‘I felt phenomenal shame about being sexually abused’

Sir Chris Bryant has been representing his constituents in Westminster for nearly 25 years, but his life before politics was a rollercoaster ride of light and shade.

From growing up in Spain under the reign of General Franco, to living with his alcoholic mother, to being ordained as a Church of England priest, the Labour MP for Rhondda and Ogmore – now in his 60s – has lived a varied life.

He is openly gay, but says he was figuring out his sexuality at a time when homosexuality was “looked on with terrible shame and disgust by the vast majority of society”.

Earlier this month, he revealed he was sexually abused as a teenager, by the late former head of the National Youth Theatre, Michael Croft.

He details the many “shenanigans” of his early life, the good and the bad, in his biography set to be released next week.

“It was fascinating for me, because the book stops in 2001 when I was first elected, so it’s about my early life,” he told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast.

“It’s about the tough stuff when I was a kid, growing up with my parents. My mum was an alcoholic and the pain and the horror… and the challenges that poses for you as an individual.

“The rows, the guilt, the anger, the lies and recriminations, and then eventually mum’s death.

“All of that is part of the story, but also some very funny stories.”

Speaking about his choice to share details of being the victim of abuse, by Michael Croft but also in separate incidents later in his life, Sir Chris says it was “a really important part” of authentically documenting his life story.

“It’s one of the stories that I hadn’t even really told any of my family until very recently, because I suppose I felt phenomenal shame about it. I remember when I did first tell family members, I was in tears for ages,” he said.

“This may seem bizarre, for many young people in particular these days, but it’s a story of a young person growing up in an age where homosexuality was completely illegal. It was completely illegal when I was born, partially decriminalised in 1967, but still looked on with terrible shame and disgust by the vast majority of society through most of my formative years.

“Telling that whole story as honestly as I possibly can was important… It’s not the complete story of Chris Bryant without that story in it, to be honest.

“I suppose part of what my book is there to do is to try and explain an age that I hope has gone, and has gone forever.”

Leaving his role as a Church of England priest and moving to London as “a young gay man, discovering the freedom of the great city”, working for the Labour Party, Sir Chris recounts many a humorous encounter with famous faces.

He met Peter Mandelson, now British Ambassador to the United States, in the changing room at the YMCA gym and they became friends.

“I was in Peter’s flat… he had two phone lines and one phone rang and it was Gordon Brown, so he spoke to Gordon and then the other phone rang, I answered it and it was Tony Blair,” he recalled.

“Peter switched – he went to speak to Tony Blair while I talked to Gordon Brown – and I think that was the moment when Peter made his decision about who he was backing for the leadership.”

On another occasion, while Sir Chris was dating a Spanish architect living in Madrid, Mandelson decided to stay with him and attend the final rally in socialist leader Felipe Gonzalez re-election campaign.

“At the end, I thought we were going to be introduced to my political hero, Felipe Gonzalez, but instead Peter said ‘No, I want to meet him over there’ – so we went and chatted to Antonio Banderas for half an hour instead,” he said with a laugh.

“Who, it has to be said, was a very handsome young man.”

In the book, Sir Chris says he doesn’t think Tony Blair “ever really trusted or rated me”.

Pressed on why he’d made this claim, he says that for several years, people would predict his appointment to a minister role in Blair’s cabinet reshuffle, only for him not to be offered any such position.

“One year, Tony called me in afterwards to his office in parliament and said ‘really sorry Chris, you’re one of our best people, definitely next time’.

“A year goes by, another reshuffle, I’m not appointed to anything and Tony calls me again and does the same routine.

“He said ‘definitely next time, you’re in your 20s, you’ve got your whole life ahead of you, but you don’t look happy’ and I said ‘no, because you told me all this last year and, secondly Tony, I’m not in my 20s, I’m 43’.

“So I always had a great time for him, I thought he was a great prime minister, but I disagreed with him about some significant matters.”

In an interview with BBC veteran broadcaster Patrick Hannan when he was first elected as an MP in 2001, Sir Chris was described as an “exotic” choice – something he’s never forgotten.

“I think they meant too gay,” he says.

But no label has deterred him from striving for authenticity, he says, adding his attitude is summed up by a Spanish word with Arabic roots that he “absolutely adores” – ojalá [I wish].

“Some of it stems from the powerlessness I felt through my mum’s alcoholism, some of it is learnt because of what I saw under Mrs Thatcher and my early days in the Labour party, some of it is the passionate belief in things when I was a priest in the Church of England.

“That sense of fairness and that belief that we really could make a better world if we all actually worked on it, I suppose that’s the thing that burns in me.”

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