Labour’s shadow minister for domestic abuse was once arrested and cautioned nearly a decade ago over a violent bust-up with her husband.

Rotherham MP Sarah Champion, 47, is understood to have hit her then husband Graham Hoyland, 59, with a framed painting during a heated argument over their divorce.

The incident in 2007 saw police officers arrest the couple at their £460,000, family home in leafy Chapel-en-Frith, Derbyshire, and took them in to police custody.

Sarah Champion and her then husband Graham Hoyland were arrested after a heated argument over their divorce - she is understood to have hit him with a framed painting

Last night, Miss Champion claimed that the incident had been a ‘slight ­altercation between a couple who were living in a very strained, unbearable atmosphere’, the Daily Mirror reported.

Both Miss Champion, a vocal campaigner against domestic abuse, and Mr Hoyland, a best-selling author and mountaineer, received police cautions.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn made Miss Champion his Shadow Home Office Minister for Preventing Abuse and Domestic Violence last year.

Just two weeks ago, she criticised the Conservatives record on domestic abuse in a strong opinion piece, noting that two women are killed on average by their partner every week in the UK.

Last night, Miss Champion admitted she had been ‘in the wrong’ and that she ‘lost control'.

Campaigners said ministers should set the ‘highest possible standards’ and called for the MP to resign.

In 2000, Miss Champion married best-selling author and journalist Mr Hoyland, who became the 15th Briton to climb Mount Everest.

According to a source close to the couple, the couple had been thrashing out the terms of their divorce in 2007 and discussing what to do with their shared house.

Then, on August 22, they began having a heated confrontation which is alleged to have ended when Miss Champion pulled a treasured framed painting off the wall and hit her husband with it, causing actual bodily harm.

A police source confirmed that Mr Hoyland rang emergency services and police arrived to arrest the pair over the ‘low-level’ assault.

Both were then driven to Buxton police station, gave statements, and were later allowed to go home after being cautioned by officers.

Mr Hoyland has since refused to comment on the incident.

Last night, Brian Hitchcock, director of Legal Services family charity Men’s Aid, said: ‘Sarah Champion should resign. Domestic Violence at whatever level is unacceptable.

‘Ministers should set the highest possible standards and if they break the law then there is no place for them in Government.’

Sarah Champion was first elected in 2012, and in 2015 was appointed as Shadow Minister for Preventing Abuse by Jeremy Corbyn. Now concern has been expressed over her suitability

Born in Essex, Miss Champion moved to Northamptonshire aged eight and studied at a local comprehensive before graduating at Sheffield University with a BA in psychology.

Her early work focused on promoting community arts and culture, and it was then that she married Mr Hoyland.

Mr Hoyland is a best-selling author, mountaineer, sailor, and has also directed adventure films for the BBC and Discovery Travel Channel.

Following the couple’s acrimonious divorce, Miss Champion became chief executive of Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice in Sheffield in 2008.

In 2012, she was elected as MP for Rotherham and was promoted to Jeremy Corbyn’s frontbench as Shadow Home Office minister for preventing abuse and domestic violence.

In June, she followed dozens of other Labour frontbenchers to quit in protest at Corbyn’s leadership – but the following month she reversed her decision and unresigned.

At the time, a Labour spokesman said: ‘The Leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, is pleased to announce the appointment of Sarah Champion MP, who is re-joining the Labour’s front bench as Shadow Home Office Minister, focusing on women, equality and domestic violence.’

Jeremy Corbyn gave Miss Champion a role focusing on women and domestic violence

Just over two weeks ago, Miss Champion wrote an opinion piece for The Guardian in which she refuted Theresa May’s claim that the Conservatives have a ‘very good record on domestic violence’.

In it, she wrote: ‘Violence against women by strangers remains level, and violence against men continues to fall.

‘Simply put, women are bearing the brunt of violent crime in England and Wales, and it is being carried out against them by the people who are closest to them.’

Miss Champion told the Daily Mirror last night that she was ‘not proud of what happened’.

