Sarah Sackman is the Labour MP for Finchley and Golders Green, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Sackman won 21,857 votes, representing 44.3% of the vote. The Conservative candidate, Alex Deane, received 17,276 votes (35.1%), while the Liberal Democrat candidate, Sarah Hoyle, secured 3,375 votes (6.8%). Sackman was duly elected with a majority of 4,581.

The Finchley and Golders Green constituency is located in the London Borough of Barnet, North London. The seat was held by Labour from its creation in 1997 to 2010 (Rudi Vis) and then by the Conservatives from 2010 to 2024 (Mike Freer). The predecessor seat of Finchley was represented by former Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher from 1959 to 1992.

Political Career

Sackman currently serves as minister of state for courts and legal services (since December 2024). She succeeded Heidi Alexander, who was appointed as transport secretary.

Sackman previously served as solicitor general for England and Wales (2024).

In May 2026, Sackman said there had been a “lack of vocal solidarity” from parts of the liberal left in the face of rising antisemitism. Her comments came after a terrorist attack against the Jewish community in Golders Green in her constituency.

She told the Times newspaper: “For a minority community to come under this sort of sustained level of threat and attack purely for our identity, you would expect in the normal run of things for anti-racist organisations, for trade unions, for cultural leaders to speak out.”

Sackman delivered her maiden speech on 22 July 2024 during a debate on the economy, welfare and public services.

In it, she said: “Like Mrs Thatcher, I am a patriot and I want our communities and our country to prosper and be an influence on the global stage. But unlike her, I fundamentally believe that there is such a thing as society.

“Society is not an abstract idea to be buried in sociological essays. We can see it in the rich tapestry of communities that come together across Finchley and Golders Green.

“Whereas in recent times some politicians have chosen to use ‘north Londoner’ as an insult, my constituents and I wear it as a badge of pride. It symbolises a place that celebrates diversity, hard work and looking out for your neighbour.”

She added: “Our community today is increasingly becoming a place of busy food banks and empty mansions. Inequality is writ large, stunting people’s health and potential. Many across Finchley and Golders Green are struggling with the spiralling cost of living…

“We need to get Britain back on track, and the bills set out in the king’s speech are exactly what we need to take the brakes off the economy and restore and rebuild our public services.”

Before entering parliament, Sackman served as vice-chair of the Jewish Labour Movement from 2015 to 2024. She was vice-chair of the organisation when, in 2018, it referred the Labour Party to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) for investigation in 2018.

In a 2024 New Statesman interview, reflecting on the Corbyn years, Sackman said that she felt “like two very key parts of my identity – my Labour values, my Labour Party identity and my Jewish identity – were being called into tension.”

She added: “I understand why some people left the party at that time, but I think those who stayed and decided to fight have been vindicated. When I look at the transformation… the Labour Party of 2024 is unrecognisable from the Labour Party of 2019.”

Sackman previously stood unsuccessfully as the Labour candidate for Finchley and Golders Green in the 2015 general election.

Political views

Leadership elections

Labour deputy leadership 2025: Sackman was one of 175 Labour MPs who nominated Bridget Phillipson for the party’s deputy leadership in September 2025. The election followed the resignation of Angela Rayner, who stepped down as deputy prime minister and deputy party leader after an investigation into her tax affairs. It marked the first time since 2007 that Labour had held a deputy leadership contest while in government.

Phillipson, the serving education secretary, was widely viewed as the candidate favoured by Downing Street and the party leadership. She secured 175 nominations from the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), comfortably exceeding the 80 required to reach the final ballot. She was ultimately defeated by Lucy Powell.

Factional identity and party tradition

Labour Housing: Sackman was endorsed by the Labour Housing Group, a long-standing socialist society affiliated with the Labour party, at the 2024 general election. The group advocates a significant expansion of council and social housing, reform of the private rented sector to strengthen tenants’ rights, and tackling homelessness and poor housing conditions.

Labour Movement for Europe: Sackman was endorsed by the Labour Movement for Europe (LME) in the 2024 general election. Founded in 1981, LME is a pro-European socialist society affiliated with the Labour Party. It campaigns for a close relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union. The organisation refers to itself as the “home of the pro-Europeans in the Labour and trade union movement”.

Welfare

Welfare vote (July 2025): Sackman voted in favour of the government’s flagship welfare bill at second reading. The vote came after ministers agreed to significant concessions to avoid defeat via a mass rebellion of Labour MPs on 1 July 2025.

Assisted dying

Sackman voted in favour of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, better known as the assisted dying bill, at both second reading (November 2024) and third reading (June 2025).

Social values and conscience issues

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Sackman voted in favour of a backbench amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill that sought to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales in June 2025. The amendment, which was passed by a majority of 242 votes, removed women from the threat of prosecution for ending a pregnancy at any stage. As an issue of conscience, MPs were allowed to vote according to their personal beliefs.

Before Politics

Sarah Rebecca Sackman was born in 1984 in London and grew up in East Finchley. She attended South Hampstead High School.

Sackman studied history at Queens’ College, Cambridge, graduating in 2006. She obtained a postgraduate law degree from City, University of London, in 2007, and a master’s degree from Harvard Law School in 2011.

Before entering parliament, Sackman worked as a barrister. She was called to the Bar in 2008 and worked as a barrister at Francis Taylor Building and Matrix Chambers.

Sackman has been a school governor and a charity trustee.

Personal Life

Sackman is married.

She is Jewish and took the parliamentary oath of allegiance on a Hebrew Bible.

Trivia

Sackman’s maternal grandfather, Solomon Seruya, was a prominent Gibraltarian-Israeli politician.