Member of Parliament
What was the position of Chris Smith, Baron Smith of Finsbury between Mar 1993 and Jul 1995?
Chris Smith , Baron Smith of Finsbury Christopher Robert Smith , Baron Smith of Finsbury , PC ( born 24 July 1951 ) is a British politician and a peer ; a former Member of Parliament ( MP ) and Cabinet Minister ; and former chairman of the Environment Agency . For the majority of his career he was a Labour Party member . He was the first openly gay male British MP , coming out in 1984 , and in 2005 , the first MP to acknowledge that he is HIV positive . Early life . Chris Smith was born in Barnet , London , and educated at George Watsons College in Edinburgh and Pembroke College , Cambridge . At Cambridge he gained a first class honours degree in English , and a PhD with a thesis on Coleridge and Wordsworth . He attended Harvard University as a Kennedy Scholar , and was president of the Cambridge Union Society . Member of Parliament . He worked for a housing charity and became a councillor in the London Borough of Islington . He came third at Epsom and Ewell in the 1979 general election before narrowly winning the seat of Islington South and Finsbury at the 1983 general election , defeating George Cunningham , who had ultimately defected to the Social Democrats from Labour . Cunningham stood again at the 1987 general election when Smith retained the seat . In 1984 , he became Britains first gay MP to choose to come out . There had been several gay MPs before this whose homosexuality had been common knowledge in some circles , including their constituents in some cases , but they had not been completely open about it . ( In 1975 Maureen Colquhoun had been effectively outed by press revelations. ) During a rally in Rugby , Warwickshire , against a possible ban on gay employees by the town council , Smith began his speech : Good afternoon , Im Chris Smith , Im the Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury and Im gay . This was unscripted , and the decision to include it in his speech was made at the last minute . He immediately received a standing ovation from most of the audience . He became an opposition whip in 1986 , a shadow Treasury minister from 1987 to 1992 , and shadowed the environment , heritage , pensions and health portfolios between 1992 and 1997 . Secretary of State for Culture , Media and Sport . In 1997 , he was appointed to Tony Blairs Cabinet as the Secretary of State for Culture , Media and Sport . As a Minister known to have a close connection with the arts scene in Britain , his time at DCMS is generally regarded as a success , for many projects funded through the National Lottery came to fruition . There were controversies , such as his approval during his first week as minister of the appointment of Mary Allen to the Royal Opera House . In this case , a Select Committee report later found that he had exceeded his authority and had improperly failed to seek advice from his Permanent Secretary . In 2000 , he managed to secure a tax rebate that enabled many museums to give free admission . He held this position throughout the Labour governments first term , but was sacked and returned to the back benches after the 2001 election , being replaced by Tessa Jowell . Appointment to the House of Lords . After over 20 years in Parliament , Smith stepped down from the House of Commons at the 2005 general election . It was announced on 30 April 2005 that he was to be created a life peer , and the title was gazetted on 22 June 2005 as Baron Smith of Finsbury , of Finsbury in the London Borough of Islington . Retirement from politics . Smith was appointed Chair of the London Cultural Consortium ( successor body to the Cultural Strategy Group ) by Ken Livingstone , the then Mayor of London , and served from 2005 to 2008 . He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship in 2010 from the University of Cumbria . In November 2006 , he was appointed as Chairman of the Advertising Standards Authority . He was one of the founding directors of the Clore Leadership Programme , an initiative aimed at helping to train and develop new leaders of Britains cultural sector . He is also currently Chairman of the Wordsworth Trust . Smith is a keen mountaineer , and was the first MP to climb all the 3,000 ft Munros in Scotland ; in April 2004 , he was elected President of the Ramblers Association . He is a patron of London-based HIV charity The Food Chain , and also Patron of HIV support charity The National Long-Term Survivors Group ( NLTSG ) . Smith was announced as the new Chairman of the Environment Agency on 8 May 2008 , and took up the new role in mid-July . In an interview with The Independent in August that year he said Britain faced hard choices over which coasts to defend and which to leave to the sea , because it would not be possible to save all coastal homes from sea erosion . Lord Smith was re-appointed as Chair of the Environment Agency for a further three years by Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman in 2011 . On re-appointment he received £100,813 pro rata for 2011–12 , based on working three days a week . Lord Smith continued in this role until 13 July 2014 . Smith became a vice-president of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality in February 2009 . In December 2014 , it was announced that Lord Smith would become the next Master of Pembroke College , Cambridge in 2015 , succeeding Sir Richard Dearlove . He accepted an invitation to become the Chairman of Trustees of the Cambridge Union Society in 2015 . He is currently listed as the Chairman of the Task Force on Shale Gas . Personal life . In 2006 , Smith entered a civil partnership with Dorian Jabri , his partner since 1989 . The couple separated in 2012 . Smith was a director of the Finsbury-based world jazz ensemble Grand Union Orchestra for a period in the mid 1990s . HIV status . In 2003 , Smith was contacted by a reporter from The Sunday Times asking for a comment on his health but declined , citing the Press Complaints Code . However , two years later , in 2005 , he contacted the papers editor and revealed in a story , titled Why This is the Time to Break my HIV Silence , he had been diagnosed as HIV-positive as long ago as 1987 . He stated he had decided to go public following Nelson Mandelas announcement of his sons death from AIDS . External links . - Parliamentary Biography of Lord Smith of Finsbury