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Chris Bryant Biography & Facts

Sir Christopher John Bryant (born 11 January 1962) is a British politician and former Anglican priest who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Rhondda since 2001. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Shadow Minister for Creative Industries and Digital since 2023. Born in Cardiff, Bryant was privately educated at Cheltenham College before studying English at Mansfield College, Oxford. After graduating with a further degree in theology, he worked as a Church of England priest, as well as having roles at the BBC and Common Purpose. He was elected for Rhondda at the 2001 general election. He previously served in government as Deputy Leader of the House of Commons from 2008 to 2009 and Under-Secretary of State for Europe and Asia from 2009 to 2010. Bryant served in the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Culture Secretary in 2015 and Shadow Leader of the House of Commons from 2015 to 2016, before resigning in protest at Jeremy Corbyn's leadership. Early life Chris Bryant was born in Cardiff, Wales, to a Scottish mother and a Welsh father. Bryant grew up in Cardiff (where his father worked for five years), Spain for five years in the 1960s (leading to him speaking fluent Spanish), and Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. He was educated at Cheltenham College, an independent school for boys, and at Mansfield College, Oxford, where he read English. Although initially a member of the Conservative Party, and an elected office-holder in the Oxford University Conservative Association, he joined the Labour Party in 1986 after leaving Oxford. After completing his first degree, Bryant began his training to be a priest in the Church of England at Ripon College Cuddesdon in Oxfordshire. There, he obtained a further degree in theology. He was ordained deacon in 1986 and priest in 1987. He served as a curate at the Church of All Saints, High Wycombe from 1986 to 1989 and then as a Youth Chaplain in Peterborough, as well as travelling in Latin America. In 1991, Bryant left the ordained ministry, after deciding that being gay and being a priest were incompatible. Statements made by Richard Harries, the then-Bishop of Oxford also influenced his decision. Early political career After leaving the priesthood in 1991, Bryant made a career move and began work as the election agent to the Holborn and St Pancras Constituency Labour Party, where he helped Frank Dobson hold his seat in the 1992 general election. From 1993, he was Local Government Officer for the Labour Party; he lived in Hackney and was elected to Hackney Borough Council in 1993, representing Leabridge ward and serving until 1998. He became Chairman of the Christian Socialist Movement. From 1994 to 1996, he was London manager of the charity Common Purpose. In 1996, Bryant became a full-time author, writing biographies of Stafford Cripps and Glenda Jackson. At the 1997 general election, Bryant was the Labour candidate for Wycombe, winning 35.4% of the vote and coming second behind the incumbent Conservative MP Ray Whitney. From 1998 until his election to Parliament in 2001, Bryant was the Head of European Affairs for the BBC. Parliamentary career Bryant's selection for the very safe Labour seat of Rhondda in South Wales in 2000 surprised many people given his background – gay, a former Anglican cleric, and someone who had been a Conservative as a student. He says of his surprise selection, "I fell off the chair, and my opponents certainly did". Fifty-two people applied for the candidature and a local councillor was the favourite to win. Bryant was elected as MP for Rhondda at the 2001 general election with a majority of 16,047 and 68.3% of the vote. In 2003, Bryant voted for participation in the Iraq war. He is a member of the Labour Friends of Israel and Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East group. From 2004 until 2007, Bryant was chairman of the Labour Movement for Europe. Bryant is a signatory of the Henry Jackson Society principles. At the 2005 general election, Bryant was re-elected with a decreased vote share of 68.1% but an increased majority of 16,242. On 5 September 2006, with Siôn Simon, he coordinated a prominent letter which was signed by 15 Labour backbenchers calling for Tony Blair's immediate resignation. Bryant was the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs Charlie Falconer. In Gordon Brown's autumn 2008 reshuffle, Bryant was promoted from his role as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Harriet Harman to the ministerial position of Deputy Leader of the House of Commons otherwise known as Parliamentary Secretary to the House of Commons. This was followed by another move in the June 2009 reshuffle, when he moved to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. On 13 October 2009, he was also appointed Minister for Europe. Phone hacking scandal On 11 March 2003, as part of an inquiry into Privacy and Press Intrusion by the Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport, he asked Rebekah Wade (now Brooks) whether she had ever paid police officers for information. Seated beside Andy Coulson, the editor of the News of the World, she said 'yes'. Bryant had his phone hacked later that year by the News of the World, a fact which became known to the Metropolitan Police when they seized material from the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire. Bryant, along with John Prescott and Brian Paddick, sought judicial review of the Metropolitan Police in an attempt to force them to contact all the victims of phone hacking by the News of the World. The Metropolitan Police accepted their liability and he won damages of £30,000 from News International in 2012. Bryant called for and led the parliamentary debates on referring the phone hacking scandal to the Standards and Privileges Committee on 9 September 2010, and the Emergency Debate on whether there should be a judge led enquiry on 6 July 2011 which led to the setting up of the Leveson Inquiry. Expenses scandal Bryant claimed over £92,000 in expenses over the five years leading up to the 2009 scandal over MPs' expenses. During that time he flipped his second-home expenses twice. He claimed mortgage interest expenses that started at £7,800 per year before rising (after flipping) to £12,000 per year. He also claimed £6,400 in stamp duty and other fees on his most recent purchase, and £6,000 per year in service charges. In opposition At the 2010 general election, Bryant was again re-elected, with a decreased vote share of 55.3% and a decreased majority of 11,553. In October 2010, Bryant stood as one of 49 candidates for election to the 19 places in the Shadow Cabinet in the internal Labour Party poll, receiving 77 votes, 29th position on the list. In October 2010, Bryant described the coalition government's housing benefit reforms as poorer people "being socially engineered and sociologically cleansed out of London". The use of the term "cleansing" was criticised by.... Discover the Chris Bryant popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Chris Bryant books.