Sarah Deborah Champion (born 10 July 1969)[1] is a British Labour Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Rotherham since 2012.

[2] 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".

[3] Sarah Champion was born on 10 July 1969 in Maldon, and attended Prince William School in Oundle, before graduating with a BA degree in psychology from the University of Sheffield in 1991.

[5] In November 2012 Champion 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.

[8] In December 2014, Champion took a Ten Minute Rule Bill to Parliament, asking for the mandatory publishing of figures of the pay gap between men and women in any company of over 250 employees.

[15] 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.

[23] In November 2024, Champion voted in favour of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which proposes to legalise assisted suicide.

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.

[31] Later in March she publicly criticised the Prime Minister over a failure to carry out pledges made the previous year in tackling with child abuse.

Champion criticised the lack of progress over a national child abuse task force and a whistleblowing portal that had no 'taskforce to blow to' as well as the failure to begin a consultation on extending the offence of wilful neglect to children's social care, education and councils.

[35] In November 2014, Champion asked the Prime Minister to support Rotherham's victims and to ensure that procedures are in place to prevent such widespread abuse happening again.

[38] In June 2016, Champion resigned as shadow Home Office minister focusing on women, equality and domestic violence after Labour MPs passed a motion of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn.

[43] Her statements were followed by an opinion piece for The Sun titled "British Pakistani men ARE raping and exploiting white girls ... and it's time we faced up to it".

[45] Fellow Labour MP Naz Shah criticised Champion's statements, describing the headline as incendiary and irresponsible, and claiming that 90% of child sexual abusers were white men.