Karin Marguerite Smyth (born 8 September 1964) is a British Labour Party politician. She was elected 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

Bristol South Bristol South is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Karin Smyth of the Labour Party. Constituency profile Bristol South is a traditional white working class seat. Residents' wealth is around a ...

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 ...

Early life and career

Born in London, her parents had emigrated from Ireland to England in the 1950s. Smyth was educated at

Bishopshalt School Bishopshalt School is a secondary school and sixth form with academy status based in the London Borough of Hillingdon. It has specialisations in music and the performing arts. Between 2013 and 2014, the school was used for scenes in the BBC s ...

Uxbridge College Uxbridge College is a large general further education college in the London Borough of Hillingdon. Since 2017 the college has been merged with Harrow College, although it retains its individual identity. It has two campuses, in Uxbridge and in Hay ...

, the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...

(BA, 1988) where she was President of the Union of UEA Students, and the

University of Bath (Virgil, Georgics II) , mottoeng = Learn the culture proper to each after its kind , established = 1886 (Merchant Venturers Technical College) 1960 (Bristol College of Science and Technology) 1966 (Bath University of Technology) 1971 (univ ...

(MBA, 1995). Smyth worked as an office manager for Bristol West MP

Valerie Davey Valerie Davey (born Valerie Corbett; 16 April 1940) is a former Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Bristol West in England. Early life Born in Surrey, Davey studied theology and history at the University of Birmingham and gained a PGCE at t ...

from 1997. Smyth worked as an

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

manager at Bristol

Clinical Commissioning Group Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) were NHS organisations set up by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to organise the delivery of NHS services in each of their local areas in England. On 1 July 2022 they were abolished and replaced by Integra ...

. She was a

non-executive director A non-executive director (abbreviated to non-exec, NED or NXD), independent director or external director is a member of the board of directors of a corporation, such as a company, cooperative or non-government organization, but not a member of the ...

of Bristol North PCT from 2002 to 2006.

Parliamentary career

After becoming an MP at the 2015 general election, Smyth became a member of the Public Accounts Committee in July 2015. On 27 June 2016, she gave support to a series of shadow cabinet resignations aimed at ousting the Labour Leader, Jeremy Corbyn MP, in an open letter to constituents. She 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 leadership election. From October 2016 to July 2017, Smyth was

Parliamentary Private Secretary A Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) is a Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom who acts as an unpaid assistant to a minister or shadow minister. They are selected from backbench MPs as the 'eyes and ears' of the minister in the H ...

Keir Starmer Sir Keir Rodney Starmer (; born 2 September 1962) is a British politician and barrister who has served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St Pancras ...

Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union In British politics, the Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, or informally Shadow Brexit Secretary, was a position within the opposition's shadow cabinet that dealt with issues surrounding the UK withdrawal from the EU. ...

. From July 2017 to December 2018, she served as Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Commons and on 30 July 2018 was appointed as a Shadow Minister in Labour's Northern Ireland team. She attacked the wave of

NHS trust An NHS trust is an organisational unit within the National Health Services of England and Wales, generally serving either a geographical area or a specialised function (such as an ambulance service). In any particular location there may be several ...

s establishing wholly owned companies in 2018, saying that this led to further fragmentation of the NHS and was done purely for tax advantages. On 28 June 2017, Matthew Niblett was jailed for 14 weeks for threatening to kill Smyth over what he felt was her failure to investigate his case. Karin Smyth is a Co-Chair of the

All-Party Parliamentary Group for Choice at the End of Life The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Choice at the End of Life is a cross-party group of members of the British Parliament and Peers that supports better end-of-life options, including assisted dying. They believe that, subject to legal safeguar ...

References

External links

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All-Party Parliamentary Group for Choice at the End of Life
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smyth, Karin 1964 births Living people Alumni of the University of Bath Alumni of the University of East Anglia Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Politics of Bristol Labour Friends of Israel UK MPs 2015–2017 English people of Irish descent 21st-century British women politicians Members of Parliament for Bristol UK MPs 2017–2019 UK MPs 2019–present 21st-century English women 21st-century English people