Smith, Jacqui (1962- )

British Labour politician, home secretary from 2007. A member of Parliament for Redditch from 1997, she was parliamentary secretary to the Treasury and government chief whip in the Cabinet from 2006-07. Prior to her election to the House of Commons, she was a teacher of economics and a local government councillor on Redditch Borough Council.

Jacqui Smith grew up in Malvern in Worcestershire before moving to Redditch in the West Midlands in 1986, having by then graduated from Oxford University's Hertford College. From 1986 to 1997 she taught at Arrow Vale High School in Redditch and Haybridge High School in Hagley, and from 1991 to 1997 was an elected member of her local council as a Labour representative. Having become an MP at the May 1997 general election, she sat on the Treasury select committee 1998-99 before her first junior ministerial appointment as undersecretary of state at the Department of Education and Employment 1999-2001. Following her re-election to Parliament in 2001 she was promoted to minister of state, serving initially at the Department of Health with responsibility for social services until 2003 and then at the Department of Trade and Industry as minister for industry and the regions and also as deputy minister for women and equality. Re-elected again in 2005, she was moved to the renamed Department for Education and Skills where she was minister of state for schools until her promotion in the May 2006 government reshuffle to parliamentary secretary to the Treasury and chief whip.