Chris Bryant - Rotten Tomatoes Celebrity Profile

Biography

This page uses content from the Chris Bryant biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.

Christopher John Bryant MP (born January 11, 1962) is a British politician and is the Labour Member of Parliament for Rhondda, which he has held since 2001.

Background

Chris Bryant was born in Cardiff to English parents. He was educated at Cheltenham College, an independent school in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire and at Mansfield College, Oxford where he received a B.A. degree in English in 1983 and the MA(Oxon). He then trained for the priesthood in the Church of England at Ripon College, Cuddesdon in Oxfordshire, where he obtained a further degree in theology. Although initially a member of the Conservative Party, he joined the Labour Party in 1986 after leaving Oxford. From 1986 he served as a Curate at the Church of All Saints, High Wycombe and from 1989, as a Youth Chaplain in Peterborough.

Labour Party

In 1991 Bryant made a radical career move and began work as Agent to 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, serving until 1998. Also in 1993, he became the Chairman of the Christian Socialist Movement. He is also a member of the Labour Friends of Israel lobby group.

In 1996 he became a full time author, writing biographies of Stafford Cripps and Glenda Jackson. He was Labour candidate for Wycombe in the 1997 general election, and Head of European Affairs for the BBC from 1998.

Member of Parliament for Rhondda

His selection for the rock-solid Labour seat of Rhondda in South Wales in 2000 surprised many people given Bryant's background in the Church of England and former membership of the Conservative Party. He won with a majority of 47.2%.

Bryant is a Christian Socialist, a member of the Co-operative Party (an organisation in electoral agreement to the Labour Party of which he is also a member), the Fabian Society, Amnesty International and the Trade Union Amicus. He is a strong supporter of British membership of the European Union, opposed to legalisation of drugs, strongly against fox hunting and in favour of an elected House of Lords.

Between the 2005 General Election and June 2006, he was the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs Charlie Falconer.

On 5 September 2006 he and Siôn Simon co-ordinated a letter which was signed by 15 Labour backbenchers calling for Tony Blair's immediate resignation. [1][2][3]

Controversy Over Private Life

Bryant is openly gay, but he was ridiculed in the press when he was discovered to have solicited anonymous sex and posed wearing only underpants on a gay dating site, Gaydar, whilst an MP [4][5][6].

Works

Glenda Jackson: The Biography by Chris Bryant, 1999, HarperCollins, ISBN 0-00-255911-0
Stafford Cripps: The First Modern Chancellor by Chris Bryant, 1997, Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, ISBN 0-340-67892-5
Possible Dreams: Personal History of the British Christian Socialists by Chris Bryant, 1996, Hodder & Stoughton Religious, ISBN 0-340-64201-7

External links

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