Henry Smith (British politician)
Henry Edward Millar Smith is an English Conservative Party politician. He was Leader of West Sussex County Council from 2003 to 2010. He is the Member of Parliament for Crawley, having been first elected in the 2010 general election.
Education
Smith was born on 14 May 1969 in Epsom, Surrey. He was privately educated at Chinthurst School, Tadworth, Surrey – at the time a boys' preparatory school – then at Frensham Heights School, a co-educational independent school in Farnham in Surrey, followed by University College London, where he obtained a B.A. in Philosophy.Early career
Smith stood unsuccessfully as the Conservative candidate in the Pound Hill South ward of Crawley Borough Council in 1996. However, he was elected in 2002 as a Conservative Councillor for Pound Hill North Ward. He served until the next election in May 2006, when he did not stand again. Smith stood as the Conservative Party candidate for Furnace Green ward on West Sussex County Council and was elected in 1997, before being re-elected in the same ward in 2001 and then elected in Pound Hill Worth & Maidenbower ward in 2005 and 2009. He became Leader of the Council in 2003 at the age of 34, becoming the youngest county council leader in the country. At the time he also worked for a property investment business based in Crawley in West Sussex.Smith was the Chairman of the South East Counties Leaders Group from 2007 to 2010, and has previously served as a Governor at The Oaks, The Brook, and Oriel High schools in Crawley. He co-wrote the 2005 publication Direct Democracy.
Parliamentary career
Smith stood unsuccessfully as the Conservative candidate for Crawley at the General Election in 2001 and 2005. He stood against the incumbent MP Laura Moffatt, the second time achieving the highest national swing from Labour to the Conservatives, reducing the majority to 37, the smallest in the country. He was subsequently elected to Parliament at the 2010 general election. Following his election as Crawley MP he resigned as a West Sussex County Councillor on 1 September 2010. He was then subsequently re-elected at the 2015 general election, 2017 general election and 2019 general election.Smith is a Eurosceptic who supported backbench calls for an early referendum on exiting the EU. He repeatedly denied rumours linking him to a possible defection to UKIP in 2014, insisting he supported the Conservatives' other policies and felt they were the best option for a referendum on the EU.
Smith said that getting a new hospital in the Pease Pottage area remained his "top issue" and was something he had raised in Parliament after constituents had criticised a lack of progress on the issue.
Gatwick Airport lies within his constituency and he has frequently spoken in favour of improved rail links to the airport and the reduction or abolition of Air Passenger Duty. On the airport's 2018 plans to expand and use its emergency runway for departure flights, Smith has said: "Crawley’s prosperity depends on the success of Gatwick Airport and the publication of this new draft master plan goes a long way to securing future growth in the town. I have always supported the airport growing within its existing boundaries." Despite this, he voted against the expansion of Gatwick in favour of Heathrow.
His parliamentary candidacy at the 2015 general election was personally endorsed by Queen guitarist Brian May on the grounds of his animal welfare record. May had worked with him in opposing the government's badger culling. In parliament, Smith has also spoken against the export of live animals, the import of foie gras, the ivory trade, fur clothing and animals in circuses. He has spoken in favour of CCTV in slaughterhouses, the reduction of the use of animals in scientific experiments and for increased criminal penalties for animal cruelty.
Smith has frequently spoken up for the rights of the expelled Chagos Islanders, many of whom live in his constituency. In January 2018 he introduced the private members' British Indian Ocean Territory Bill to enable the islanders and their descendants to claim British Overseas Territory citizenship.
In the House of Commons he sits on the International Development Committee and Committees on Arms Export Controls, the International Development Sub-Committee on the Work of the Independent Commission for Aid Impact and the International Development Committee. He previously sat on the European Scrutiny Committee. Smith is a member of the Animal Welfare, Blood Cancer, Heart Disease All-Party Parliamentary Groups as well as sixteen other APPGs.
On 6 September 2013, while the St. Petersburg G20 Summit was ongoing, Smith referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin as a "tosser" on Twitter, following reports of an unnamed Russian official having described Britain as "small and unimportant." Smith subsequently said he stood by his comments, arguing that although it was "difficult to get a serious point across in 140 characters" the serious point was that Putin was an "absurd character who is responsible for some serious breaches of human rights".
In 2018, Smith hosted the launch of PAWS - The Policty for Animal Welfare. Created by Cher Chevalier and Judith Clegg the policy provides further suggested steps to improve and fully enforce Animal Welfare Law.
Having previously criticised the government's conduct of the Brexit negotiations, he submitted a letter of no confidence in the Conservative Party leader Theresa May on the day after publication of the draft withdrawal agreement between the UK and the EU.
In October 2019, Smith alleged that he had been targeted with threats and stalking, including threats against his children. Smith claimed that in one incident, his children's school was publicised on anarchist and left-wing websites.
In May 2020, Smith was criticised after he described MPs who objected to the end of the virtual parliament system during the COVID-19 pandemic as “lazy” and "work-shy socialists”.
In June 2020, Smith was criticised for claiming that Jewish economist and philosopher Karl Marx was antisemitic, and for calling for his grave marker to be removed.