Ruth Smeeth (c) pictured alongside Jewish Labour MP Margaret Hodge (l) and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton in September 2021 (Photo by Leon Neal / Getty Images)
She has also worked for the Community Security Trust (CST) and for the Board of Deputies of British Jews.
After losing an election bid in 2010, she was then selected from an all-women shortlist to be Labour Party candidate for Stoke-on-Trent North, and was elected to Parliament at the 2015 general election, and won again in 2017.
Smeeth was vocal in the fight against antisemitism in the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn, resigning her shadow PPS role in 2016 in protest at his leadership.
In 2018, she was accompanied by dozens of Labour MPs who staged a symbolic show of discontent against Labour’s failure to crack down on antisemitism by marching alongside Smeeth when she went to give evidence at an expulsion hearing against activist Marc Wadsworth. Wadsworth was later expelled for bringing the party into disrepute.
In April 2019, Smeeth was elected Parliamentary Chair of the Jewish Labour Movement, however she lost her seat at the December 2019 general election to the Conservative now-MP Jonathan Gullis. Shortly afterwards, she was appointed CEO of Index on Censorship - an organisation campaigning for freedom of expression.
Smeeth is expected to be appointed to the House of Lords alongside a number of controversial figures including Paul Dacre, former editor of the Daily Mail, and Sir Michael Hintze, a businessman who has donated £4.7 million to the Conservative Party, according to the Electoral Commission database.
The Telegraph, who revealed the list today, says that this is the final list, subject to last-minute tweaks. This is different to Boris Johnson's resignation honours list, which is set to be published in "weeks or even months".
Five former Tory MPs also make the list - Stewart Jackson, Sir Hugo Swire, Angie Bray, Graham Evans and Sir Nicholas Soames, grandson of Sir Winston Churchill.
Jackson was a minister in the Brexit department and subsequently served as chief of staff to David Davis, the former Brexit secretary.
Dominic Johnson, an investor who founded Somerset Capital Management with now-Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg, will get a peerage in order to become a trade minister.
Labour peers, proposed by Sir Keir Starmer, include Tom Watson, former Labour deputy leader, David Prentis former General Secretary of Unison, Frances O'Grady, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, Kuldip Sahota, Labour councillor, Sharon Taylor, leader of Stevenage Council, Sonny Leong, co-founder and co-chairman for SME for Labour, and Fiona Twycross, London deputy mayor for fire and resilience.
Arlene Foster, former DUP first minister of Northern Ireland, will also be appointed to the House of Lords.
The final list is set to be released in the coming days. Smeeth declined to comment when contacted by the JC.
