Laura Smith (born 16 March 1985) is a British Labour Party politician who served as the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP) for

Crewe and Nantwich Crewe and Nantwich was, from 1974 to 2009, a local government district with borough status in Cheshire, England. It had a population (2001 census) of 111,007. It contained 69 civil parishes and one unparished area: the town of Crewe. It now fo ...

from

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

to 2019. In 2017, she defeated the incumbent

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

Edward Timpson Anthony Edward Timpson, (born 26 December 1973) is a British Conservative Party politician who was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Eddisbury in Cheshire at the 2019 general election. He was previously MP for neighbouring Crew ...

by 48 votes, before losing her seat at the 2019 general election. In February 2020, Smith was elected to

Cheshire East Council Cheshire East Council is the local authority of the Borough of Cheshire East, Cheshire, England. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. It provides a full range of local government ...

for the Crewe South ward.

Early life and career

Smith was raised in Crewe; her grandfather was a miner and

trade unionist A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (s ...

and her father was heavily involved with the Labour Party. She attended Brine Leas School in

Nantwich Nantwich ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It has among the highest concentrations of listed buildings in England, with notably good examples of Tudor and Georgian architecture. ...

, Cheshire and South Cheshire College in Crewe. She went on to study at Crewe campus of

Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester Metropolitan University is located in the centre of Manchester, England. The university has over 40,000 students and over 4,000 members of staff. It is home to four faculties (Arts and Humanities, Business and Law, Health and Educat ...

, qualifying as a school teacher. She was dissatisfied with work as a teacher and began a tutoring business.

Political career

Smith was involved in the campaign against school funding cuts in Cheshire East. She told the ''

Crewe Chronicle The ''Crewe Chronicle'', originally known as the ''Crewe and Nantwich Chronicle'', is a UK weekly newspaper first published on 21 March 1874. It was founded by the editor of the '' Chester Chronicle'' as a Radical alternative to the Tory A ...

'': "I sat at home after going to a public meeting at Brine Leas School" about proposed education cuts "and I decided enough was enough regarding the funding for schools and I posted something on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

. From that, I got involved with the fairer funding". Smith was announced as the Labour Party candidate for the

constituency in the snap 2017 general election on 1 May 2017. She launched her campaign on 3 May, saying "What ordinary people need are decent well-paid jobs and greater job security. In this race locally, I am the only candidate committed to that." She also said that she was not a "natural-born politician" and promised to be a "different sort of MP if elected that remains accessible and up front with her constituents". In the election, Smith defeated incumbent

junior minister

by 48 votes, overturning a majority of 3,620. She declared that the result "sent a message to the establishment and the elite", the seat having been held by the Conservatives in elections since

Gwyneth Dunwoody Gwyneth Patricia Dunwoody (née Phillips; 12 December 1930 – 17 April 2008) was a British Labour Party politician, who was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Exeter from 1966 to 1970, and then for Crewe (later Crewe and Nantwich) from February ...

died in 2008. The seat saw a 3.7% swing to Labour, and an increase in turnout of 3%, to just under 70%. On 13 June 2018, Smith and five other Labour MPs resigned their roles as frontbenchers for the Labour Party in protest at Labour's

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC ...

position. Leader

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...

had instructed his MPs to abstain in a vote which Britain would remain in the single market by joining the

European Economic Area The European Economic Area (EEA) was established via the ''Agreement on the European Economic Area'', an international agreement which enables the extension of the European Union's single market to member states of the European Free Trade As ...

(EEA). Following her resignation Smith voted against the EEA. Smith also resigned her position as a Shadow Cabinet Office Minister. However, despite this stance, Smith abstained from a vote to delay the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union for a time sufficient to enable a second referendum on leaving the EU to be held. In September 2018 Smith called for a general strike to "topple" Theresa May's Conservative government. Deputy Labour Leader, Tom Watson, quickly distanced the Labour Party from Smith saying her comments were "not particularly helpful". Shadow business secretary

Rebecca Long-Bailey Rebecca Roseanne Long-Bailey (' Long; born 22 September 1979), is a British politician and former solicitor serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Salford and Eccles since 2015. A member of the Labour Party, Long-Bailey served in the Shadow ...

added: "Just to make it perfectly clear a general strike is not Labour Party policy." Smith lost her seat in the 2019 general election, to Kieran Mullan of the Conservative Party. The Labour vote was down 9.7% to 37.4% and the Conservative vote up 6.1% to 53.1% giving Kieran Mullan a majority of 8,508. In January 2020 Smith appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live to speak about her life since losing the election, and to dispel what she described as "the misconception... that people who are members of parliament – even local councillors – are kind of sitting on a bank of reserves or will automatically have connections who will come and want to hire you". The interview came after Smith was photographed at her local job centre. On 27 February 2020, Smith was elected to

for the Crewe South ward.

Political views

Smith identifies as a

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

and was part of the

Socialist Campaign Group The Socialist Campaign Group, officially the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs and also known as the Campaign Group, is a left-wing, democratic socialist grouping of the Labour Party's Members of Parliament in the House of Commons of the ...

of Labour MPs during her time in parliament. She is a supporter of the ''Labour Against Private Schools'' campaign, which aims to abolish

private schools An independent school is independent in its finances and governance. Also known as private schools, non-governmental, privately funded, or non-state schools, they are not administered by local, state or national governments. In British Eng ...

in the United Kingdom.

Personal life

Smith lives in

with her two children.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Laura 1985 births Living people Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 2017–2019 Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Alumni of Manchester Metropolitan University People educated at Brine Leas School People educated at South Cheshire College 21st-century British women politicians Schoolteachers from Cheshire English socialists 21st-century English women 21st-century English people People from the Borough of Cheshire East Labour Party (UK) councillors Councillors in Cheshire