Chris Bryant has been the member for the Rhondda since 2001, and there is not much of Parliament he has not done: Anglican priest before politics, the Commons' own historian in office, a persistent voice on LGBT rights, and since September 2025 a minister at Business and Trade. He knows the rulebook better than almost anyone, which makes the oldest mark against him the interesting one. In the 2009 expenses scandal Bryant had claimed around £92,000 over five years and flipped the designation of his second home twice, his mortgage interest climbing from £7,800 to £12,000 a year, selling one London flat for a £77,000 profit before flipping again. He has said he moved because of homophobic abuse at his constituency home, which is true and does not entirely answer the accounting. The outside income on his register runs mostly to book royalties, modest and declared. Verdict: a serious parliamentarian who mastered the rules of the House, and once used the ones on expenses rather more nimbly than most.