Chris Bryant was born in Cardiff, Wales, to a Scottish mother and a Welsh father. Bryant grew up in Cardiff (where his father worked for five years), Spain for five years in the 1960s (leading to him speaking fluent Spanish),[1][2] and Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.[3] He was educated at Cheltenham College, an independent school for boys, and at Mansfield College, Oxford, where he read English.
After completing his first degree, Bryant began his training to be a priest in the Church of England at Ripon College Cuddesdon in Oxfordshire. There, he obtained a further degree in theology.
He was ordained deacon in 1986 and priest in 1987. He served as a curate at the Church of All Saints, High Wycombe from 1986 to 1989 and then as a Youth Chaplain in Peterborough, as well as travelling in Latin America.[2]
In 1991, Bryant left the ordained ministry, after deciding that being gay and being a priest were incompatible. Statements made by Richard Harries, the then-Bishop of Oxford also influenced his decision.[2]
From 1998 until his election to Parliament in 2001, Bryant was the Head of European Affairs for the BBC.[6]
Parliamentary career
Bryant's selection for the very safe Labour seat of Rhondda in South Wales in 2000 surprised many people given his background – gay, a former Anglican cleric, and someone who had been a Conservative as a student. He says of his surprise selection, "I fell off the chair, and my opponents certainly did". Fifty-two people applied for the candidature and a local councillor was the favourite to win.[2] Bryant was elected as MP for Rhondda at the 2001 general election with a majority of 16,047 and 68.3% of the vote.[8][9]
At the 2005 general election, Bryant was re-elected with a decreased vote share of 68.1% but an increased majority of 16,242.[16][17]
On 5 September 2006, with Siôn Simon, he coordinated a prominent letter which was signed by 15 Labour backbenchers calling for Tony Blair's immediate resignation.[18]
On 11 March 2003, as part of an inquiry into Privacy and Press Intrusion by the Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport, he asked Rebekah Wade (now Brooks) whether she had ever paid police officers for information. Seated beside Andy Coulson, the editor of the News of the World, she said 'yes'. Bryant had his phone hacked later that year by the News of the World, a fact which became known to the Metropolitan Police when they seized material from the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.[20] Bryant, along with John Prescott and Brian Paddick, sought judicial review of the Metropolitan Police in an attempt to force them to contact all the victims of phone hacking by the News of the World. The Metropolitan Police accepted their liability and he won damages of £30,000 from News International in 2012.[21]
Bryant called for and led the parliamentary debates on referring the phone hacking scandal to the Standards and Privileges Committee on 9 September 2010, and the Emergency Debate on whether there should be a judge led enquiry on 6 July 2011 which led to the setting up of the Leveson Inquiry.[22]
Bryant claimed over £92,000 in expenses over the five years leading up to the 2009 scandal over MPs' expenses.[23] During that time he flipped his second-home expenses twice. He claimed mortgage interest expenses that started at £7,800 per year before rising (after flipping) to £12,000 per year. He also claimed £6,400 in stamp duty and other fees on his most recent purchase, and £6,000 per year in service charges.[24]
In opposition
At the 2010 general election, Bryant was again re-elected, with a decreased vote share of 55.3% and a decreased majority of 11,553.[25][26]
In October 2010, Bryant stood as one of 49 candidates for election to the 19 places in the Shadow Cabinet in the internal Labour Party poll, receiving 77 votes, 29th position on the list.
