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Sarah Jones has been the MP for Croydon West (formerly Croydon Central) since June 2017. She is a Labour politician who previously held the positions of Shadow Housing Minister and Shadow Minister for Policing and the Fire Service. Since Labour have been in government she has held ministerial roles including Minister of State for Industry and in September 2025 she became Minister of State for Policing and Crime. Sarah has lived in Croydon all her life and she is known for being a civil servant who worked on the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games and for improving tram safety since the 2016 Croydon tram crash. Her tag line on social media is “Standing up for Croydon” and she is the first woman to represent the borough of Croydon.
Sarah Jones MP’s story
Sarah Ann Jones was born on December 20, 1972 in Croydon, south London. She went to Old Palace School, a selective independent school for girls, before studying History at Durham University, where she was a member of Trevelyan College. She became a mother at the age of 19 and has shared her experience of being a young mum and how that informed her political views, particularly on social justice and public policy.
Sarah Jones started her career in politics and public service. She worked for prominent Labour MP and Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam, was Head of Campaigns for the housing charity Shelter and was Head of Public Affairs at the NHS Confederation.
As a senior civil servant, she was part of the team that helped deliver the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Sarah Jones is married and has four children: Joseph Jones, Isobel Lloyd-Jones and twins Gabriel and Arthur Lloyd-Jones. She was brought up in the Methodist Church and shared the House of Commons in March 2023 that she occasionally prays.
On her website, Sarah says she “has lived in Croydon all her life and her kids go to school here.”
Sarah Jones becomes an MP
Sarah first stood for election in 2015 for the Croydon Central seat and lost by a narrow margin of just 165 to Conservative Gavin Barwell. However, in the 2017 general election, she won 29,873 votes (52.3%) vs Gavin Barwell’s 24,221 (42.4%). In her maiden speech in the House of Commons she quoted rapper Stormzy during a debate about the Grenfell Tower fire. This made headlines for the first time a grime artist had been cited in Parliament. In the 2019 general election, Sarah received 27,124 votes, a 50.2% share, compared to Conservative Mario Creatura who got 21,175; 39.2% of the vote. In the 2024 general election, when the boundary change meant the constituency changed from Croydon Central to Croydon West, Sarah got 20,612 votes (54.1%). Conservative Simon Fox got 6,386 votes (16.8%), with the Green Party and Lib Dems seeing a considerable rise in share of the vote compared to previous years.
Sarah Jones served as Shadow Housing Minister from May 2018 to April 2020. From April 2020 to September 2023 she was Shadow Minister for Policing and the Fire Service. In September 2023 she became Shadow Minister for Industry and Decarbonisation. After Labour’s general election victory in July 2024, she was appointed Minister of State for Industry (at the Departments for Business & Trade and Energy Security & Net Zero). On September 6, 2025, she became Minister of State for Policing and Crime.
Sarah Jones: Key Campaigns
Early in her career as an MP, Sarah launched and chaired the cross-party All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Knife Crime, focusing on prevention, early intervention and linking youth exclusion from school to involvement in violence.
After the Grenfell Tower fire, she pressed for better fire safety reform and for protections for leaseholders. She led the passage of the Fire Safety Act 2021 through Parliament and tabled amendments preventing remediation costs being passed on to leaseholders.
In 2018, Sarah worked with Baroness Tessa Jowell to campaign for better treatment for brain tumours and led an important debate in the House of Commons. After Tessa died from brain cancer, Sarah continued the work, which prompted the government to launch the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission. Sarah sits on the Joint Strategy Board of the Mission.
In her role as Minister of State for Industry, she highlighted the logistics sector as a cornerstone of UK economic growth and emphasised the UK’s industrial strategy must embed decarbonisation and job creation simultaneously.
In her local work as an MP, Sarah has set up campaigns to combat fly-tipping and introduce new tram safety laws following the 2016 Croydon Tram Crash.
Sarah Jones: In the news
Sarah has been busy in her new role as Minister of State for Policing and Crime. In October 2025, according to the Oxford Mail, she met Bicester and Woodstock MP Calum Miller to discuss rural crime. In September, she was at the Annual Police Superintendents’ Association Conference, where she made a speech thanking officers for their service, acknowledging the sacrifices they make, and emphasised her commitment to rebuilding trust and reforming policing through collaboration, higher standards, and better support. She outlined government priorities including tackling knife crime, violence against women and girls, and anti-social behaviour, while embracing new technologies and reforms to create a stronger, future-ready police force.
She has been criticised by Inside Croydon on “kind words and no action” over Gaza, Palestine. On September 25, she called the situation in Gaza “appalling” on her website.
In March 2025, Full Fact reported that Sarah Jones had repeated an inaccurate claim about the UK’s projected growth. The MP then issued a correction. In June 2025, the BBC reported that Sarah Jones in her role as Industry Minister had pledged support to the “crucial” pottery industry. In September 2025, Construction News reported that Sarah had missed several Construction Leadership Council meetings.
Sarah Jones has a newsletter and is also active on social media: Facebook, Twitter and particularly Instagram.
Her most recent posts on Instagram include a video explaining Renters’ rights, a post from her recent surgery, a visit to Elmwood Infants school and a visit to the Turkish Youth and Community Association. She also gives constituent casework updates and is calling on BT to remove old phone boxes from Croydon town centre.
