AN MP with a reading age of eight has opened up about his struggles growing up with dyslexia.

Peter Kyle said he felt “humiliated” by a school teacher who didn’t support him despite knowing about difficulties he faced as a result of his dyslexia

The Labour MP for Hove revealed that while he was “socially quite likeable and quite active and capable” in school, he had difficulties in the classroom.

He said teachers “didn’t know quite what to do with me”, and revealed that he would spend time in an end of school class practising “repetitive” shapes on the blackboard.

The now Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary was only diagnosed with dyslexia in his mid-20s when he attended the University of Sussex.

In an interview with GB News’ Gloria de Piero, Mr Kyle, who has a reading age of eight, shared a lasting memory of being humiliated by a teacher, which led him to “switch off” from education.

He said: “There’s one moment where a teacher stood up, and we were in English, and we were doing Shakespeare.

"And suddenly, even though we weren’t reading aloud, and we were just reading the text and talking about the text, the teacher said: ‘Peter, why don’t you just stand up and read this chapter?'

“And I was so shocked because the teacher would have known full well that I wasn’t capable of doing it and asked me to do so. And the teacher was falling about laughing as I was doing it one word at a time with a pause and getting words wrong.

“But I remember very well looking around the room and there was a couple of kids who were sniggering, but most of the kids were with me, you know, they were as humiliated as I was.”

It was only after several years working at the Body Shop that the Mr Kyle decided to attend university after encouragement from a colleague.

At the University of Sussex, he said he “learnt how to learn” again aged 25, and was diagnosed with dyslexia.

He also spoke about the experience of his mother leaving his father, and how she “disappeared” with his father’s best friend.

He described the experience as “a difficult moment”, and said it “took a long time to make peace” with his mother, who died of lung cancer in 2012.

“I have fond memories of her. I wish so much that she was around to see me now, because she never found it difficult to express pride in her children, me and my brother,” he said.

“And that’s something I think she would have taken huge pride in, the career opportunities that I’ve had and some of the success that I’ve had in public life. And I’d have loved for her to have seen it because she was a big part of it.”