MP Steve Reed needs help. And he’ll pay £40,0000pa to get it

As one Croydon MP adjusts to life on the back benches, another has made her first move up the greasy pole of Westminster preferment, reports our Political Editor, WALTER CRONXITE

Steve Reed, the MP for Streatham (and Croydon North, when he can be bothered), needs help.

Reed was the first cabinet minister to be sacked when Andy Burnham arrived in Downing Street to take over as Prime Minister, with Reed publishing a two-page “resignation” letter full of his supposed achievements under Keir Starmer.

Now the former Lambeth Council leader and Morgan McSweeney co-conspirator at the dodgy Labour Together organisation has only his constituents to worry about. Which will be a bit of a change for him.

Adjusting to life as a mere backbencher and lobby fodder when you are 63 next birthday might be a bit of a jolt for someone who has never understated how important he thinks he is.

Reed has spent most of the last 13 years on Labour’s front bench, apart from that spell when he had a hissy-fit and led the “chicken coup” of ministers resigning from Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet – a coup which failed miserably. A few years later, Reed was lecturing his Labour MP colleagues about loyalty…

Now, without SPADs, civil servants or aides to carry his little red box for him – he now has to provide his own hand luggage – Reed is recruiting for a senior parliamentary assistant.

According to parliamentary records, until June 19 this year, Reed had three staff working in parliament for him: Oscar Harman, who was the chair of the Streatham and Croydon North Constituency Labour Party when Reed recruited him to his staff, who then went on to become his special adviser – SPAD – at the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government; plus there’s also Jannath Islam and Louise Szpera, Reed’s long-standing office manager.

Szpera had worked for Reed’s predecessor as Croydon North MP, Malcolm Wicks, who died in 2012.

Szpera is the partner of Tony Newman, the disgraced former leader of Croydon Council, who was forced to resign as a councillor in 2021 following the financial collapse of the council. At the time, Reed barely remarked on the spectacular collapse of Croydon Council.

Reed’s parliamentary office has always had close ties with Croydon Labour’s council group.

Until 2025, Councillor Louis Carserides’ day job was working for Reed.

For a spell, Carserides was Labour’s chief whip at the Town Hall, so will have had all the inside info on the councillors in Reed’s Croydon North constituency. Carserides had started working as Reed’s constituency manager in 2018 – one reason, if not the reason, he got selected to stand for the council in South Norwood ward, in 2021.

Yet after less than six months in government, working as Reed’s SPAD at DEFRA, Carserides was off, to set up his own lobbying firm, calling it Cromwell Green. Despite such an august, parliamentary name, and the strong suggestion that its founder is a Westminster insider, the business is registered in SE25, rather than in SW1. Cromwell Green is yet to list any clients.

Reed appointed Harman as Carserides’ replacement, and in turn he followed his boss to MHCLG. Yet he didn’t last very long, either, quitting in February this year to make a move into… lobbying.

Although, like Carserides, Harman trades on his time working at Westminster and in Whitehall, the self-described “political adviser and communications professional” has not gone into the world of PR on his own, but instead works as a shill for Atticus Partners, “a London-based strategic communications, reputation management and government affairs consultancy”. Which is nice.

According to Harman’s online bio, he left his government job in March. PR Week reported his being recruited by Atticus in April. Yet as recently as June, Harman was still listed as part of Reed’s parliamentary staff.

There can be serious consequences for MPs who fail to make proper and true declarations on the parliamentary record. Ask Nigel Farage.

In Reed’s case, it all rather appears as if no one’s bothered to keep their “paperwork” up to date. The Streatham and Croydon North constituency website still shows the smiling faces, and phone numbers, of a selection of Labour councillors in Lambeth as well as Croydon who weren’t even selected to be candidates for the May 2026 local elections, as well as some who were selected but managed to lose their council seats.

It really ought not take almost four months to handle matters of such routine online admin.

That sort of neglect reeks of the person ultimately responsible – the MP, Reed – not being on top of local matters, or not being bothered. Did we mention that Reed is a tad self-regarding?

So hence, perhaps, the belated job ad.

The ad appeared on August 1. You have until August 24 to apply. Inside Croydon became aware of the recruitment drive when the Editor, Steven Downes, was forwarded the details with a single-word message: “Apply!”

It’s a permanent position, the ad on the parliamentary jobs website W4MP states. Reed’s “senior parliamentary assistant”, based in London, is to be paid “in line with IPSA payscales”, which probably means around £40,000.

Parliamentary aides are the people who do all the donkey work to make MPs look good. Caseworkers handle the tough stuff, sorting out often terrible issues for constituents, while others spend their days researching latest policy matters and drafting questions or statements for their boss.

The job description on Reed’s ad provides an idea of the kind of workload the successful applicant might expect to deal with:

Compilation of briefing packs for MPs, taking notes of meetings and drafting appropriate submissions

Develop and maintain current knowledge on relevant areas of parliamentary business, including Motions, legislation, Hansard, debates, etc. This would include issues of importance both nationally and in the constituency

Prepare and present briefing notes for committees, press releases, parliamentary questions, etc

Efficient data and file management to ensure the office complies with the data protection legislation

Engage confidentially and professionally, with care and integrity, with members of the public, through telephone enquiries, social media, email and face-to-face

Advise on policy issues

Help draft amendments for reports and prepare briefing material

Maintain positive on-going relationships with all parties, including members of the public, groups, suppliers, and Westminster where required

Monitor local, regional, and national media coverage and brief the MP on relevant issues

Horizon-scanning, anticipate what advice or action may be required; proactively identify problems and resolve them

Lead on project work as required

Take ownership of certain casework as required

It’s almost as if that would leave no work left for the MP to do…

And the ad says: “There may be a requirement for the role holder to work outside of normal working hours, including assisting with events with the MP as requested.”

But there’s no requirement to be a member of a trades union. You don’t even have to be a member of the Labour Party, just “⁠sympathetic” to Labour’s “aims and values”. Whatever that’s supposed to mean.

If that sounds like the role for you, and you really do think you can stomach working for Steve Reed, here’s the link with application details.

In other parliamentary news, Natasha Irons, first elected in 2024 as the Labour MP for the new constituency of Croydon East, has taken a step up at Westminster in the Burnham reshuffle.

The former Merton councillor is now a Parliamentary Private Secretary – among more than 60 PPSs appointed in the Burnham government.

PPSs are expected to act as the minister’s “eyes and ears” in the Commons, reporting backbench and party opinions, and being the minister’s go-between with MPs.

Irons, 43, was appointed bag-carrier-in-chief to Louise Haigh in the Cabinet Office. Haigh is Burnham’s de facto deputy, and is currently covering for the PM while he is on a family holiday.

Haigh has been characterised as a “Whitehall Enforcer”, expected to drive through Burnham’s agenda from the Cabinet Office.

That also includes overseeing the establishment of No10 North. So Haigh will need a PPS who really has their wits about them.

Oh, and as PPS, Irons will be taking on this extra work for no extra pay, so will just have to struggle along on her £98,599 MP’s salary, helped by her three parliamentary assistants, who include Croydon councillor Amy Foster.

Reed more: Reed is first Cabinet casualty under new PM Andy Burnham

Reed more: Steve Reed’s aide blocks members’ vote on Mandelson scandal

More Reed: Reed group fined for slow declaration of £800,000 donations

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