Young people have been neglected for too long – but Labour is finding ways to address their concerns, says the shadow youth minister

At 10pm in her constituency office, Cat Smith, the 32-year-old MP for Lancaster Fleetwood, is attempting to eat a cardboard box of vegetarian chilli, while explaining that all Fisherman’s Friend mints in the world are made in her constituency, digging out six different flavours from a desk drawer to show me. Smith thinks she’ll be at work until well after 1am for a vote, and points out that for MPs with young children, juggling work and family is a nightmare. On the back of her door hangs a flag for Fleetwood Town football club, and a “Hell Yes, I’m a Feminist” print has a card reading 415 tucked into the corner. Smith was handed the card on her first day as an MP, to remind her she was only the 415th woman to be elected. Smith’s youth, working-class background and comprehensive education mark her out from other MPs, she points out.

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In 2016, she was appointed shadow cabinet minister for voter engagement and youth affairs, tasked with looking at ways to encourage voter turnout and registration, and bring problems afflicting young people to the party’s attention. Smith is clear that housing is “a huge issue” for young people. “People are in the unaffordable, insecure private rented sector with no way out,” she says. “And housing benefit is a landlord subsidy.” But Smith says the answer is not to increase benefits but to bump up pay and build more affordable and social housing, helping people afford rent and giving them more security at home.

Low pay and lack of employment opportunities add to the toxic situation facing young people today. “We need a real living wage. People I chat to are irked that the Tories claim to have a living wage; they see through it because they know it doesn’t make ends meet,” she says. “For generations, no matter when you left school, there have been no proper jobs available. It’s 10 years since the run on Northern Rock, and the economy just hasn’t recovered in places like Lancaster.”

People are irked that the Tories claim to have a living wage; they see through it because it doesn’t make ends meet

In her constituency, Smith has been vocal about residents’ opposition to fracking, countering arguments that it will provide jobs in the area with the fact that environmental concerns outweigh the benefits: green jobs and clean energy account for 30% of the growth in the economy and could be a huge boost to jobs in Lancaster, the MP says.

Poverty and problems with benefits are also a significant part of her caseload. “People are malnourished. I genuinely have constituents who don’t eat. That’s what’s frustrating: I don’t think it’s understood, because people don’t look like Victorian waifs and strays.”

Smith says there’s often a gap in payments of more than six weeks when people move on to universal credit, or change circumstances (when they have a baby or find a job). This leaves many people destitute, with nothing to live off and rent arrears mounting. “It’s not just universal credit though, it’s [benefit] sanctions, and the delays when circumstances change give people nothing to live on in the gap between it. You get a job or you get sanctioned, have nothing to live on and get behind on your rent, and it’s a downward spiral.”

Turnout among the under-25s is the lowest of all age groups. The youth vote was integral to Labour doing better than expected in the 2017 election, so people across the Labour movement are taking youth issues more seriously: last week, Unite general secretary, Len McCluskey, called for a dedicated youth affairs minister in the shadow cabinet to look into problems such as cuts to youth services.

The Labour manifesto, to which Smith contributed, promised an end to cuts to youth services, an extension of support for young people in care until the age of 21, currently only extended to those in foster care, and the reinstatement of the education maintenance allowance for 16 to 18-year-olds in further education. Last year public services union Unison reported 600 youth centres had closed since the Tories came to power, and £387m had been slashed from youth services.

“This Conservative government has imposed ideologically driven cuts on local authorities, which has devastated youth services at a time when they are needed more than ever. These cuts are causing real pain, particularly to the most vulnerable young people in our society,” she says.

