Speaking to the BBC Redlines Podcast, the MP for Foyle said that following the breakup of his marriage, both he and his ex-wife are happy with new partners.
“We’re very happy and we’re getting on well. It’s fun and it’s interesting,” he told the podcast.
“Louise is great and people here will know Louise from her time in Northern Ireland.
“She’s a feisty, strong, tough MP for Sheffield but also somebody who is prepared to say what needs to be said in difficult times even when it costs you your political career.
“I think maybe we have got a lot in common around that.”
Ms Haigh was also the Secretary for Transport, though she stood down from her position in November 2024.
It came after she pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation in 2014, after reporting that her phone had been stolen the previous year.
In the BBC podcast, it was also revealed that the MP for Foyle had been offered a knighthood by a Westminster politician but turned it down.
“Not that long ago, when the Tories were in power, I was offered a knighthood,” he said.
“I looked at the person and used language that I can’t use in this podcast and said: ‘Do you know who it is you’re talking to’?”
“And [they said] ‘well, what about the privy council, would you like to go on the privy council’?
“I said, ‘I tell you what, the Budget’s coming up, throw in a few quid for Derry from that Towns Fund and that’ll do alright’. So we got £20m for Derry as part of that conversation.”
Since stepping down as leader of the SDLP, the MP has been speaking of the disfunction at Stormont, revealing he found it ‘easier to get things done for people in Derry when Stormont’s collapsed, because they just get in the way’.
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“I think people feel Stormont isn’t working and there’s a big problem with that because, at some point, the next time it collapses, people will say, ‘let’s just leave it down’, and I don’t think that would be good either,” he said.
“People deserve government, I think, that delivers for them and I’m not sure too many people would agree that they have been delivering.”
The nationalist politician said he is still considering whether to put himself forward for this year’s Irish presidential election.