Editing Martin Smyth (section)

==Member of Parliament==
Smyth was selected to fill the vacancy caused by the murder of [[Robert Bradford (NI politician)|Robert Bradford]], MP for South Belfast. In the [[1982 Belfast South by-election|1982 by-election]], he received over 17,000 votes and was returned.<ref name=autogenerated2 /> Later the same year, he was elected to the [[Northern Ireland Assembly]], again polling double the electoral quota.<ref name=autogenerated2 /> He, along with all other Unionist MPs, resigned his seat in 1985 in protest at the [[Anglo-Irish Agreement]] and successfully defended the seat in the subsequent by election.<ref>[http://www.ark.ac.uk/elections/bsb.htm South Belfast, 1983–1992] ARK – Access Research Knowledge</ref> In his paper "A Federated People" (published by the Joint Unionist Working Party in 1987), Smyth proposed a federal United Kingdom with the state governments of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Each would be autonomous and, most significantly, fully independent from the federal parliament and government of the United Kingdom at Westminster.

Smyth was on the parliamentary advisory board of [[Western Goals Institute|Western Goals (UK)]], which held a well-attended fringe meeting at the Conservative Party conference in October 1988 on the subject of "International Terrorism – how the West can fight back". He was one of numerous high-profile speakers including [[Walter Walker (British Army officer)|General Sir Walter Walker]], [[Andrew Hunter (British politician)|Andrew Hunter]] MP, [[Alfred Sherman|Sir Alfred Sherman]] and [[Harvey Ward (director-general)|Harvey Ward]].<ref>''Labour Research'', November 1988, p.2.</ref> Hunter and Ward both gave considerable detail to the meeting concerning top-level links between the IRA and ANC.<ref>''Young European'' Newsletter, December 1988 edition, published by [[Western Goals (UK)]], London.</ref>

Having won first place in the ballot for Private Members' Bills, Smyth successfully introduced the Disabled Persons (Northern Ireland) Bill to afford disabled people in Northern Ireland analogous rights for disabled people elsewhere in the UK as provided for in the Disabled Persons (Services, Consultation and Representation) Act 1986. Smyth's Bill received [[Royal Assent]] in 1989.