MP Gloria De Piero speaks about topless photos and more in magazine interview

The shadow minister for women and equalities uses the interview to champion the choices that women make in life and to detail some of the decisions that she has made to get to where she is now.

Gloria (41) speaks about how she and her husband live in different cities most of the time in order to fulfil their own personal career ambitions and how she has never wanted to have children.

She also says that she believes that women should never be asked the ‘kids question’.

“Women should be able to do whatever they want,” she said. “And whatever choices we make, we should be respected for them. It shouldn’t be a slight on our womanhood.”

During the article, which is in the April edition of Red, Gloria also tells how her life has not turned out how she thought it might.

“When you’re a little girl from a working-class background, you imagine that by 20 you’ll be married and probably have some children,” she said.

“I don’t want to make my parents feel bad, but obviously money matters. Living on benefits is a miserable life. I remember the giro came every two weeks – the first week was okay but the second wasn’t, you got a bit hungry.”

It was this life that led Gloria to pose topless at 15 - a story that recently hit the tabloids.

“It was the era of Page Three. All those women seemed to have a better life than me. I thought it might be a route out,” she added.