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 BBC’s Red Lines 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.
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Louise Haigh
“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 it emerged 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.
“I always say that the political establishment in London don’t really understand the north,” he said
“Not that long ago, when the Tories were in power, I was offered a knighthood.
Colum Eastwood
Today’s News in 90 seconds – 13th August 2025
“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.
“I think a lot of people there would love that, but not for me. In order to thank people [in Westminster] or buy them in, they give them all these things.
“As someone who doesn’t even want Westminster to even be running Northern Ireland I have no interest in any kind of bonds from any British government. I was happy with the £20m for Derry.”
Since stepping down as leader of the SDLP, the MP has been speaking of the dysfunction at Stormont, revealing he found it easier to implement change when Stormont is collapsed.
“I find it easier to get things done for people in Derry when Stormont’s collapsed,” he said.
“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.
“People deserve government, I think, that delivers for them and I’m not sure too many people would agree that they have been delivering.”
Mr Eastwood also spoke in the interview of his early political career, having joined the SDLP when he was 15, handing out leaflets for the ‘yes’ campaign for the Good Friday Agreement alongside the late John and Pat Hume.
He had joined off the back of the peace agreement being signed.
“The civil rights movement as a kind of a thing that had happened before I was born,” he added.
“It was always strong as an influence on us growing up.
“There was a friend of the family, who was taught by my father, who was a member of the SDLP.
“He came into the house and I would have argued with him about different things maybe that the SDLP were doing.
“He came to the door at the Good Friday Agreement campaign, the SDLP were the only party to knock doors for the yes campaign.
“I said ‘my parents aren’t in’ and he said ‘well, it’s you I am looking for’. I looked down the street and there was John and Pat Hume walking down my street.
“Hume was ever present in Derry. And we had a caravan in Greencastle where he would spend time, so we would always see John about.
“[He was] very encouraging, he was encouraging me not to knock doors and go study for my GCSEs. Pat Hume banned me from knocking doors during one particular campaign because I had exams.
“But I just stayed out of her way and did it anyway.”
Since stepping down as SDLP leader, the nationalist politician said he is still considering whether to put himself forward for this year’s Irish presidential election.
“A number of people from a number of political parties in the south have talked to me about that,” he said.
“Truthfully, I am concerned that we have a discussion as part of that presidential election that doesn’t ignore the north.
“The most important thing for me is, will there be a conversation during this election campaign about the future of Ireland to bring the two peoples of this country together.”