UKIP in 2014, insisting he supported the Conservatives' other policies and felt they were the best option for a referendum on the EU. In 2014, Smith said that getting a new hospital in the Pease Pottage area remained his "top issue" and was something he had raised in Parliament after constituents had criticised a lack of progress on the issue. Gatwick Airport lies within his constituency and he has frequently spoken in favour of improved rail links to the airport and the reduction or abolition of Air Passenger Duty. On the airport's 2018 plans to expand and use its emergency runway for departure flights, Smith has said: "Crawley’s prosperity depends on the success of Gatwick Airport and the publication of this new draft master plan goes a long way to securing future growth in the town. I have always supported the airport growing within its existing boundaries." His parliamentary candidacy at the 2015 general election was personally endorsed by Queen guitarist Brian May on the grounds of his animal welfare record. May had worked with him in opposing the government's badger culling. In parliament, Smith has also spoken against the export of live animals, the import of foie gras, the ivory trade, fur clothing and animals in circuses. He has spoken in favour of CCTV in slaughterhouses, the reduction of the use of animals in scientific experiments and for increased criminal penalties for animal cruelty. Smith has frequently spoken up for the rights of the expelled Chagos Islanders, many of whom live in his constituency. In January 2018 he introduced the private members' British Indian Ocean Territory (Citizenship) Bill to enable the islanders and their descendants to claim British Overseas Territory citizenship. The Bill failed to complete its passage through Parliament before the end of the session, which meant it made no further progress. In 2022 he successfully tabled an amendment to the Nationality & Borders Bill which granted British Citizenship rights to the descendants of exiled Chagos Islanders. In the House of Commons he sits on the International Development Committee and Committees on Arms Export Controls (formerly Quadripartite Committee), the International Development Sub-Committee on the Work of the Independent Commission for Aid Impact and the International Development Committee. He previously sat on the European Scrutiny Committee. Smith is a member of the Animal Welfare (co-chair), Blood Cancer (chair), Heart Disease (acting chair) All-Party Parliamentary Groups as well as sixteen