Friday, Jul 24, 2026 The claims desk. Receipts included. POWERED BY LENZ
IsThis

POLITICS

The Claim

Harriet Harman, a UK Labour Party politician, said that adults having sexual relations with children causes no harm.

The Short Version

The evidence does not support the claim that Harriet Harman personally said sex between adults and children causes no harm. The phrase at the center of the controversy is reported to have come from an NCCL document written before she joined the group, and reliable coverage does not produce a direct Harman statement to that effect. Her cited public comments instead reject that position.

Caveats

  • This claim appears to conflate an organization's historical document with a personal statement by an individual.
  • No reliable source in the evidence set provides a direct Harman quote saying adult-child sexual relations cause no harm.
  • Partisan and low-oversight sources use inflammatory framing that obscures the difference between association, authorship, and endorsement.

The Receipts

  1. Harriet Harman condemns paper's 'smear campaign'

    BBC News

  2. How paedophile campaigners targeted civil liberties group

    Channel 4 News

  3. NCCL Statement - 24/02/2014

    Harriet Harman

  4. Harriet Harman under attack over bid to water down child pornography law

    The Daily Telegraph

  5. Harriet Harman Under Pressure To Apologise

    Sky News

  6. What is the Harman-Mail row about?

    BBC News

  7. Harriet Harman talks exclusively about the Paedophile ...

    BBC Newsnight (YouTube clip)

  8. British Labour lawmaker Harman denies 'paedophile' links after media attack

    Reuters

  9. Paedophile Information Exchange

    Wikipedia

  10. Labour's unsavoury slice of PIE

    Christian Concern

+ 7 more sources — see the full list on Lenz

Filed Under

Harriet HarmanLabour Party (UK)United Kingdom

More Fact Checks