Sally-Ann Hart

The first elected position Hart was elected to was as a councillor representing the Eastern Rother Ward on the Rother District Council in East Sussex. First elected in 2015, she won re-election in 2019.[7] On the Council, Hart held the position of Cabinet Member for Tourism and Culture.[8]

Hart stood as the Conservative Party candidate for North West Durham in the 2017 general election. Receiving 16,516 votes (34.5%), Hart failed to be elected by 8,792 votes, finishing in second place behind Labour candidate Laura Pidcock.[9]

At the 2019 General Election, Hart was selected to stand as the Conservative candidate for Hastings and Rye. At a constituency hustings on 5 December 2019, Hart was asked about an article she had shared on Facebook which suggested that people with learning difficulties should not be guaranteed a minimum wage. She defended the view, and said "it's about the happiness to work"[10] and that "some people with learning difficulties they don't understand about money".[11] In a statement made to The Guardian, Hart said: "I was trying to emphasise that more needs to be done to help those with learning disabilities into the workplace and having properly paid work. My comments have been taken out of context, but I do apologise if any offence or alarm has been caused".[10]

Hart was elected on 12 December 2019 as MP for Hastings and Rye with 26,896 votes (49.6%) and a majority of 4,043 votes which improved substantially on her predecessor's majority of 346.[12][13]

In December 2019, an inquiry was initiated by the Conservative Party into Hart after it was discovered that, in 2017, she shared a video which contained the conspiracy theory that Jewish billionaire George Soros controls the European Union. She liked a comment underneath the video which said "Ein Reich" ("One Empire"), a Nazi slogan.[14][15][16] A second investigation was opened days later over her sharing a blog post, in January 2017, by the anti-Islam activist Cheri Berens. Hart described the blog, in which Berens condemned the 2017 Women's March against U.S. President Donald Trump as being used to promote a "Muslim agenda", as an "affecting read."[17][18]

On 10 August 2020, in an interview with Krishnan Guru-Murthy for Channel 4 News, Hart stated that the investigation into the allegations over her social media posts had concluded and that she was "not found to be anti-Semitic, Islamophobic or anything else", although she had attended social media training.[19]

On 19 January 2021, Hart was 1 of 33 Conservative MPs to rebel against the Government in support of the Genocide Amendment to the Trade Bill alongside other senior Conservative Parliamentarians including David Davis and Iain Duncan Smith. [20] [21]

Following an interim report on the connections between colonialism and properties now in the care of the National Trust, including links with historic slavery, Hart was among the signatories of a letter to The Telegraph from the "Common Sense Group" of Conservative Parliamentarians. The letter accused the National Trust of being "coloured by cultural Marxist dogma, colloquially known as the 'woke agenda'".[22]

As of March 2020, Hart held membership for three Parliamentary committees: Committee on the Future Relationship with the European Union, Scottish Affairs Committee, and Speaker's Advisory Committee on Works of Art.[23]

Hart is the Vice-Chair of several All-Party Parliamentary Groups including on Special Educational Needs and Disability, School Exclusions and Alternative Provision and Housing and Social Mobility.[24][25][26] She is also Secretary of the APPG on Hospitality and Tourism.[27]