Born in 1960 into a family of miners and steel workers, Smith grew up in Tredegar and was educated at its comprehensive school. As a young man Nick was a member of the Tredegar Workman's Hall Snooker Club. Now he co-chairs the parliamentary group in support of the sport.[2] Nick went on to study at Birkbeck College, University of London, where he graduated with an MSc in Economic Change.[3][4]
Smith was selected as Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate for Blaenau Gwent in 2007 and was elected as its Member of Parliament on 6 May 2010, defeating the incumbent IndependentDai Davies.[9] Davies criticised Smith's record in Camden, calling him a product of "BlairiteNew Labour", while Smith had responded by calling this "personal mud-slinging" and "playing the man and not the ball".[10]
In one of the strongest showings for Labour in Wales, Nick Smith won by more than 10,000 votes on a 61.94 per cent turnout.[11] Voter turnout was up by 19.6 per cent from the previous election in 2006.[12]
The 20.1 percentage point increase in the Labour share of the vote was higher than in any other seat in Britain. The swing from Independent to Labour was 29.2 per cent, the largest in the UK.
On his election success, Smith commented "The local population and the Blaenau Gwent Labour Party have shared values, and that's come through in this result tonight."[13] He also said he had promised Michael Foot he would return Blaenau Gwent to Labour.[14]
In the 2015 general election Smith increased his majority to 58% of the share of the vote, gaining 18,380 votes (+5.6%). Blaenau Gwent now has the highest Labour share of the vote in Wales. The July 2017 general election produced almost a replica of the result two years earlier, with Smith taking 58% of the vote and winning 18,787 votes. Speaking after the announcement, Smith said: "Today the voters of Blaenau Gwent shared my belief that our best hope to get our country moving again is a Labour government. Blaenau Gwent needs more jobs, improved transport, proper funding for our frontline services and only a Labour government in Westminster can do that."[15]
Nick Smith campaigned against leaving the European Union.[16] This was contrary to the desires of his constituency, Blaenau Gwent, who voted to leave and were labelled "Wales' most pro-Brexit town".[17]
In the December 2019 general election Smith won the seat once more, with 14,862 votes (49.18% of those cast), ahead of Richard Taylor (of the Brexit Party) who took 6,215 votes, Laura Jones (Conservative) on 5,749 and Peredur Owen Griffiths (Plaid Cymru) on 1,722.[18] Smith said he was delighted to be elected for his third term but acknowledged that it had been a difficult night for the Labour party as a whole. He said: "I'm extremely grateful to be voted in by the people of Blaenau Gwent, but I'm sad that we're going to have to put up with a Tory rampant administration for the next five years. "I'm going to work very hard here now to make sure to keep up my good community links and make sure we build the party to come back stronger."[19] Smith was an early supporter of Keir Starmer in his Labour leadership bid in 2020.[20]
Member of Parliament
Blaenau Gwent is a seat with a strong Labour heritage. Aneurin Bevan, the post-war Health Minister responsible for creating the National Health Service, and Michael Foot, a former leader of the Labour Party, both held the seat in the second half of the twentieth century. Smith's campaign formed the subject of a Progress pamphlet entitled "Organising to Win" which highlighted the successful tactics he had used to win back the seat for Labour.[21]
Smith made his maiden speech in Parliament on 8 June 2010. He praised the cultural and political heritage of the constituency, and promised to campaign strongly on improving public health, the prospects for young people, and economic growth.[22] As a backbench member, he has led the call for the Government to respond to the collapse of care home provider Southern Cross, bringing the Minister of Health responsible for care services, Paul Burstow, to answer questions before the House, and raising the issue with David Cameron at Prime Minister's Questions.[23]
In 2013, he continued his care home campaigning after the collapse of Operation Jasmine, an £11m seven-year investigation into neglect and abuse in care homes in South Wales.[24] He backed the "Justice for Jasmine" campaign and calls for both a review into the case. He also called for the Care Bill going through parliament to include an amendment that would allow care home owners to be prosecuted for instances of neglect under their care.[25] The Welsh Government announced an Independent Review into the case in December 2013.[26] The Criminal Justice and Courts Bill in 2014 was amended to include laws so staff, managers and directors could face jail sentences for abuse and wilful neglect in their care – with the companies being fined and publicly named for their role in any abuse.[27]
On entering Parliament, Smith was elected to the influential Public Accounts Committee, responsible for monitoring value for money in public spending. He has highlighted a number of instances of the Ministry of Defence wasting tax payer's money, including changes to the requirements of the two Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers that added billions of pounds to the cost of the contracts.[28] Since his election, he has highlighted the "pathetic" tax contributions of the likes of Amazon, who paid £2.4m in UK tax in 2012 despite £4.3bn in sales.[29]
He gained early promotion when Douglas Alexander, Shadow Foreign Secretary, appointed him as his Parliamentary Private Secretary and a junior member of Labour's Foreign Affairs team. In September 2015, Smith was promoted to the Shadow DEFRA team as the Minister for Food, Farming and Rural Affairs. He resigned on 29 June 2016, saying that Jeremy Corbyn did not have the leadership skills needed.[30] After the election Smith was appointed as an Opposition Whip.[31] Smith was the Labour Whip and Teller, reading the result to Parliament when Prime Minister May's Brexit deal fell to a record breaking defeat.[32]
