In 1977, Smith was selected as Conservative candidate for the Labour seat of Ashfield in Nottinghamshire at the by-election that had been called following the resignation of David Marquand.
He was selected to contest the 1982 Beaconsfield by-election, in which he defeated the Labour candidate, future Prime Minister Tony Blair.
During the "cash-for-questions affair" it was revealed that he had taken undeclared payments of between £18,000 and £25,000 from Mohamed Al-Fayed, the owner of Harrods, much of it allegedly handed over in envelopes stuffed with £50 notes.
On 3 July 1997, he was found guilty by Sir Gordon Downey of taking cash for questions from Al Fayed, along with Neil Hamilton.
This article about a Conservative Member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom representing an English constituency and born in the 1940s is a stub.