Sir Julian Richard Smith KCB CBE (born 30 August 1971) is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Skipton and Ripon since 2010.

He successfully negotiated the New Decade, New Approach agreement with Tánaiste Simon Coveney, which restored the power-sharing government of the Northern Ireland Executive after three years without devolution at Stormont.

[4][5] In Parliament, he served on the Scottish Affairs Committee for a brief period in 2010[6] and was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Sir Alan Duncan MP, Minister of State for International Development, from September 2010 to 2012.

[7] Smith had previously asked questions in Parliament about whether The Guardian's handling of intelligence material leaked by Edward Snowden had breached national security.

[11] Following the European Union membership referendum on 23 June and David Cameron's resignation as Prime Minister, Smith was one of six MPs who led the leadership campaign on behalf of the Home Secretary, Theresa May.

Smith was strongly critical of Theresa May's cabinet's behaviour following the 2017 election, saying the government should have made clear that it would "inevitably" have to accept a softer Brexit.

[15] On 19 July 2018, Smith was reported to be resisting calls to resign his position as Government Chief Whip, following allegations that he had instructed five Conservative MPs to break pairing agreements in an important parliamentary vote the previous day.

[24] Tributes to Smith's tenure as Northern Ireland Secretary were paid by NI First Minister Arlene Foster and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

[28] Stephen Bush, political editor of the New Statesman, speculated that the consequence of Johnson's removal of Smith would be the destabilisation of the new power-sharing agreement and increased difficulty in negotiating the details of the "New Protocol".