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Laura Kyrke-Smith

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Laura Kyrke-Smith
MP
Official portrait, 2024
Member of Parliament
for Aylesbury
Incumbent
Assumed office
4 July 2024
Preceded byRob Butler
Majority630 (1.3%)
Personal details
Born
Laura Elizabeth Kyrke-Smith

(1983-09-15) 15 September 1983 (age 41)
Political partyLabour
Websitewww.lauraforaylesbury.org

Laura Elizabeth Kyrke-Smith (born 15 September 1983) is a British politician, academic and charity worker who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Aylesbury since 2024. A member of the Labour Party, she is the first Labour MP for Aylesbury as well as the first female MP to represent Aylesbury in the House of Commons.[1]

Biography

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Kyrke-Smith was born in September 1983 to Peter St. L Kyrke-Smith, son of BHS Kyrke-Smith of Penbedw estate near Nannerch in Wales, and to Lyndsay Madeleine Pelly, daughter of Peter Jeremy Pelly and his wife Dorothy Joan Hill.[2] On her maternal side, through her grandfather her four-times great grandfather was the Hudson's Bay Company governor Sir John Pelly, 1st Baronet, and through her grandmother her three-times great-grandfather was Sir Robert Keith Alexander Dick-Cunyngham, 7/9th Baronet.[2]

Kyrke-Smith was state educated before attending Robinson College, Cambridge, from 2002 to 2005, where she read history and volunteered with the charity Student Action for Refugees.[3] She then went on to study for an MSc in international relations at the London School of Economics (LSE), graduating in 2007.[4]

She was chair of the socialist society Labour Campaign for International Development from 2013 to 2017, and also worked at Portland Communications and in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as a policy analyst.

In 2019 she became the UK Executive Director of the International Rescue Committee. From 2021-2024 she was on the Board of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC). [5][6][7] She previously worked as an assistant to Professor Charlie Beckett[8] at the Polis media project at the LSE.[9]

She is credited as a reader-contributor to the 3rd edition of Lonely Planet's Tanzania[10] and 2nd edition of The Rough Guide to Tanzania[11] guidebooks.

In the 2021 Buckinghamshire Council elections Kyrke-Smith ran for Labour in the Little Chalfont & Amersham Common ward coming 8th out of the eleven candidates with 448 votes.[12][13]

Since 2013, Kyrke-Smith has served as UK Executive Director of the International Rescue Committee. In the 2024 general election, she gained the Aylesbury seat from Rob Butler, a member of the Conservative Party. Her victory ended a century streak of Conservative and Unionist MPs in Aylesbury, starting in the 1924 general election.[14]

In September 2024, Kyrke-Smith was appointed to the role of Labour's National Health Mission Delivery Champion.[15]

Bibliography

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Editor

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  • Beckett, Charlie; Kyrke-Smith, Laura, eds. (2007). Development, governance and the media: The role of the media in building African society (PDF) (1st ed.). London: London School of Economics and Political Science. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 July 2024. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
  • Kyrke-Smith, Laura; Le Masson, Charlotte, eds. (June 2015). Communicating Global Giving: The Power of Communications in the Era of Philanthropy (PDF) (1st ed.). Strand, London: Portland Communications. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 July 2024. Retrieved 8 July 2024.

Author

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References

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  1. ^ Lowson, James (5 July 2024). "General Election 2024 results: Aylesbury has its first ever Labour MP". The Bucks Herald. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
  2. ^ a b Kidd, Charles; Williamson, David; Collins, Lydia; Bierbrier, Morris, eds. (2002). Debrett's Peerage & Baronetage 2003 (2003 ed.). London: Pan Macmillan. pp. 790–792. ISBN 978-0-333-66093-5. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
  3. ^ "Bin Brook", Easter 2023, p. 5. Robinson College, Cambridge. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  4. ^ "Laura Kyrke-Smith". LinkedIn. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  5. ^ Legraien, Léa (11 March 2024). "Charity leader selected as Labour Party candidate". Civil Society. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
  6. ^ Preston, Rob (24 May 2024). "Charity leaders take leave to campaign as parliamentary candidates". Civil Society.
  7. ^ "IRC announces Laura Kyrke-Smith as new UK Executive Director", International Rescue Committee, 22 January 2020. Retrieved on 5 July 2024.
  8. ^ Beckett, Charlie (2008). "Acknowledgments". SuperMedia: Saving Journalism So It Can Save the World (1st ed.). Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing. pp. x. ISBN 9781405179232. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
  9. ^ Kyrke-Smith, Laura (11 December 2007). "Laura Kyrke-Smith profile". openDemocracy. London. Archived from the original on 8 July 2024. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
  10. ^ Fitzpatrick, Mary (2005). "Behind the Scenes". Tanzania (3rd ed.). Lonely Planet. p. 352. ISBN 978-1-74059-518-6. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
  11. ^ Finke, Jens (April 2006). "Small Print - Readers Letters". The Rough Guide to Tanzania (2nd ed.). London: Rough Guides. p. 802. ISBN 978-1-84353-531-7. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
  12. ^ "Election results for Little Chalfont & Amersham Common, 6 May 2021". Buckinghamshire.ModernGov.co.uk. Buckinghamshire. 6 May 2021. Archived from the original on 9 July 2024. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
  13. ^ Wareham, Stephanie (5 May 2021). "Everyone you can vote for in the Buckinghamshire Council elections on May 6". Bucks Free Press. Loudwater, Buckinghamshire: Newsquest. Archived from the original on 9 July 2024. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
  14. ^ "Aylesbury | General Election 2024". Sky News. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
  15. ^ "Aylesbury MP given new role by government to help 'rebuild' NHS".
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Laura Kyrke-Smith.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament
for Aylesbury
2024–present 		Incumbent
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