SIR CHRIS BRYANT: why we need to fix Parliament

By Jon Snow

Snowcast

25/09/23·40m 29s

Sir Chris Bryant was born in Cardiff, and lived in Spain as a child, before returning to the UK. After reading English at Oxford, he studied Theology and was ordained in the Church of England.

He then spent time in Latin America, and worked as a curate, before deciding to leave the church and move into politics. Chris was elected MP for Rhondda in 2001 and he’s held this seat for Labour ever since. Along with a variety of frontbench and committee posts, in both government and opposition.

For the past two years, Chris has been very busy as Chair of the Standards Committee. But, earlier this month, he returned to the Labour frontbench, as Shadow Minister for Creative Industries and Digital.

During his parliamentary career, Chris has earned a reputation as someone unafraid to speak truth to power - as a vocal critic of both News International and Vladamir Putin. But he also enjoys cross-party collaboration and he was given an award, for Civility in Politics, in 2022.

Chris is also a big fan of parliamentary process. He will happily nerd out on a point of order and he’s just published a book on the subject, called Code of Conduct: Why We Need to Fix Parliament – and How to Do It. He strongly believes - that when parliamentary standards fall – public trust wears thin.