Smith is a keen advocate of social mobility, yet she is all too aware of how barriers to education hold people back. “You had limited options in careers lessons when I grew up,” she says. “My grandad was illiterate and spent his entire life in low-paid work. My dad failed his 11-plus, but accessed higher education as an adult through the trade union movement,” she says. “And he brought me home a prospectus, which I read cover to cover I was so entranced by it.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘Momentum introduced a lot of young people to campaigning, with training and support when canvassing. It’s a newer kind of politics.’ Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Smith worked for several MPs in research and parliamentary office posts immediately after university, including for party leader Jeremy Corbyn when he was a backbencher. After three years in various roles, Smith felt that running for selection was an option. “I got to the point where I knew lots, and thought I could do a better job than some other MPs,” Smith says. “But I thought, I’m from a comprehensive school in Barrow, I probably won’t make it, but I’ll give it a bloody good go.”

Smith won the selection for Lancaster Fleetwood in 2013, winning the seat back from the Conservatives in 2015. The seat was one of the most marginal in the 2017 election, and many feared a Labour loss was a foregone conclusion.

Smith says she buckled down and campaigned hard, but didn’t dare to think she’d win until polling day. “[My campaign team] always focus on students on polling day: usually you knock on doors and they say ‘Oh, yes, I’ll do it later,’ so you have to really make sure they get out and vote.” Instead, at the first house they visited, a young woman answered in a “Depressed vegetarians for Jeremy Corbyn” T-shirt, and enthusiastically told Smith she had already voted, and so had her flatmates. It was the same at virtually every house they visited: “People were genuinely excited that they had voted.”

But reports from tellers at polling stations revealed other worries. “We had people in their 20s and 30s asking tellers how to vote. They’d never voted before, and didn’t have a clue what to do in the booth.”

This worries Smith. “We need political education in schools – mock elections, not just during election times, but every year, and local authorities should hire out voting booths to schools, so it becomes something people are comfortable with,” she says.

But she does not believe online or mandatory voting are a solution. “You could never convince people that e-voting was secure, and we should give people something to vote for rather than simply forcing them to vote,” she argues. “There’s no reason we can’t get to 100% turnout if we engage people properly, listen to them and give them policies to be enthused about.”

The burden of local democracy also falls disproportionately on councils, who have had budgets cut drastically, and dealt with three national polls in three years plus local elections. “Councils really struggled in this election,” Smith says. “We need a national electoral roll, and people should be able to check to see if they are registered to vote. People move house, and many don’t know you’re supposed to remove yourself from the roll. When local authorities reported a huge rise in registrations, many turned out to be duplicates because people had no way of telling if they were registered.”

How helpful has Momentum been in engaging young voters? Smith isn’t a member, but says the grassroots organisation have played a key role for some voters. “They introduced a lot of young people to campaigning, with training and support when canvassing. The portrayal of Momentum in the media seeks to demonise them, but it’s simply people who are excited about politics now. It’s much easier to go to the pub at first, than an impenetrable constituency meeting. It’s a newer version of politics,” she says. “When it comes to young voters, Tories do not speak to their concerns. They don’t talk about issues that affect them: housing, the jobs market, the lack of graduate jobs, £9,000 university fees,” Smith says. “Labour is offering something to people who don’t go to university. The jobs haven’t been there for more than a generation, and the economy hasn’t recovered since 2008 for young people.”

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Smith is touring the country canvassing and door-knocking for colleagues in target seats with Labour’s message. “We have to say, with Labour you don’t just get a second chance, you get a third, a fourth chance,” Smith says. “Tory policies have led to a huge waste of potential and opportunity and human life. Labour can’t do anything unless we get into power and put our manifesto into action. We can’t just sit around: we have to win a majority, conversation by conversation.”

Curriculum vitae

Age: 32.

Lives: Lancaster.

Family: Married.

Education: Parkview school, Barrow-in-Furness; Barrow sixth form college; Lancaster University (gender and sociology degree).

Career: 2015-present: MP for Lancaster Fleetwood; 2012-2015: campaigns and policy officer, British Association of Social Workers; 2009-2012: research and constituency worker for Jeremy Corbyn, Katy Clark and Bob Marshall-Andrews MPs; 2007-2009: office manager, Christian Socialist Movement; 2006-2007: women’s officer, Lancaster University.

Interests: Camping, hill-walking, visiting National Trust and English Heritage sites, supporting Barrow Football Club.