Hello and welcome to Women with Balls, where I, Katie Balls, speak to today's trailblazers.

My guest today was the youngest MP in her party when she entered Parliament in 2015.

She comes from a family of trade unionists, her grandfather was an official for the fire

grey centre union and her uncle a member of the National Union of Mine Workers.

She was described by former House of Common Speaker John Burko as possessing a terrier-like intensity

in her pursuit of government ministers for answers.

And of ongoing rise over the government's Brexit plans and interpretation of the Northern Ireland Protocol,

her role in Kirstama's Shadow Cabinet as the shadow secretary for

Northern Ireland puts her in the perfect position to do just that. My guest today is Louise Haig.

Did I get anything wrong? I was disappointed he didn't call me a Yorkshire Terrier. That was the obvious.

Next time. Maybe Nancy Hoyle can do that. Maybe, yeah. I'll put that in his handle.

So thank you for joining us today. in person as well. We're hoping

we get to do more in person podcast, but with the current political weather we will see, on this

podcast we like to begin by just talking a little bit about what you're doing before you became a

politician. So you were born in Sheffield, your mother brought you and your brother up.

Would you describe yours as a happy childhood?

Oh, definitely.

My parents divorced when I was in my very early teens just before I was a teenager.

But my mom, as you say, brought me and my brother up.

Me and my brother are very, very close in age.

He's a year, a month and a day younger than me.

So it's about as close as you can be without actually being twins. And we're still very close. Does that mean you get to be like the bossy older sister?

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