Karin Marguerite Smyth (born 8 September 1964) is a British Labour Party politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bristol South since 2015. She has served as a Minister of State for Secondary Care since July 2024.

Early life and career

Karin Marguerite Smyth was born on 8 September 1964 in London. Her parents had emigrated from Ireland to England in the 1950s. Smyth has three children. 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 si ...

, Uxbridge College, the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a Public university, public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus university, campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and twenty-six schools of ...

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

University of Bath The University of Bath is a public research university in Bath, England. Bath received its royal charter in 1966 as Bath University of Technology, along with a number of other institutions following the Robbins Report. Like the University ...

(MBA, 1995). Smyth worked as an office manager for Bristol West MP Valerie Davey from 1997. Smyth worked as an

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

manager at Bristol

Clinical Commissioning Group Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) were National Health Service (England), National Health Service (NHS) organisations set up by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to replace Strategic health authority, strategic health authorities and NHS pr ...

. She was a non-executive director 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 A public accounts committee (PAC) is a committee within a legislature whose role is to study public audits, invite ministers, permanent secretaries or other ministry officials to the committee for questioning, and report on their findings subseque ...

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 British lobbyist and former Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician. Smith was Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Pontypridd (UK Parliament constituency), Pontypridd from 2 ...

in the 2016 Labour leadership election. From October 2016 to July 2017, Smyth was Parliamentary Private Secretary to

Keir Starmer Sir Keir Rodney Starmer (born 2 September 1962) is a British politician and lawyer who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 2024 and as Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He previously ...

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's withdrawal from the E ...

. 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. In the September 2023 British shadow cabinet reshuffle, she was appointed Shadow Minister for Health. She was appointed as Minister of State at the Department of Health and Social Care following the election of a Labour Government in July 2024. Appearing on BBC Breakfast in April 2025 she said Tories should ‘apologise’ for pro-trans stance under Theresa May.

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 English people of Irish descent 21st-century British women politicians Members of Parliament for Bristol UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 UK MPs 2019–2024 UK MPs 2024–present 21st-century English women 21st-century English politicians