out, to enable them to make "informed choices" about sex.

These could include visits to sexual health clinics for information, advice and contraception.

In 2003, Mr Bryant, a former Anglican vicar, sent a picture of himself wearing just Yfronts to a stranger on a gay dating website.

Yesterday, the MP said: "The dangers of ignorance about sex are clear. Without proper information, many teenagers will not acquire the personal confidence or social skills to be able to make informed choices about sex before the onset of puberty and before sexual opportunities arise.

"A reliance on providing just the basic biological facts, rather than the emotional or, indeed, spiritual context for sex, can leave many youngsters painfully exposed to highly sexualised media messages and peer pressure."

However, Labour MP Jim Dobbin, who chairs the allparty parliamentary pro-life group, said: "The danger with sex education is that it promotes sex among young people.

"The Government's policy has failed. Rather than teaching children more about sex there needs to be more emphasis on the benefits of family life."

The current curriculum requires the teaching of biology and the basics of reproduction in school.

But it does not force schools to teach about all aspects of sexuality.

The Government has pledged to halve pregnancies among under-18s by 2010, but faces an uphill struggle.

The most recent figures show pregnancies for under-16s rose by 4 per cent in 2005.

The Department of Children, Schools and Families welcomed the report, saying that ministers would consider some of its recommendations when its advisory group publishes its findings later this year.

 

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