Smith's campaigns have included criticising the interest rates that poor families are charged by the rent-to-own sector for buying household appliances. The Financial Conduct Authority announced in May 2018 that it was considering a cap on the sector, a move Smith called "a big step forward".[33]
Since 2017, Smith has championed local steelworkers affected by the British Steel Pension Scheme scandal, including many across South Wales.[34] In 2022, he led the Public Accounts Committee's investigation into the scandal, which found that the Financial Conduct Authority had failed to protect British Steel pension scheme members causing “serious financial harm”, which Smith added showed "how badly they were treated, and where the FCA failed to support them in their hour of need.".[35]
He served on the Progress Strategy Board from 2012 to 2014.[36] He is a current member of the Tribune Group.[37]
Smith ran his first London Marathon in 2018 for Hospice of the Valleys, a Blaenau Gwent charity who provide palliative care. He has since campaigned on more support for initiatives such as Parkrun and efforts to tackle childhood obesity such as a ban on junk food advertising before 9pm.[38] Smith chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group on Parkrun and has promoted physical activity for improved public health and to help address obesity.[39]
Smith is a keen hiker, and is the President of his borough's Red Ramblers organisation. He is also President of Ebbw Valley Brass.[41] Nick is a member of the Parc Bryn Bach Running Club in Tredegar [42] and chairs the parliamentary group in support of Parkrun.[43]
Blaenau Gwent is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. It borders the unitary authority areas of Monmouthshire and Torfaen to the east, Caerphilly to the west and Powys to the north. Its main towns are Abertillery, Brynmawr, Ebbw Vale and Tredegar. Its highest point is Coity Mountain at 1,896 feet (578 m).
Paul Peter Murphy, Baron Murphy of Torfaen, is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Torfaen from 1987 to 2015, and served in the Cabinet from 1999 to 2005 and again from 2008 to 2009 in the roles of Northern Irish and Welsh Secretary. He was nominated for a life peerage in the 2015 Dissolution Honours.
Llewellyn Thomas Smith was a British Labour Party politician.
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Nicholas Edward Coleridge Boles is a British politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Grantham and Stamford from 2010 to 2019. He was a member of the Conservative Party until 2019.
Blaenau Gwent is a constituency in South Wales, represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Nick Smith of the Labour Party.
Islwyn is a constituency in Wales represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The area, historically known for coal-mining, has voted for Labour Party candidates since it was created effective at the 1983 general election. Islwyn's first Member of Parliament (MP) was Neil Kinnock, who represented it until he resigned from Parliament in 1995. Kinnock also served as Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1983 until 1992. The constituency's current MP is Chris Evans, first elected at the 2010 general election.
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Peter John Law was a Welsh politician. For most of his career Law sat as a Labour councillor and subsequently Labour Co-operative Assembly member (AM) for Blaenau Gwent. Latterly he sat as an independent member of Parliament (MP) and AM for the same constituency.
Jessica Elizabeth Morden is a British politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Newport East since 2005. A member of the Labour Party, she was General Secretary of Welsh Labour from 1999 until her election to Parliament.
Two by-elections were held for the constituency of Blaenau Gwent in Wales following the death of Member of Parliament and Assembly Member Peter Law on 25 April 2006. As Law was the MP and Assembly Member (AM), his death required by-elections in both the parliamentary seat and the equivalent Welsh Assembly constituency. The two elections polled on the same day, 29 June, as a by-election in Bromley and Chislehurst. A win by the Labour Party in the AM by-election would have restored their majority in the Welsh Assembly, which was lost when Law was expelled from the party.
The Blaenau Gwent People's Voice Group was a political party based in the Blaenau Gwent area of Wales.
David Clifford Davies, commonly known as Dai Davies, is a Welsh politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Blaenau Gwent constituency in South Wales from 2006 to 2010, representing the Blaenau Gwent People's Voice Group. He was elected at a by-election in June 2006 following the death of independent MP Peter Law, but lost his seat at the 2010 general election to Labour's Nick Smith by 10,516 votes.
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Guto ap Owain Bebb is a Welsh politician and former business consultant who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Aberconwy from 2010 to 2019, having previously lost elections to the Welsh Assembly and the House of Commons. He served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Wales Office in 2016–2018 and as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence Procurement at the Ministry of Defence from January 2018 until he resigned in July 2018. First elected as a Conservative, Bebb had the Conservative whip removed on 3 September 2019 and served his remaining months as an independent.
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