Royston Smith (politician)

Royston Matthew Smith^[1] GM is an English Conservative Party politician. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Southampton, Itchen since winning the seat at the 2015 general election.^[2]

Career outside politics

He was a ground engineer in the Royal Air Force (RAF) for ten years, flying as a ground and flight engineer in Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft. He subsequently worked for British Airways.^[2]

2011 HMS Astute shooting

In April 2011, Smith conducted a civic tour of the submarine HMS Astute as leader of Southampton City Council when a sailor ran amok and started shooting, killing an officer. Smith tackled the gunman and brought him down so that he could be restrained and disarmed.^[3]

We were in the control room when someone entered and there was an exchange of words. He [the gunman] stepped out with another man and two shots were fired and then he entered the control room again and began shooting again... He had a magazine with 30 rounds in it so I took the view that someone had to stop him. I pushed him against the wall and we wrestled, then I pushed him into another wall which resulted in him going to the ground and I managed to get the weapon from him and threw it aside under a table. I shouted for someone to help as I held him down and my chief executive was the first to come, and he did a remarkable job of restraining him.

— Royston Smith, BBC interview^[3]

For this act of bravery, he was awarded the George Medal by the Queen.^[4]

Political career

Smith had represented Harefield Ward on Southampton City Council since 2000, which he had formerly led.^[5]

He first contested the Itchen seat at the 2010 general election, being defeated by Labour's John Denham by only 192 votes. Smith was elected at the 2015 general election with a majority of 2,316 votes.^[6]

On 20 February 2016 Smith was named as the least active of the members of parliament first elected in 2015 by The Independent, making only five speeches and asking two questions, in contrast to the most active, Louise Haigh of Labour, who asked 471 questions and made 90 speeches. Smith defended his record by stating that his constituency is "challenging"^[7][8]

Between 4 June and 22 October 2015 Smith received £23,200 in private earnings from consultancy, of which £200 was donated to his Constituency Association. Barker Mill Estates paid Smith £200 per hour for 10 hours for three months in this time. Additionally Smith has three properties in Southampton either exceeding £100,000 in value, or reaping rent in excess of £10,000 per annum ^[9]

Following the deal secured by Prime Minister David Cameron and the announcement of the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, 2016 Smith announced he was nevertheless endorsing a vote to leave the European Union^[10]

References