Chris Smith, Baron Smith of Finsbury

The Right Honourable The Lord Smith of Finsbury PC
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
In office 2 May 1997 – 8 June 2001
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Virginia Bottomley (National Heritage)
Succeeded by	Tessa Jowell
Shadow Secretary of State for Health
In office 1 July 1996 – 2 May 1997
Leader	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Harriet Harman
Succeeded by	Stephen Dorrell
Shadow Secretary of State for Social Security
In office 19 October 1995 – 1 July 1996
Leader	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Donald Dewar
Succeeded by	Harriet Harman
Shadow Secretary of State for National Heritage
In office 20 October 1994 – 19 October 1995
Leader	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Mo Mowlam
Succeeded by	Jack Cunningham
Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment
In office 18 July 1992 – 20 October 1994
Leader	John Smith Margaret Beckett (Acting)
Preceded by	Bryan Gould
Succeeded by	Frank Dobson
Member of Parliament for Islington South and Finsbury
In office 10 June 1983 – 11 April 2005
Preceded by	George Cunningham
Succeeded by	Emily Thornberry
Personal details
Born	(1951-07-24) 24 July 1951 (age 65) Barnet, United Kingdom
Political party	Labour (Before 2005) Independent (2005–present)
Alma mater	Pembroke College, Cambridge Harvard University

Christopher Robert Smith, Baron Smith of Finsbury, PC (born 24 July 1951) is a British politician and a peer; a former Member of Parliament (MP) and Cabinet Minister; and former chairman of the Environment Agency. Although he is currently not aligned to any party, for the majority of his career he was a Labour Party member. He was one of the first openly gay British MPs, coming out in 1984, and in 2005, the first MP to acknowledge that he is HIV positive.

Chris Smith was born in Barnet, London, and educated at George Watson's College in Edinburgh and Pembroke College, Cambridge. At the latter he gained a first class honours degree in English, and a PhD with a thesis on Coleridge and Wordsworth. He attended Harvard University as a Kennedy Scholar, and was president of the Cambridge Union Society.

He worked for a housing charity and became a councillor in the London Borough of Islington. He came third at Epsom and Ewell in 1979 general election before narrowly winning the seat of Islington South & Finsbury at the 1983 general election, defeating George Cunningham, who had ultimately defected to the Social Democrats from Labour. Cunningham stood again at the 1987 General election when Smith retained the seat.

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