Chris Smith to bow out of Westminster politics
Former cabinet minister Chris Smith is to bid farewell to life as an MP at the next election after a 20-year stint at the post.
His announcement will no doubt irk the Prime Minister who is having a difficult time pacifying increasingly disgruntled backbench MPs. Mr. Smith is likely to voice his opinions more now his decision to leave Westminster has been made.
The PM, recently faced with rebellions over Iraq and foundation hospitals, now approaches a defining moment in his premiership, namely the massive test on the single currency.
Following Clare Short’s resignation earlier this week, the PM will have to tread carefully as she and Mr. Smith will join Robin Cook and Frank Dobson on the backbenches.
These four political heavyweights may well upset the smooth running of Downing Street’s spin machine.
The former secretary of state for culture, media and sport, in the wake of the Iraq War, has been a vocal critic of the Government’s seemingly obsequious acquiescence before US foreign policy.
He now thinks it is time for a change, though he says the Iraq War was not the spur for the decision.
He told The Times Newspaper: ‘I would stress very strongly that there is absolutely no political animus to be read into this. I disagreed passionately with the decision to go to war with Iraq and I retain quite a lot of criticism of the way the reconstruction is being approached. But that is a specific issue and it does not betray a general problem with the Government as a whole.’
He will take up the post of director of a new project – the Clore Cultural Leadership Programme – which aims to find people able to give direction to the UK’s arts sector, or in the words of the CCLP’s director, Dame Vivien Duffield, the programme will create ‘arts leaders of tomorrow.’
Commenting on his planned change of job, he said: ‘There are many things I will miss about the House of Commons but I have done a good stint here and I thought that facing a new challenge is the right choice at this time of my life.
‘It is now time to turn over the page.’
Mr. Smith has been MP for Islington South and Finsbury since 1983.
Mr. Smith was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge where he took a double first in English.
He was also a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard and completed a PhD in Cambridge in 1979 on Wordsworth and Coleridge.