She said: ‘I accept I was in the wrong, but I have nothing to hide.'

She said she lost control 'and for that I am sorry, but I felt extremely vulnerable at that moment'.

She added: ‘Things were extremely hostile between Graham and I and months of tension spilled over.

‘It was a frightening moment but I think the experience helps me better understand how living in a toxic ­atmosphere can cause emotional damage.

‘What happened between Graham and I has taught me how things can escalate out of control so quickly.

‘I feel I’ve let down the people I’ve tried to help most, but it wasn’t some dark, horrid secret I was hiding, it was just a part of my life I tried to forget.”

‘We got into a heated argument and he said, “If you want to leave you’ll have to leave with nothing.”

‘I told him if he was going to be ­unreasonable, then I would be too and grabbed a watercolour off the wall.

‘It had been given to us as a wedding present and painted by his great uncle Somervell, who attempted to climb Everest with [George] Mallory.

"I started walking out of the room and Graham made a lunge for me.

"The next thing I knew I was against the wall as he pushed the picture into my chest. I felt his grip relax and pushed back.

‘He grabbed the kitchen phone and called the police and said his wife was attacking him with a weapon.

‘I was terrified. That was the sum total of what happened.

‘It was a slight ­altercation between a couple who were living in a very strained, unbearable atmosphere.

‘That’s not to say I’m making excuses for what happened, but I was amazed when he called the police .

‘Things got very messy after that. It led to weeks of highly charged tension between the two of us.

‘It was a living nightmare and that event was the culmination of weeks of trying to be reasonable and hold it together.

‘When I arrived at the station a female officer came in and asked me for my shoes and belt.

‘I’ve no idea why but maybe they felt I was a suicide risk. I was finger-printed, interrogated and put into a cell. It was deeply humiliating.

‘I was in a real state. It’s not normal to end up in a police station accused of assaulting your husband.

‘After the initial shock I felt strangely calm sitting there on my own.

‘I started to think that if I ended up in jail I could cope with the cell, but not the stickiness of the bench.

‘The police officer didn’t even ­question me for very long. I told him what happened as he recorded it.

‘We were never really suited. Graham was so much older and we didn’t have much in common.

‘I should have known it would never have worked.’

Just over two weeks ago, Miss Champion refuted Theresa May’s claim that the Conservatives have a ‘very good record on domestic violence’ in an opinion piece penned for the Guardian

Last night, Brian Hitchcock, director of Legal Services family charity Men’s Aid, said: ‘Sarah Champion should resign. Domestic Violence at whatever level is unacceptable.

‘Ministers should set the highest possible standards and if they break the law then there is no place for them in Government.’

Born in Essex, Miss Champion moved to Northamptonshire aged eight and studied at a local comprehensive before graduating at Sheffield University with a BA in psychology.

Her early work focused on promoting community arts and culture, and it was then that she married Mr Hoyland.

Mr Hoyland is a best-selling author, mountaineer, sailor, and has also directed adventure films for the BBC and Discovery Travel Channel.

Following the couple’s acrimonious divorce, Miss Champion became chief executive of Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice in Sheffield in 2008.

In 2012, she was elected as MP for Rotherham and was promoted to Jeremy Corbyn’s frontbench as Shadow Home Office minister for preventing abuse and domestic violence.

In June, she followed dozens of other Labour frontbenchers to quit in protest at Corbyn’s leadership – but the following month she reversed her decision and unresigned.

At the time, a Labour spokesman said: ‘The Leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, is pleased to announce the appointment of Sarah Champion MP, who is re-joining the Labour’s front bench as Shadow Home Office Minister, focusing on women, equality and domestic violence.’

Just over two weeks ago, Miss Champion wrote an opinion piece for The Guardian in which she refuted Theresa May’s claim that the Conservatives have a ‘very good record on domestic violence’.

In it, she wrote: ‘Violence against women by strangers remains level, and violence against men continues to fall.