Chris Bryant interviewed David Isaac

MP, former Anglican priest and writer Sir Chris Bryant talks about his life and why he is drawn to writing – including his two most recent books, Code of Conduct: Why We Need to Fix Parliament and How to Do it and James and John: A True Story of Prejudice and Murder.

Bryant is chair of the Westminster committee on standards and privileges and has been in office during a period that has seen the fastest ever turnover of ministers in history and more MPs suspended from the House than ever before. In Code of Conduct, he tells the story of the cronyism, nepotism, conflicts of interest, misconduct and lying and explains how we can solve it.

Bryant was the first MP to take part in a civil partnership in the Palace of Westminster when he married his husband. In James and John: A True Story of Prejudice and Murder, he tells what it was like to be gay in early 19th-century Britain through the story of a landmark trial. James Pratt and John Smith were convicted of homosexuality and sentenced to death. They were alone among a group of people sentenced to death for petty crimes not to get a royal reprieve.

Bryant has been MP for Rhondda since 2001. He has served in government as deputy leader of the house and as under-secretary of state for Europe and Asia. He served in the Labour shadow cabinet before resigning in protest at Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. He was ordained a priest in 1987 but left the ministry in 1991 after deciding that being gay and being a priest were incompatible. Before entering parliament, he was a full-time writer. His earlier books include biographies of Stafford Cripps and Glenda Jackson, Entitled: A Critical History of the British Aristocracy and the two-volume Parliament: The Biography. Here he talks to the Provost of Worcester College David Isaac, a former chair of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission of Great Britain and of Stonewall.