This is an accepted version of this page
Cat Smith | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2024 | |||||||||||||||
| Chair of theProcedure Committee | |||||||||||||||
| Assumed office 11 September 2024 | |||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Dame Karen Bradley | ||||||||||||||
| Chair of thePetitions Committee | |||||||||||||||
| In office 18 October 2023 – 30 May 2024 | |||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Catherine McKinnell | ||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Jamie Stone | ||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| Member of Parliament forLancaster and Wyre Lancaster and Fleetwood (2015–2024) | |||||||||||||||
| Assumed office 7 May 2015 | |||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Eric Ollerenshaw | ||||||||||||||
| Majority | 9,253 (21.6%) | ||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||
| Born | Catherine Jane Smith (1985-06-16)16 June 1985 (age 39) Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England | ||||||||||||||
| Political party | Labour | ||||||||||||||
| Other political affiliations | Socialist Campaign Group | ||||||||||||||
| Spouse | |||||||||||||||
| Domestic partner | David Linden (2021–) | ||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | Lancaster University (BA) | ||||||||||||||
| Website | catsmith | ||||||||||||||
Catherine Jane Smith[1] (born 16 June 1985)[2] is a BritishLabour Party politician who served asMember of Parliament (MP) since 2015, representingLancaster and Wyre since2024 after her former constituency,Lancaster and Fleetwood, was abolished.[3] She was a member of theshadow cabinets led byJeremy Corbyn andKeir Starmer from 2016 to 2021 asShadow Secretary of State, previously Shadow Minister, for Young People and Democracy.[4]
Smith was born inBarrow-in-Furness. She has said that she "didn't have a political upbringing". Her mother was aMethodist and, through going to church with her, Smith became involved with youth movements in the church. Her father was atrade unionist.[5] She attended Parkview School (in 2009 this merged intoFurness Academy) andBarrow Sixth Form College. In 2003, she began studying for abachelor's degree atLancaster University. She was a member ofCartmel College and initially studiedreligious studies, but switched to ajoint honours degree insociology andgender studies, from which she graduated in 2006.[6][7] Smith was elected the Women's Officer forLancaster University Students' Union, asabbatical role, and served in the 2006–2007 academic year.[6]
Smith first stood for election as aLabour Party candidate for University ward onLancaster City Council in2007. She came fifth with 98 votes.[5] She supportedJohn McDonnell for leader in the2007 Labour Party leadership election which was occasioned byPrime MinisterTony Blair's resignation;Gordon Brown won unopposed. Smith said it was more important to her to see multiple candidates stand than for McDonnell specifically to win.[8] In the same year, she was a candidate forLabour Party National Executive Committee (NEC) Youth Representative.[9]
Smith worked as an office manager for theChristian Socialist Movement from 2007 to 2009 before working as a research and constituency worker for threeMembers of Parliament (MPs) from 2009 to 2012:Jeremy Corbyn,Katy Clark, andBob Marshall-Andrews.[6] Smith was the Labour Party candidate forWyre and Preston North constituency in the2010 general election, the first in which it was contested, but she was unsuccessful and came in a narrow third behind theLiberal Democrat candidate. In 2020 she toldLancs Live, "I had been called because there was no Wyre and Preston candidate for Labour... I wasn't expecting to win but I was happy to make the case for Labour to the constituents."[5]
In 2010–2011, Smith was chair ofCompass Youth.[10] In 2011, a majority of the Compass Youth committee, including Smith, resigned in protest at Compass' decision to become a cross-party body. The resigning members set up a new organisation called Next Generation Labour, which Smith chaired for a period.[11] From 2012 to 2015, Smith worked as a campaigns and policy officer for theBritish Association of Social Workers (BASW). In 2013, she was selected as the Labour candidate to contestLancaster and Fleetwood constituency at the next election.[6]
Smith won Lancaster and Fleetwood in the2015 general election, defeating theConservative incumbentEric Ollerenshaw.[6] Smith became a member of theSocialist Campaign Group within theParliamentary Labour Party after her election.[12] Following Labour's overall defeat, however, party leaderEd Miliband resigned. In the ensuingleadership election, Smith was a supporter of Jeremy Corbyn's candidacy and was one of 36 Labour MPs to nominate him for leader.[13] In June 2015, Smith was elected as chair of theAll-Party Parliamentary Group onCuba.[14] In July, she was one of 48 Labour MPs to defy the whip and vote against theWelfare Reform and Work Bill.[15]
Following Corbyn's election as Labour leader, Smith was appointed as a shadow minister in the Women & Equalities Office, working underShadow Secretary of State for Women and EqualitiesKate Green.[16]
She criticised the2016 European Union referendum, saying that younger people preferred to remain in the EU, while the majority result was to leave.[17]
On 27 June 2016, Smith entered theShadow Cabinet as Shadow Minister for Voter Engagement and Youth Affairs.[18] This followed on froma series of resignations of shadow ministers who had lost confidence in Corbyn's leadership; Smith took over fromGloria De Piero, one of the first shadow ministers to resign.[19] On 6 April 2020, Smith was re-appointed to her shadow cabinet role by the newly elected Labour Party Leader,Keir Starmer.[citation needed]
In addition to her other duties, Smith served as Shadow DeputyLeader of the House of Commons, in which role she made her debut at the Despatch Box on 20 December 2016.[20]
On 29 November 2021, during ashadow cabinet reshuffle, Smith resigned from her role on the front bench. She suggested that Starmer's office had offered her the opportunity to remain in her brief, but she declined citing concerns over the ongoing suspension of former party leader Jeremy Corbyn from theParliamentary Labour Party and lack of frontbench support forproportional representation.[21][22]
On 24 May 2016,Lancashire Constabulary announced that an investigation had been opened following allegations that Smith broke election spending laws by spending thousands of pounds more than she declared, relating to a visit by a nationally organised Labour "battlebus" to her constituency.[23][24] In June 2016, Lancashire Constabulary were granted a year-long extension to investigate Smith's election expenses,[25] and in November 2016 they cleared Smith of any wrongdoing.[26]
Smith married her partner of eleven years, Ben Soffa, in September 2016.[27] Soffa has worked as head of digital organising for the Labour Party since 2015. In July 2018, Smith gave birth to the couple's first child.[28] In October 2020 she revealed in a letter posted to Twitter that she was separating from her husband.[29] As of 2021[update] Smith was in a relationship withSNP former MPDavid Linden.[30]
Smith identifies asbisexual.[31]
In 2010, Smith was diagnosed withpostural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), which she says has affected her energy levels, and which she uses medication to control.[32]
Smith is aMethodist,[33] and is co-founder of Christians for Choice, a project ofAbortion Rights.[34]
She is a member ofPoulton & Wyre Railway Society.[35]
Lancaster is famous for its nonconformist residents, so as a Methodist I feel I am in good company. I am pleased to be making my maiden speech in the debate on Britain in the world, because it was my faith that led me into politics, through the campaigns to drop third world debt and the campaign for fair trade.
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forLancaster and Fleetwood 2015–2024 | Constituency abolished |
| New constituency | Member of Parliament forLancaster and Wyre 2024–present | Incumbent |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded byas Shadow Minister for Young People and Voter Registration | Shadow Minister for Voter Engagement and Youth Affairs / for Young People and Democracy 2016–2021 | |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Chair of thePetitions Committee 2023–2024 | Succeeded by |
