Sir Chris Bryant says he was abused by former National Youth Theatre boss as a teenager
Senior Labour MP Sir Chris Bryant has claimed he was sexually abused by a former boss of the National Youth Theatre when he was just 16.
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Sir Chris said Michael Croft, who died in 1986, abused him during the summer of 1978 after inviting him to dinner while the now-politician was attending the theatre company.
The MP for Rhondda and Ogmore told The Sunday Times that during one particular dinner, he had gone to the toilet and came back to find Mr Croft naked but for a silk robe.
He then asked the youngster for sex, with Sir Chris saying he felt he had no option but to accept, and that the incident had left him feeling like "a 16-year-old whore".
In a statement, the National Youth Theatre said that it was "very sorry that this happened to him and to others who have previously shared with us their accounts of historic abuse by the same perpetrator".
Mr Croft was 40 years older than Sir Chris at the time of the alleged abuse.
During the interview timed to coincide with the release of his book, Sir Chris said: "I don't like telling this very much because I've not told it very often.
"It was always the same Italian in King's Cross. He would eat and drink, I would eat, then he would theoretically give me a lift home, except I always ended up at his house."
Sir Chris said Mr Croft never made an advance towards him again after the abuse, and the pair remained friends afterwards.
Sir Chris, an ordained minister, went on to conducted Mr Croft's funeral.
The Labour frontbencher previously claimed in 2022 that he had been groped by five male MPs during his 24-year tenure in the House of Commons.
Sir Chris, the Minister of State for Data Protection and Telecoms, said that five MPs had touched his bottom, and that one of them also forcefully felt his crotch.
The MP made the claims in Code of Conduct, an earlier book, in which he called for Parliament to be cleaned up.
"Over the years five male MPs have felt my bottom uninvited," he wrote in the book.
"One of them, who was not out, did so repeatedly.
"Another who is still in the House and still does not accept that he is gay, pushed me against a wall and felt my crotch."
Sir Chris, who is gay, said: "I remember when I came out, in 2001, I was regularly touched up by older, senior gay – they weren't out – MPs.
"I never felt I was able to report it because you end up being part of the story, that’s the last thing you want.
"I think a lot of women have been through that."
He did not name the MPs and added that racism and misogyny is "certainly still around in Parliament".
Other MPs have complained of a culture of sexual bullying and abuse in Parliament.
