Sarah Champion

Sarah Deborah Champion (born 10 July 1969) is a British Labour Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Rotherham since 2012.

Champion studied Psychology at Sheffield University.

Before entering Parliament, she ran art workshops and was employed as the Chief Executive of a children's hospice in Rotherham.

She attended Prince William School in Oundle, then graduated with a BA degree in psychology from the University of Sheffield in 1991.

After working as a volunteer at Sheffield's St Luke's Hospice and running art workshops at the city's Abbeydale Road Secondary School she gained full-time employment, running Rotherham Arts Centre from 1992 to 1994.

Champion then worked as an Arts Development Officer for Ashfield District Council.

She ran the Chinese Arts Centre in Manchester from 1996 to 2008, and was the Chief Executive of the Bluebell Wood Children's Hospice in North Anston, Rotherham from 2008 to 2012.

Labour achieved a majority of 5,218 (24.46%), an increase in terms of percentage from Rotherham's 2010 general election result, but a decrease in the actual number of votes cast.

Champion is Rotherham's first female MP.

Champion was first elected to Parliament at the 2012 by-election.

In November 2012 she was selected to be Labour's candidate for the upcoming Rotherham by-election, which was triggered by the resignation of the constituency's MP, Denis MacShane.

Champion was chosen to stand for Parliament from a shortlist chosen by the party.

She was elected as MP for Rotherham on 29 November with 9,866 votes (a 46.25% overall share of the vote).

Jane Collins of the UK Independence Party was second with 4,648 votes (21.79%), achieving that party's best result in a by-election.

In an interview with BBC Radio Sheffield on 30 November 2012, Champion said that she does not regard herself as being a career politician: "There are some people who from the moment they were born wanted to be a politician. Whereas for me, since I started working I've always been working with the community and I want to carry on doing that."

In November 2013, it was announced that Champion, in partnership with children's charity Barnardos, would lead a cross-party inquiry to investigate the effectiveness of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 in tackling child sexual exploitation and trafficking within the UK.

Champion conducted an inquiry with Barnardo's in 2013 to investigate how effectively children were, at that time, protected by the law from sexual exploitation.

In a 2014 BBC interview, Champion admitted that she rarely attends Prime Minister's Questions.

Later, in July 2014, and as a result of her inquiry, Champion managed to make an amendment to the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill that allowed a person caught arranging to meet a child for sex to be convicted straight away.

Previously, the person had to be caught twice.

Champion was appointed by Jeremy Corbyn as Shadow Minister for Preventing Abuse in September 2015, but resigned in June 2016, following a vote of no confidence in Corbyn.

On 7 May 2015, Champion was re-elected as the Member of Parliament for Rotherham with a 52.5% share of the vote.

She secured 19,860 votes, increasing her majority by over 3,000.

She was one of 36 Labour MPs to nominate Jeremy Corbyn as a candidate in the Labour leadership election of 2015.

Champion was appointed Shadow Minister for 'preventing abuse and domestic violence' in 2015.

However, she returned to the frontbench in July 2016.

In October 2016, she was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities.

She resigned from this position on 28 June 2016, in the wake of criticism of Jeremy Corbyn's approach towards the EU referendum following a vote to leave the EU.

In January 2016, Champion launched a campaign called Dare2Care that focuses on preventing child abuse and the normalisation of violence in young people's relationships The campaign has launched a website, putting tools and resources for young people, parents and professionals in one place.

In August 2017, Champion resigned from her post following criticism of an opinion piece she wrote for The Sun that discussed what she termed the problem of white girls being raped and exploited by British Pakistani men, and which fellow Labour MP Naz Shah described as "incendiary and irresponsible".

She remains in the House of Commons as a backbencher.

Champion was born in Maldon, Essex.

In September 2017, the political commentator Iain Dale placed Champion at Number 92 on his list of the '100 most influential people on the Left'.

In November 2017, a fly-on-the-wall BBC documentary Labour: The Summer that Changed Everything made during the 2017 general election campaign was shown, with Champion as one of four MPs critical of Jeremy Corbyn's leadership who were followed for six weeks.

The documentary showed Champion stating "I don't believe you can be a leader if nobody's following you", and the MPs' surprise at the election result.

Champion discussed the psychological stresses of the campaign and being at parliament, and that she did not feel tough enough to go back to parliament the day after the result.

In the 2019 general election, Champion was re-elected as MP for Rotherham with a majority of 3,121.

Champion was formerly a member of the Transport Select Committee, Parliamentary Private Secretary to Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt, Chair of the All-party parliamentary group (APPG) on Victims and Witnesses, Chair of the All-party Parliamentary Group on Choice at the End of Life, and Co-chair All-party Parliamentary Health Group.

Since 2020 she is Chair of the International Development Committee.

Champion has chaired the All-party Parliamentary Group on Street Children since November 2021.