Chris Smith is to quit politics at the next election.

The former culture secretary said yesterday that he bore "no animus" towards the government and that his decision was not linked to the resignations of Robin Cook and Clare Short.

Smith, the MP for Islington South and Finsbury, is already a paid adviser to Disney UK.

He is to become the paid part-time director of a new body, the Clore Cultural Leadership Programme, sponsored by the heiress Dame Vivien Duffield.