Chris Smith, Baron Smith of Finsbury

Chris Smith, Baron Smith of Finsbury

Chris Smith, Baron Smith of Finsbury PC (* 24. July 1951 in Barnet , England ) is a British politician of the Labor Party and former MP in the British Parliament and former member of the British Cabinet.

Smith was born in Barnet. After attending George Watson's College in Edinburgh , he studied English at Pembroke College in Cambridge . He was President of the Cambridge Union Society . After finishing his studies he became active in politics, won the general election in 1983 and moved into parliament as a member of parliament for Islington South & Finsbury . In 1984 Smith had his public coming out as a MP.

Smith became Whip in the House of Commons from 1986 and was Labor Party's shadow minister for finance from 1987 to 1992. In 1997 he was appointed Minister for Culture, Media and Sport to Tony Blair's cabinet . After the general election in 2001 , he was replaced as minister by intra-party competitor Tessa Jowell and remained as a simple member of the lower house. After the 2005 election , Smith left the House of Commons. On June 22, 2005, he was appointed Life Peer as Baron Smith of Finsbury , of Finsbury in the London Borough of Islington .

After the end of his political career, he became director of the Clore Leadership Program in the cultural sector. He is on the Board of Directors of the Royal National Theater and Chairman of the Wordsworth Trust . In November 2006 he was elected chairman of the Advertising Standards Authority (until 2009).

In November 2010, his home district of Islington awarded him the Freedom of the Borough , the highest honor the district can bestow.

In his spare time, Smith is an avid mountain climber. On May 27, 1989, he was the first member of the British Parliament to successfully complete the ascent of all then 283 Scottish Munros .

Footnotes

1. ↑ Denis Campbell: The pioneer who changed gay lives , The Observer at guardian.co.uk, January 30, 2005
2. ↑ Editor: Britain's first out gay MP Chris Smith honored , pinknews.co.uk, November 18, 2010
3. ↑ Message on the pages ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of the Scottish Mountaineering Club, accessed October 19, 2014