In October 2010, Bryant described the coalition government's housing benefit reforms as poorer people "being socially engineered and sociologically cleansed out of London". The use of the term "cleansing" was criticised by members of the coalition, including deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, who called Bryant's comment "offensive to people who had witnessed ethnic cleansing in other parts of the world".[27]
Bryant won the Stonewall Politician of the Year Award in 2011 for his work to support equality for lesbian, gay and bisexual people.[29] He was given a score of 100% in favour of lesbian, gay and bisexual equality by Stonewall.[30] On 5 February 2013, he voted in favour in the House of Commons Second Reading vote on same-sex marriage in Britain.[31]
Following the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, Bryant told the Commons 'I am afraid that the international response... has thus far been pitiful and spineless. People have even trotted out in this Chamber the argument that most of the people in Crimea are Russian speaking and wanted to join Russia in the first place. Can Members not hear history running through the decades?... There has been little honour in the way that Britain, France and the United States, having signed up to the Budapest memorandum, which guaranteed the territorial integrity of Ukraine, now make lots of great speeches but introduce the measliest level of sanctions and targeted interventions against Russian individuals... A Russian friend of mine says that Putin is not yet mad. That may be true, but what will our surrendering and our appeasement do for his sanity?'[32]
In December 2014, Bryant was moved from Shadow Minister for Welfare Reform to Shadow Minister for the Arts.[33] In this position, he suggested in January 2015 that too many successful artists such as "James Blunt and their ilk" had been educated at private schools, and that he wanted to see more encouragement for the arts for people from a variety of backgrounds, even though Bryant himself attended a private school. Blunt said that Bryant was a "narrow-minded 'classist gimp' who was motivated by the 'politics of jealousy'"; Bryant responded by claiming that Blunt should not be "so blooming precious" and that he was not "knocking [his] success" but attempting to draw attention to the lack of diversity in the arts.[34]
At the 2015 general election, Bryant was again re-elected with a decreased vote share of 50.7% and a decreased majority of 7,455.[35][36][37]
He supported Remain in the EU referendum in June 2016 and voted against the triggering of Article 50 in February 2017.[41]
In January 2017, as ex-chair of the all-party parliamentary group for Russia, Bryant claimed that the Russian government orchestrated a homophobic campaign to remove him from this position, saying that the Russian government has acquired kompromat on high-profile Conservative Party MPs including Boris Johnson, Liam Fox, Alan Duncan and David Davis.[42]
On 12 January 2017, Bryant bemused his fellow MPs and Speaker of the House John Bercow, when he wished Bercow happy "kiss a ginger day", during business questions.[43]
At the snap 2017 general election, Bryant was again re-elected, with an increased vote share of 64.1% and an increased majority of 13,746.[44][45][46]
Following the general election in 2017, Bryant came first in the ballot for Private Members Bills, and after consulting his constituents introduced the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Bill, which introduced a new offence of assaulting an emergency worker. It received royal assent on 13 November 2018 as the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018.
In November 2017, Bryant called for the arrest[47] of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, if he travels to the United Kingdom, after the President shared a comment on the social media website Twitter from a member of the far-right group Britain First that related to radical Islamic events. Bryant stated: "The Prime Minister should make it absolutely clear that if Donald Trump comes to this country he'll be arrested for inciting religious hatred and therefore he'd be better off not coming at all."[48]
Bryant came tenth in the Private Members Bill ballot in the 2021–2022 Session of Parliament and introduced the Acquired Brain Injury Bill on 10 November 2021, which would require the Government to produce, implement and review a national strategy for acquired brain injury. He withdrew the Bill when the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Sajid Javid, announced that Bryant and Gillian Keegan, the minister for Care and Mental Health, would co-chair a cross-government programme board to draw up a national strategy in December 2021. Keegan said: “All Government departments are invited to join the board. The strategy will be kept under review and revised periodically, to ensure it continues to reflect the priority areas and actions needed to support those living with ABI, and their families.” [57]
In December 2021, Bryant told the BBC in an interview that he felt "less physically safe as a gay man than he did 30 years ago." While denying that Boris Johnson himself was homophobic, he accused those around him of being happy to "stir the pot." As evidence, he cited the government's stance on transgender people and their attitude towards conversion therapy.[58]
Bryant campaigned for the UK Government to introduce Magnitsky Sanctions on those who abuse human rights around the world and co-chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group on Magnitsky Sanctions with Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP and is a Member of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.
