Deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats Jo Swinson has revealed how she fought off unwanted sexual advances from a “nice” fellow student.
The incident happened when the politician was a student at the London School of Economics (LSE) in the 1990s, the Mail on Sunday reported.
According to the paper, the attack only stopped when she told the friend, who she has not named, what he was about to do was rape.
She told the paper: “I was really under threat. I was physically pushing him away and saying, ‘I do not want to do it.’
“I could hardly believe that this guy, who was a nice guy with whom I got on well, was not responding to me saying ‘No’ and trying to push him off.”
Reflecting on the episode as a “close escape”, Ms Swinson said who knows knows what would have happened if she had not had the presence of mind to use the “R” word.
She added: “At the time it was a desperate attempt to guarantee my safety. The words seemed to finally bring him to his senses and he stopped.”
The former equalities minister, Ms Swinson touches on the distressing experience in her recently published new book, Equal Power, the Mail said.