Laura Smith: From Westminster to the Job Centre

MPs' lives are not universally glamorous

Laura Smith served as the Labour MP for Crewe and Nantwich from 2017 until 2019. Then Boris Johnson called an election, which was held on December 12 and Jones lost her seat to Kieran Mullan of the Conservative party. There is a common perception that MPs are almost universally independently wealthy, and that losing their seat is more a speed bump to their political ambitions than actually losing their job. For some that is true - at one point two thirds of David Cameron's cabinet were millionaires - but for others it isn't, and Smith is one of those people who cannot fall back on the security of wealth now that her seat is gone. JOE caught up with her in Crewe to ask about her change in circumstances and discover what it's like to go from the House of Commons to the Job Centre.