Jade Smith was struggling through a "living hell" on a zero-hours contract that she was worried about losing, friends of the Mighty Redcar star have claimed.

The "passionate and fiery" political activist, 21, was found dead at the bottom of cliffs on Sunday night, with her devastated boyfriend Chris Cassidy confirming to Mirror Online that she had taken her own life.

Jade, who found fame in an episode of the BBC series, had been struggling to cope with her gruelling work with a adult social care agency and told pals she felt unable to turn down requests to make home calls on her days off because she was still in her six-month probation.

Her close friend Tom Seston told Mirror Online that Jade feared losing her job after being let go from her previous employment, and admitted to pals she had started self-harming and drinking late at night to cope with the stress of her job.

Chris Doughty, director of Hartlepool Care Services, which employed Jade as a Carewatch carer, told Mirror Online that her behaviour raised "no alarm bells" in the final weeks of her life.

"It is a stressful job for carers out there in the field and can be very isolating. The nature of the work means it kind of is the way it has to be," he says.

Jade, he claimed, had not disclosed her mental health problems on the medical questionnaire in her application process, and hadn't spoken of her issues with senior management.

"It's someone's private life, we would never delve into it unless she had disclosed it," Mr Doughty went on. "I wish she'd felt able to come to me and tell me she was struggling."

He categorically denied that Jade was the victim of workplace bullying, after she alleged in tweets scheduled to go live three days after her death that some colleagues had mocked her for self-harming.

The committed Conservative Party campaigner was earning the National Living Wage of £8.21 an hour, plus 39p per hour for her travel expenses. Jade was unable to drive so cycled for miles to her clients' homes, often getting up at 4am to make her first visit at 6am, and would get home exhausted as late as 11pm.

She was on a standard variable-hours contract offered to all Carewatch carers, which was "essentially a zero-hours contract in all but name", said Mr Doughty.

Friend Tom said that Jade's condition started deteriorating two weeks before her tragic death and she was downing a nightly bottle of wine hours before her alarm went off.

During their daily hour-long phone calls, Jade told Tom she had started drinking "to calm myself down" and confessed to him that she had self-harmed.

"She was given lots more hours - 60 hours a week but was only getting paid for 40, as there was no payment for her downtime between home visits," he alleged. "I warned her she was working too much but she seemed worried that she'd be fired if she took a day off."

Carewatch says Jade worked an average of 35 hours a week for the last four weeks of her employment, and would have been paid the standard rate of £8.60 an hour (including travel expenses) throughout her time there.

(Image: Teesside Live WS)

The organisation also states that carers on variable-hours contracts can request certain days and time slots off to fit around their other commitments, and says Jade would not have been penalised for asking for time off.

The TV star called in sick last Thursday and Friday with an infection, although she told friends she was worried about being fired. She then spoke to Tom on Sunday just hours before her death and sounded "totally normal".

Jade and Tom spoke about mutual friends at the Tory Party conference, but just 40 minutes after their call she sent him a goodbye text.

Frantic Tom and another friend rang police and tried to direct emergency services to the beauty spot in Huntcliff, North Yorks, where tragically her body was later found.

Politics student Tom was "shocked" to learn Jade had scheduled tweets to be published three days after her suicide.

(Image: Teesside Live WS)

(Image: Teesside Live WS)

Her account has since been suspended and the messages deleted, but in them she made allegations against the Conservative party - although she insisted she still supported Boris Johnson as its leader.

"Theres one last topic I want to talk about before I go and say my goodbyes. And it's about the Conservative Party. This is the last time I'll ever have a platform to ask them to change, to beg them for young peoples sake to change," she wrote.

"Back in 2015/2016 I tried to kill myself several times because of the tory party. I was institutionalised due to bullying and harassment I received. I was stalked by the press, the press stood outside my college with cameras. I was an 17/18 year old female who had been bullied."

Jade Smith's boyfriend's heartbreaking tribute "On Sunday I lost someone I love. "On the outside Jade was fiery, passionate, fun and tenacious. "She cared deeply about the people and places that helped shape who she was. "Once she had a goal in her mind, she’d set about it stubbornly with boundless energy and I always felt sorry for whoever got in her way. "Hardly a day went by without her making both of us laugh together. Her laughter was always infectious. "In private and to the people who knew her most, she was thoughtful, generous and loving. "She'd always try to put other people before herself and she had endless ways of showing people just how much she cared about them. "I'll always cherish the many deep and meaningful moments we shared together. I'm lucky to not only have been a boyfriend, but also a best friend. "She lived her life with a dazzling intensity that I really grew to crave as time went by. It's just not quite the same without her."

In the heartbreaking posts, Jade also alleged that bullies within the party had abused her and her friends, and claimed she was left in fear of being sexually assaulted at the annual conference.

A Conservative Party spokesperson has told Mirror Online: "Our thoughts and condolences are with the friends and family of Jade Smith at this extremely difficult time.

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"We take all allegations of bullying or harassment incredibly seriously and are looking into the circumstances surrounding this deeply tragic incident."

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