Sarah Jones

Sarah Ann Jones (born 20 December 1972) is a British Labour Party politician.

Jones joined the Labour Party aged 19 in 1992 after watching Conservative Party MP Peter Lilley, then the Secretary of State at the Department of Social Security, make a speech to his party's annual conference where he attacked benefit claimants and women who allegedly become pregnant to gain council housing.

Jones, who was pregnant at the time, joined the Labour Party as a direct reaction to the speech.

After leaving university Jones worked for Mo Mowlam, Labour Member of Parliament for Redcar and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

Jones worked briefly as a Press Officer for the Labour Party during the 1997 general election.

Jones later became Head of Campaigns at the housing charity Shelter.

During that time Shelter won the PR award for best public affairs campaign.

She was later appointed Head of Public Affairs for the NHS Confederation.

Jones served as a senior civil servant and was part of the team delivering the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Jones worked with Tessa Jowell, who was Minister for the Olympics at the time, and continued as a senior civil servant under Jeremy Hunt, the then Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport.

Jones oversaw Government communications for the Olympics, attended COBRA, and managed a large team of civil servants and communications professionals from across Government departments.

After leaving the Civil Service in 2012, Jones worked in a series of roles in the public and private sector, including at Gatwick Airport, where she campaigned for a second runway.

Jones was selected to contest the marginal Croydon Central constituency at the 2015 general election.

Despite achieving a 5.9% swing to Labour, Jones narrowly lost by 165 votes to the incumbent Conservative MP Gavin Barwell.

Jones's victory made further headlines due to Barwell publishing a book titled How to Win a Marginal Seat after his 2015 victory.

Jones made her maiden speech in the House of Commons during a debate on the Grenfell Tower fire.

Jones criticised politicians' failure to listen to Grenfell victims before the disaster, and called on the Government to retrofit sprinklers in all council tower blocks.

The speech received widespread coverage for being the first time Croydon rapper Stormzy was quoted in Parliament, with Jones warning MPs: "You're never too big for the boot."

After highlighting the rise in knife crime in Croydon during the general election campaign, Jones has run a campaign calling for a stronger Government response to knife crime across the UK.

She has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Croydon Central since the 2017 general election.

She currently serves as Shadow Minister for Industry and Decarbonisation as part of Labour's Shadow Department for Business and Trade team.

Until September 2023, Jones was the Shadow Minister for Policing and the Fire Service.

Jones was born in Croydon and is a lifelong resident.

She was educated at the private Old Palace School in Croydon and at Durham University, where she read History.

She was a member of Trevelyan College.

At the 2017 general election, she defeated Barwell with a majority of 5,652 votes.

She launched the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Knife Crime in September 2017, being elected as the group's Chair.

At its launch over 30 MPs and Peers joined the group, which is supported by charities Redthread and Barnardo's.

The APPG's stated aims are to 'look in detail at the root causes of knife crime – with particular focus on prevention and early intervention'.

Whilst Jones chaired the APPG on Knife Crime, she published a report on the role of youth services in tackling knife crime.

This research has been referenced many times in Parliament.

Under Jones' chairmanship, the APPG also published a report on the link between school exclusions and knife crime, which found that children who have been excluded from school may be at serious risk of involvement in knife crime and youth violence.

Jones remained close with Jowell, and in 2018 led a debate in the House of Commons paying tribute to Jowell's fight against brain cancer and her campaign for improved cancer treatment.

Jones continued to campaign in the wake of Jowell's death, prompting the government to launch the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission (TJBCM).

Upon its launch, Jones was appointed to the Joint Strategy Board of the TJBCM.

Jones was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to John Healey, Labour's Shadow Housing Secretary in January 2018, and was subsequently promoted to Shadow Housing Minister in 2018, succeeding Tony Lloyd.

From the Labour frontbench, Jones has called on the Government to implement fire safety reform and secure protections for leaseholders.

Together with John Healey, she published 'Ending the Scandal: Labour's New Deal for Leaseholders' in July 2019.

She was re-elected in the December 2019 election, again for Croydon.

She backed Keir Starmer in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election.