Sarah Champion

Labour MP for Rotherham since 2012, Sarah Champion was first elected on the back of a career in the charity sector, running a variety of arts centres and children’s hospices. Previously a member of Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet, Champion resigned from her post as shadow secretary of state for women and equalities in August 2017 following criticism of an incendiary piece she wrote for The Sun concerning the rape and exploitation of white girls by British-Pakistani men. She turned against her former party leader in the run-up to the 2017 general election, as depicted in ‘Labour – The Summer that Changed Everything’, a fly-on-the-wall BBC documentary of that year. Having retained her seat with a comfortable, albeit reduced, majority in 2019, Champion was appointed chairwoman of the international development committee. She has since been vocal about the need for the government to fulfil its international aid responsibilities following the FCO-DfID merger.