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Sir Chris Bryant MP

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Chris was born in Cardiff in 1962 and brought up in Cardiff, Spain and Cheltenham. He read English at Mansfield College Oxford (II.1) and Theology at Ripon College, Cuddesdon, before ordination in the Church of England in December 1986. He spent two and a half years as curate at All Saints, High Wycombe, before becoming Youth Chaplain to the diocese of Peterborough. In 1991 he left the Church to work for the Labour Party as Frank Dobson’s election agent and in 1993 he became the Labour Party’s Local Government Development Officer. The following year he became London Manager for the educational charity, Common Purpose. In 1996 he turned to full-time writing, publishing biographies of Stafford Cripps and Glenda Jackson and a history of Christian Socialism (Possible Dreams). From 1998-2000 he was Head of European Affairs at the BBC. Chris joined the Labour Party in 1986 and was Chair of the Christian Socialist Movement and a Hackney Councillor from 1993-8. He stood as Labour’s candidate in the 1997 General Election in Wycombe, a formerly ‘safe’ Tory seat which the Conservatives held this time with a mere 2,370 majority. Following his election as Rhondda’s MP in June 2001 he has served on the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee of the House of Commons, as well as the Joint Committee of the Lords and Commons on Reform of the House of Lords. From November 2002 to May 2007 he was Chair of the Labour Movement for Europe. Chris was re-elected as an MP (with an increased majority) in 2005 and from May 2005 to June 2006 was the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs). Chris was the Parliamentary Private Secretary to Rt Hon Harriet Harman MP Leader of the House of Commons and Lord Privy Seal; Secretary of State for Equality and Minister for Women and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2008 when he was then appointed to the Government in the post of Deputy Leader of the House of Commons. In 2009 Chris was made Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Minister for Europe in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. In 2010 following Labour’s defeat at the General Election Chris was made Shadow Justice Minister, with responsibility for political and constitutional reform. He was then appointed Shadow Home Office Minister with responsibility for immigration followed by a period as Shadow DWP Minister. He was later promoted to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Minister for Culture, Media & Sport and subsequently became Shadow Leader of the House of Commons. He resigned from the Shadow Cabinet in June 2016. He is an Associate of the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain and a member of the Co-op Party, Amnesty International, Amicus and the Fabians. He speaks fluent Spanish and good French. He lives in Porth in the Rhondda Fach.

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Although people have lived in the Rhondda for about 6,000 years, until coal was discovered in the 19th century the area was almost entirely given over to agriculture and forestry and the population was tiny and Welsh-speaking. But in 1812 the first pit was opened in Dinas and within a century there were 53 mines with 41,000 miners out of a population of nearly 170,000. The Rhondda’s steam coal provided employment for many thousands of men, but conditions were harsh. Thanks to explosions and accidents, on average one man died every six hours in the pit and many suffered from long-term illnesses such as emphysema, chronic bronchitis, asthma and vibration white finger. Whilst the Rhondda built Britain’s Victorian and Edwardian prosperity and whilst many of the mine-owners amassed enormous fortunes, the vast majority of miners and their families continued to suffer. It was against this background that the Rhondda became a renowned centre for non-Conformist thought and for political activism: Cwm Rhondda Guide me, O Thou Great Jehovah, Pilgrim through this barren land; I am weak, but thou art mighty; Hold me with thy powerful hand: Bread of Heaven, Bread of Heaven, Feed me till my want is o’er. In 1884 the Franchise Act gave miners the vote for the first time and the Rhondda became a separate constituency. Despite determined efforts to front miners’ candidates across the South Wales coalfield, the Rhondda was the only seat to have such a labour candidate. A strong miners’ Union leader, William Abraham, known as ‘Mabon’, was elected MP for the Rhondda, originally representing the ‘Rhondda Liberal and Labour Association’ and later the newly formed Labour Party. The Rhondda has been represented in Westminster by Labour ever since. Industrial unrest hit the Rhondda in 1910 in the form of the Cambrian strike in Tonypandy in October. As Liberal Home Secretary, Winston Churchill sent 300 police and troops in. Two miners were killed and many others were injured in the so-called ‘Tonypandy riots’. Following the First World War the world-wide demand for coal decreased, wages fell and many returning soldiers found themselves on the dole. The exodus from the Rhondda then began in earnest and by the start of the next World War more than 50,000 people had left, many to America and Canada. The post-war years saw further decline in the mining industry, with Mrs Thatcher doing battle against the National Union of Miners in the 1984 strike and the last pit in the Rhondda closing in Maerdy in 1990. The 150 years of coal saw a strong and self-reliant community grow, with a vast array of community and civic organisations. The Rhondda’s choirs and brass bands, especially the Treorchy Male Voice, were known across the world and the Rhondda produced its fair share of political leaders – not least George Thomas, Speaker of the House of Commons and latterly Lord Tonypandy. Coal was not the only industry in the Rhondda. The soft drink company Corona started in a factory in Porth, which became a TV studio, the Pop Factory and is now ‘The Factory’, a social enterprise. And in more recent years have seen new businesses and other industries take over, including Fenners in Maerdy, Burberry (which has now closed) and Harwin in Treorchy – and many people now work outside the Rhondda.

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