Sarah Champion was first elected as the Labour MP for Rotherham in a 2012 by-election, being reelected in 2019 with a majority of 3,121.
Rotherham is a long standing Labour constituency in South Yorkshire. It is said to have a demographic profiles which is one of the most atypical across the whole of the United Kingdom. In the last decade, the town has been at the centre of a series of high profile child abuse scandals dating back over thirty years. It has been held by Labour continuously since the 1930s.
Sarah Champion is Chair of the Commons Select Committee on International Development, having served briefly as the Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities between 2016 and 2017.
In 2017 she wrote a controversial article in the Sun newspaper, arguing the the UK had a problem with ‘Pakistani men’ exploiting white girls. Champion later resigned from the Labour front bench and apologised over the comments.
Appeared in a 2017 TV documentary, Labour: The Summer that Changed Everything, in which she was critical of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party. This was despite Champion having nominated Corbyn for the Labour leadership in 2015.
Born in Essex in 1969, Champion moved to Northamptonshire in 1977, and graduated in Psychology from Sheffield University. She is an officer of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Psychology.
She previously served as Chief Executive of the Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice in Rotherham, before being elected to Parliament.
Although she previously served as Shadow minister of preventing abuse, Champion was herself cautioned by police in 2007 after a domestic dispute involving her former husband after a disagreement about painting their home. Champion has since admitted that she was in the wrong, but said she has nothing to hide and felt extremely vulnerable at that moment.
Email: sarah.champion.mp@parliament.uk
Personal Website: http://www.sarahchampionmp.com/contact/
Twitter: @SarahChampionMP
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/sarahforrotherham
