Angela Smith (Sheffield MP)

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Person.png Angela Smith (Sheffield MP)   Twitter WebsiteRdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
(politician)
Angela Smith MP.jpg
Born16 August 1961
Grimsby, Lincolnshire, England
NationalityBritish
Alma materUniversity of Nottingham
Children1 stepdaughter
SpouseSteven Wilson
PartyLiberal Democrats

Angela Christine Smith (born 16 August 1961) is a British politician and former lecturer who represented the parliamentary seat of Penistone and Stocksbridge from 2010 to 2019. Before boundary changes she was Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Hillsborough from 2005 to 2010.[1]

Initially elected as a Labour Party MP, Angela Smith was controversial among left-wing members for her opposition to leader Jeremy Corbyn and the party's policy of water renationalisation, as well as her support for fracking; in 2018 Smith lost a motion of no confidence by her CLP. Smith resigned from the Labour Party in February 2019 alongside six other MPs in protest at Corbyn's leadership, and they formed The Independent Group (later renamed Change UK).[2][3]

In June 2019, she left Change UK to sit as an independent MP.[4] In September she joined the Liberal Democrats but was defeated at the UK/2019 General Election in December.[5]

Likes fracking

Angela Smith voted against greater restrictions on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to extract shale gas in National Parks, the Broads, areas of oustanding natural beauty, World Heritage sites, and near points where water is abstracted for domestic and food production purposes. A majority of MPs disagreed and voted for greater restrictions on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to extract shale gas in National Parks, the Broads, areas of oustanding natural beauty, World Heritage sites, and near points where water is abstracted for domestic and food production purposes: 296 for, 259 against, 0 abstained, 91 absent.[6]

Hates Corbyn

On 2 April 2018, Smith tweeted:

"Corbyn’s attendance at the Jewdas seber reads as a blatant dismissal of the case made for tackling anti-Semitism in Labour."[7]

Andrew Jones responded:

"Have you been drinking? It’s 'seder' and Jewdas are Semites - you can’t pick and choose which part of the fabulously diverse Jewish community anti-semitism applies to!" #thinkbeforeyoutweet #soundliketrump [8]

And Angela Kelly:

"Members in her CLP need to put forward a motion for deselection. These people are not what the Members want."[9]

In August 2018, the Daily Express reported that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was being challenged by some of his own MPs who think, by visiting the West Bank, Israel, Lebanon, Tunisia, Morocco and Mexico - where his wife is from - and included attending a nuclear non-proliferation conference in Vienna, an anti-NATO protest meeting in Germany and a leftwing rally in Greece, Corbyn is damaging the party’s reputation. MPs Angela Smith and Barry Sheerman were pressing parliamentary party chairman John Cryer to convene a special meeting. Smith said:

“It’s been a car crash summer for the party and nobody in the Shadow Cabinet seems to be prepared to challenge the leadership on it, which is why we are demanding an urgent meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party to discuss our concerns that Jeremy’s behaviour is bringing the party into disrepute.”[10]

CLP has "no confidence"

Right-wing Labour MP Angela Smith denounced members of her Penistone & Stocksbridge CLP as “a cabal of hard-left members” after she lost a vote of “no confidence” on Friday 16 November 2018 by 27 votes to 20 against:

“This CLP believes that:

  • Angela Smith has by her conduct, her actions, and in articles she has written demonstrated that she no longer represents the views of the CLP.
  • She has been a persistent and visceral critic of Jeremy Corbyn and through her divisive attacks on him she has damaged the Labour Party locally and nationally.
  • Her articles and comments on Fracking and Privatised Water Companies that are contrary to the Labour Party Manifesto commitments demonstrate that she has lost touch with the Party and the constituents she was elected to represent.
  • She has snubbed this CLP very publicly at an event to raise funds for her election campaign.
  • The relationship of trust and respect that is an essential and fundamental requirement between an MP and their Constituency Party has broken down, perhaps irrevocably, and as a result this CLP has no confidence in Angela Smith to represents its members as our MP.

“This CLP resolves to:

  1. Propose a vote of ‘no confidence’ in Angela Smith at the CLP General Meeting on 16 November 2018.
  2. Write to the Chief Whip and ask that she has the whip removed.[11]

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References

  1. ↑ "MPs' expenses: New MP sought four beds for a one-bedroom London flat"
  2. ↑ "Seven MPs leave Labour Party in protest at Jeremy Corbyn's leadership"
  3. ↑ "'Good riddance': Penistone locals have their say on Angela Smith resignation"
  4. ↑ "Change UK loses six of its 11 MPs"
  5. ↑ "Angela Smith is third MP in a week to join Lib Dems"
  6. ↑ "Labour MP savages party’s water policy"
  7. ↑ "Corbyn critic"
  8. ↑ "Have you been drinking?"
  9. ↑ "Members in her CLP need to put forward a motion for deselection"
  10. ↑ "‘Car crash’ Jeremy Corbyn under pressure over foreign trips"
  11. ↑ "Another Labour right-winger has lost a ‘no confidence’ vote. Here are the facts she doesn’t want you to know"
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