Chris Bryant

Sir Chris John Bryant (born 11 January 1962) is a Welsh politician and former Anglican priest who has served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland since 2026. A member of the Labour Party, he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Rhondda and Ogmore, and previously Rhondda, since 2001. Born in Cardiff, Bryant was privately educated at Cheltenham College before studying English at Mansfield College, Oxford. After graduating with a further degree in theology, he served as a Church of England priest until 1991. He worked for Common Purpose from 1994 to 1996 and at the BBC from 1998 to 2001. Bryant was elected to Hackney Borough Council in 1993, representing Leabridge ward and serving until 1998. After his unsuccessful candidacy at the 1997 general election for the Wycombe constituency, Bryant was elected for the Labour safe seat of Rhondda at the 2001 general election. He was reelected at the 2005 general election and called for the resignation of Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2006. Bryant became the Parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to Charlie Falconer and later Harriet Harman, before joining the government frontbench as Deputy Leader of the House of Commons in 2008 under Gordon Brown. He later served as Under-Secretary of State for Europe and Asia from 2009 to 2010. Following Labour's defeat at the 2010 general election, Bryant became the shadow europe minister. He unsuccessfully stood for the shadow cabinet in the 2010 election, and subsequently became a shadow home and justice minister under Ed Miliband. He held various junior shadow portfolios between 2010 and 2015. Following Labour's defeat at 2015 general election, Bryant was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Culture Secretary. He became Shadow Leader of the House of Commons in 2015 under Jeremy Corbyn, before resigning in protest at Corbyn's leadership...