Chloe Smith
Encyclopedia
Chloe Rebecca Smith is a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

 and the Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Norwich North. She was elected to the seat in a by-election on 23 July 2009
Norwich North by-election, 2009
The 2009 Norwich North by-election was a by-election for the United Kingdom Parliament's House of Commons constituency of Norwich North. The by-election took place due to the resignation of Ian Gibson after being banned from standing as a Labour candidate for the next general election...

 following the resignation of Labour MP Ian Gibson
Ian Gibson (politician)
Ian Gibson is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Norwich North from 1997 to 2009...

 after the MPs' expenses scandal.

Early life

Born in Ashford, Kent
Ashford, Kent
Ashford is a town in the borough of Ashford in Kent, England. In 2005 it was voted the fourth best place to live in the United Kingdom. It lies on the Great Stour river, the M20 motorway, and the South Eastern Main Line and High Speed 1 railways. Its agricultural market is one of the most...

, she was aged 3 when her family moved to Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

. Growing up in Stoke Ferry
Stoke Ferry
Stoke Ferry is a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk, 6.5 miles south-east of Downham Market. The village lies on the River Wissey which has also been known as the River Stoke....

, Smith attended comprehensive school
Comprehensive school
A comprehensive school is a state school that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude. This is in contrast to the selective school system, where admission is restricted on the basis of a selection criteria. The term is commonly used in relation to the United...

s in Swaffham
Swaffham
Swaffham is a market town and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The town is situated east of King's Lynn and west of Norwich.The civil parish has an area of and in the 2001 census had a population of 6,935 in 3,130 households...

 and Methwold
Methwold
' is a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk, on the edge of the Norfolk Fens and BrecklandsIt covers an area of and had a population of 1,476 in 591 households as of the 2001 census...

, and after a gap-year working for former Conservative Education Secretary Gillian Shephard
Gillian Shephard
Gillian Patricia Shephard, Baroness Shephard of Northwold, PC , née Watts, is an English Conservative politician; she was the Member of Parliament for South West Norfolk, and a former Cabinet Minister and is now Chairman of the Association of Conservative Peers.-Early life and career:The daughter...

, went up to the University of York
University of York
The University of York , is an academic institution located in the city of York, England. Established in 1963, the campus university has expanded to more than thirty departments and centres, covering a wide range of subjects...

 where she read English Literature
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....

. She undertook summer work for Bernard Jenkin
Bernard Jenkin
Bernard Christison Jenkin is a politician in the United Kingdom, and the current Member of Parliament for Harwich and North Essex...

.

After York University she joined Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited , commonly referred to as Deloitte, is one of the Big Four accountancy firms along with PricewaterhouseCoopers , Ernst & Young, and KPMG....

, where she advised private businesses, government departments and public bodies.

Political career

In 2007 Smith was chosen to be the Conservative candidate for the constituency of Norwich
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...

 North in the General Election. She then took leave from her job, working for Conservative Central Office on secondment, bringing her business skills to help the Party "draw up detailed plans to put our policies into practice."

Following Ian Gibson's resignation, Smith became the Conservative's by-election candidate and subsequently won the seat becoming the youngest member of the House of Commons. She took her seat in the House of Commons when the parliamentary break ended in October. On 14 October 2011, she was appointed Economic Secretary to the Treasury
Economic Secretary to the Treasury
The Economic Secretary to the Treasury is the fifth most senior ministerial post in the UK Treasury, after the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, the Paymaster-General and the Financial Secretary...

 in a ministerial reshuffle, becoming the youngest minister currently serving in the UK government.

Political positions

Smith's political stances include support for lower taxation and opposition to the Lisbon Treaty. She also supports the legislation of Gay Marriage
Same-sex marriage in the United Kingdom
Same-sex marriage is not currently legal in the United Kingdom. Marriage laws vary in the countries of the UK, however they all currently prohibit marriages between same-sex couples. Since 2005, same-sex couples are allowed to enter into civil partnerships, a separate union which provides the legal...

.

She singles out Benjamin Disraeli as a political leader she admires.

Personal life

Smith is an active volunteer and fundraiser for several charities including Cancer Research UK
Cancer Research UK
Cancer Research UK is a cancer research and awareness charity in the United Kingdom, formed on 4 February 2002 by the merger of The Cancer Research Campaign and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. Its aim is to reduce the number of deaths from cancer. As the world's largest independent cancer...

 and Sport Relief
Sport Relief
Sport Relief is a biennial charity event from Comic Relief, in association with BBC Sport, which brings together the worlds of sport and entertainment to raise money to help vulnerable people in both the UK and the world's poorest countries...

. She is a keen cyclist and badminton player. She is an atheist
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...

.

External links


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