Norwich MP Chloe Smith has revealed she snubbed her old adversary Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman who was seeking an interview after she stepped down from her ministerial post.

Ms Smith - whose notorious humiliation at the hands of the BBC presenter hit headlines while she was a junior Treasury minister - said she had not returned a call from the late night news programme offering her a 'sensible' interview with its anchor.

In a blog on the politics publication The Spectator's website she admitted that life as a minister had not all been easy.

But she said: 'I couldn't help but laugh this week when Newsnight rang offering me a 'sensible' interview with Jeremy Paxman about my next move. I didn't return the call.'

Ms Smith wrote to the prime minister last month to tell him she was going to stand down when he reshuffled government posts so that she could concentrate on her constituency.

She praised her predecessor Ian Gibson - who stood down in 2009 forcing a by-election - which she won, saying: I'm neither the first nor the last MP to enjoy my constituency work deeply. Indeed, my predecessor in my own seat was well-regarded for being often obstinate in Westminster and a great constituency MP at home.'

She added: 'I was recently walking through a Norwich park at dusk and passed some teenagers hanging around. One called out after me and you don't usually expect the best in that situation. But he surprised me with: 'By the way, you're doing a really great job for the city.' Now that's ambition: to demonstrate one by one that politics still works, and that young people can be at the heart of it. That's exactly the work I want to do more of.'