Jeff Smith (born 26 January 1963) is a British Labour Party politician serving as the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for

Manchester Withington Manchester Withington is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Jeff Smith of Labour. Of the 30 seats with the highest percentage of winning majority in 2017, the seat ranks 25th with a 55.7% ma ...

since

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

, and the Shadow Minister for Sport, Tourism, Heritage and Music since 4 December 2021. A former

Manchester City Council Manchester City Council is the local authority for Manchester, a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. Manchester is the sixth largest city in England by population. Its city council is composed of 96 councillors, three ...

lor, he served as a senior opposition whip in Parliament from 2015 to 2021, and Shadow Minister for Local Government from May to 4 December 2021.

Early life and career

Smith was a pupil at the private

Manchester Grammar School The Manchester Grammar School (MGS) in Manchester, England, is the largest independent school (UK), independent day school for boys in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1515 as a Grammar school#free tuition, free grammar school next to Manchester C ...

, and graduated from the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

with a degree in Politics and Economics in 1984. He was a member of the

University of Manchester Students' Union The University of Manchester Students' Union is the representative body of students at the University of Manchester, England, and is the UK's largest students' union. It was formed out of the merger between UMIST Students' Association (USA) and ...

Executive from 1984 to 1985 as the Entertainments Officer. A former councillor for Old Moat ward on

from 1997, he served as the Executive Member for Finance on the council and was a governor at

Parrs Wood High School Parrs Wood High School is a coeducational secondary school in East Didsbury, Manchester, England, located off Wilmslow Road behind Parrs Wood Entertainment Complex. It educates pupils from the age of 11 to 18 years. A-Levels are taught at the Pa ...

Parliamentary career

Smith was selected as the Labour Party candidate for the

constituency in June 2013, ahead of

Angela Rayner Angela Rayner (' Bowen; born 28 March 1980) is a British politician serving as Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office and Shadow Secretary of State for the Future of Work since 2021. She has been Shad ...

and fellow Manchester councillor Andrew Simcock. At the general election in May 2015, Smith was elected, defeating the incumbent MP,

Liberal Democrat Several political party, political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties usually follow a liberal democracy, liberal democratic ideology. Active parties Former parties ...

John Leech, with a majority of 14,873. Smith served as a senior Opposition whip from 2015 to 2021. He supported

Owen Smith Owen Smith (born 2 May 1970) is a former Labour Party politician and subsequently a British lobbyist, who has been the UK government relations director for pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb since 2020. Smith was Member of Parliamen ...

in the 2016 Labour Party leadership election. In July 2015, Jeff Smith voted to prevent the government's Welfare Bill going through on the second reading, and voted against it at the third reading. Smith campaigned to remain in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

. In January 2017, he voted against triggering

Article 50 Withdrawal from the European Union is the legal and political process whereby an EU member state ceases to be a member of the Union. Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union ( TEU) states that "Any Member State may decide to withdraw from t ...

. On 14 March 2019, Smith voted to reject the then prime minister

Theresa May Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cab ...

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or ...

deal and a

no-deal Brexit A no-deal Brexit (also called clean break BrexitBBC. (2019)''Brexit: Jargon-busting guide to the key terms'' (BBC) Retrieved 29 March 2019.) was the potential withdrawal of the UK from the European Union (EU) without a withdrawal ...

. Smith was re-elected at the 2017 snap general election, securing 71.7% of the vote and more than doubling his majority over John Leech, re-contesting the seat, to 29,875 (55.8%). Smith is Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Mental Health, and sits on the advisory board of th
Money and Mental Health Policy Institute
He is Vice Chair of the

All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group All-Party Groups (APGs) within United Kingdom politics are informal, cross-party, interest groups of the UK Parliament. APGs have at least 20 members who are all Members of the House of Commons and House of Lords. The All-Party Parliamentary H ...

. Smith co-founded the Labour Campaign for Drug Policy Reform with

Thangam Debbonaire Thangam Elizabeth Rachel Debbonaire (' Singh; born 3 August 1966) is a British Labour Party politician, serving as Shadow Leader of the House of Commons since May 2021. She was previously the Shadow Secretary of State for Housing from 2020 t ...

, and is Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Drug Policy Reform. On 20 April 2020, Smith appeared in a virtual online 4/20 event hosted by Voltfacehub, where he spoke in favour of the decriminalisation and regulation of the drug

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: ''Cannabis sativa'', '' C. indica'', and '' C. ruderalis''. Alternatively ...

. Smith was appointed as the Shadow Minister for Local Government in the May 2021 Labour reshuffle, filling the position made vacant following

Kate Hollern Catherine Malloy Hollern (born 12 April 1955) is a British Labour Party politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Blackburn since 2015. A member of the opposition front bench under the leadership of both Jeremy Corbyn and Keir Starmer ...

's resignation. Smith was appointed Shadow Minister for Sport, Tourism, Heritage and Music on 4 December in the Shadow Culture department.

Personal life

Smith's mother was born in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

. His grandfather, Jack McDermott, was an Irish trade unionist who brought his family to Manchester when he was elected general secretary of the

Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers The Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers (ASW) was a British trade union representing carpenters, joiners and allied trades. The ASW was formed in 1921 by the amalgamation of two smaller unions. It was itself merged into the Union of Constructio ...

. Smith's Jewish great-grandmother, Rosa Simonson, came to Manchester in the 1880s to escape antisemitic persecution in what is now Poland. Before being elected, Smith was an event manager and DJ, and has performed regularly at V Festival and club nights Poptastic in Manchester and Star in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Jeff 1963 births Living people People educated at Manchester Grammar School Alumni of the University of Manchester Councillors in Manchester Labour Party (UK) councillors Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies English people of Jewish descent UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 UK MPs 2019–present British drug policy reform activists English atheists English humanists