In December 2020, Bryant became engaged in a row with the Commons speaker, Lindsay Hoyle. The disturbance started with Bryant heckling the Prime Minister while standing near to a door. The Speaker informed Bryant that social distancing rules meant he needed to move and he then instructed Bryant to sit in one of the seats intended for use by MPs. Some of those present thought that Bryant then uttered an offensive expletive back to the Speaker although Bryant denied this. Bryant then exited the chamber of the Commons while the Speaker called for him. Some moments after the Speaker had denounced Bryant's "disgraceful behaviour", Bryant returned to the chamber to engage in what appeared to be a heated discussion with the speaker. Hoyle said: "Mr Bryant, I think we need to have this conversation later" and Bryant left the chamber.[60]
Misleading Parliament
In March 2022 Bryant misled Parliament when he claimed that Nigel Farage had been paid over £500,000 by the Russian state. In July 2023 he admitted that he had not told the truth.[61]
Filibuster on Gaza ceasefire vote
During a Channel 4 News interview, Bryant admitted he was ordered to filibuster the progress on the SNP's motion for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza - and accepted 'we brought ourselves terribly into disrepute." This filibuster is believed to have bought time for the Labour leader to have an unscheduled meeting with Speaker Lindsay Hoyle. Hoyle would then break parliamentary convention, going against the advice of his Clerks, to benefit the Labour Party leader by allowing the party's amendment to be heard, meaning that MPs would not get the chance to formally vote on the SNP's motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.[62]
Following Bryant's confession, the SNP called for a "full independent investigation" into his comments which they said proved Labour deilberately sought to derail their motion. MP Kirsty Blackman critised Bryant's comments claiming: "These damning revelations show Sir Keir Starmer pulled every dirty trick in the Westminster book to wreck the SNP's vote on an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Israel."[63]
Personal life
Bryant entered into a civil partnership with Jared Cranney on 27 March 2010. The ceremony was the first civil partnership ever held in the Houses of Parliament.[2] They are now married. Bryant lives in Porth in the Rhondda.[3]
He was ridiculed by the press in 2003 when he posted a picture of himself wearing only underpants on a gay dating site, Gaydar.[64] Bryant later reflected upon the affair, saying, "It was a wound but it's a rather charming scar now. I had a period when I barely slept and it was horrible, but I'm very lucky in having a supportive set of friends – MP friends and others – and they looked after me." At the time, the media predicted that he would not survive, and there was much talk of his possible deselection.[2] In 2013, he reflected on the incident, saying that the whole affair actually boosted his majority as an MP.[65]
On 25 September 2006, The Guardian ran four spoof diary articles called "Chris Bryant's Manchester Diary". The newspaper later printed a clarification to confirm that these were parodies, and were not written by Bryant.[66]
In March 2019, Bryant said that he had undergone surgery for skin cancer.[67]
On 1 May 2022, Bryant stated that he had been groped and "touched up" by older male MPs early in his career in the House of Commons.[68]
In May 2024, Bryant announced that his skin cancer had spread to his lung, and was undergoing immunotherapy for it; he urged people to "please take skin cancer seriously".[69][70]
Possible Dreams: Personal History of the British Christian Socialists by Chris Bryant, 1996, Hodder & Stoughton Religious, ISBN0-340-64201-7
Stafford Cripps: The First Modern Chancellor by Chris Bryant, 1997, Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, ISBN0-340-67892-5
Glenda Jackson: The Biography by Chris Bryant, 1999, HarperCollins, ISBN0-00-255911-0
Parliament: The Biography: Ancestral Voices (Vol. 1) by Chris Bryant, 2014, Doubleday, ISBN978-0857520685
Parliament: The Biography: Reform (Vol. 2) by Chris Bryant, 2014, Doubleday, ISBN978-0857522245
Entitled: A Critical History of the British Aristocracy by Chris Bryant, 2017, Doubleday ISBN978-0857523167
The Glamour Boys: The Secret Story of the Rebels who Fought for Britain to Defeat Hitler by Chris Bryant, 2020, Bloomsbury Publishing, ISBN978-1526601711
Code of Conduct: Why We Need to Fix Parliament by Chris Bryant, 2023, Bloomsbury Publishing, ISBN978-1526663597
James and John: A True Story of Prejudice and Murder by Chris Bryant, 2024, Bloomsbury Publishing, ISBN978-1526644978
^"Rhondda Results". UK Parliamentary Elections May 2015 results. Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council. Archived from the original on 23 May 2021. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
^"2017 Results". Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council. Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council. Archived from the original on 29 October 2020. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
^"Election-Results/General-Election-2019". Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council. Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council. Archived from the original on 29 October 2020. Retrieved 9 April 2020.