Bristol South MP Karin Smyth has been appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Health, Heidi Alexander MP.
Before being elected in May 2015, Karin Smyth worked for 15 years as a manager in the NHS, most recently with the NHS Bristol Clinical Commissioning Group. From 2002-2006 she served as non-Executive director on Bristol North Primary Care Trust.
“The NHS is one of the Labour Party’s greatest achievements and I relish the opportunity this appointment gives to play a key role in the party’s approach to developing our NHS for the future,” she said.
“Our health service has to modernise, moving with the times, but we must work hard to ensure there always remains a relentless focus on the needs of people, not on profit.”
The role of a Parliamentary Private Secretary is as the key Commons aide to the Secretary of State or Minister (or Shadow), providing the main conduit through which he or she maintains contact with MPs.