Gareth Thomas
MP
Official portrait, 2017
Minister of State for International Development
In office
3 October 2008 – 13 May 2010
Prime MinisterGordon Brown
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byAlan Duncan
Minister of State for Trade, Investment and Consumer Affairs
In office
3 October 2008 – 5 June 2009
Prime MinisterGordon Brown
Preceded byThe Lord Jones of Birmingham
Succeeded byThe Lord Davies of Abersoch
Junior ministerial offices
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State
2007–2008Trade and Consumer Affairs
2003–2007International Development
2020–presentTrade
2016–2017Local Government
2014–2015Africa and the Middle East
2013–2014Europe
2011–2013Civil Society
2010–2011Higher Education and Science
2010–2010International Development
Member of Parliament
for Harrow West
Assumed office
1 May 1997
Preceded byRobert Gurth Hughes
Majority8,692 (18.1%)
Chair of the Co-operative Party
In office
10 July 2001 – 8 June 2019
Preceded byJim Lee
Succeeded byAnna Turley
Member of Harrow Council
for Wealdstone
In office
3 May 1990 – 17 July 1997
Succeeded byCyril Harrison
Personal details
Born (1967-07-15) 15 July 1967
Harrow, London, England
Political partyLabour Co-op
EducationHatch End High School
Lowlands College
Alma materAberystwyth University (BSc)
Thames Polytechnic (PGCE)
King's College London (MA)
Websitegareththomas.org.uk

Gareth Richard Thomas (born 15 July 1967) is a British Labour politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Harrow West since 1997. He is currently Shadow Minister for Trade on the Opposition frontbench. Thomas served as Minister of State for International Development and Minister of State for Trade, Investment and Consumer Affairs between 2008 and 2010. He was the Chair of the Co-operative Party from 2001 until 2019, and stands for election as a Labour and Co-operative candidate.

Early life and education

Thomas spent his childhood in the London Borough of Harrow, attending Hatch End High School and later Lowlands College. He gained a Bachelor of Science (BsC) degree in Economics from Aberystwyth University, graduating in 1988. He later undertook a PGCE at Thames Polytechnic to become a teacher, which he completed in 1992. In 1996, he studied for a Master of Arts (MA) degree in Imperial and Commonwealth Studies at King's College London.

Parliamentary career

Thomas was first elected to represent Harrow West at the 1997 general election when he defeated the incumbent Conservative, Robert Hughes, with a majority of 1,240 votes.[1]

He was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for International Development in 2003.

The same year, Thomas made an early attempt to ban smoking in restaurants via a Private Members' Bill.[2]

After a June 2007 reshuffle, Thomas remained at International Development whilst also being part of the new Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, being appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Trade Policy and Consumer Affairs. He had the responsibility of co-ordinating trade policy between the two departments.[3]

Following Gordon Brown's reshuffle of 3 October 2008, Thomas was promoted to Minister of State in both departments, taking on the portfolio of Trade, Investment and Consumer Affairs. In the June 2009 reshuffle DBERR was abolished, leaving Thomas to continue his role solely at International Development, with responsibility for consumer affairs passing to Kevin Brennan.

Thomas helping to cut fruit for donation to a local hospital in 2008.

In May 2010 he was re-elected as Member of Parliament for Harrow West with a reduced majority (based on a notional 2005 result). He was Shadow Minister for Higher Education and Science from October 2010 to October 2011, Shadow Minister for Civil Society from October 2011 to October 2013, Shadow Minister for Europe from March 2013 to October 2014, then Shadow Minister for Africa and the Middle East from October 2014 to March 2015.

At the 2015 general election the Conservative Party candidate Hannah David produced a significant swing from Labour to the Conservatives, reducing his majority to 2,208. Thomas received his worst general election result to date at the 2015 election.[4]

In the 2016 European Union referendum, Thomas campaigned for the UK to remain a member of the European Union (EU) and has consistently supported the United Kingdom's membership of the EU.[5]

Thomas supported Owen Smith in the 2016 Labour Party leadership election.[6] After Jeremy Corbyn's re-election as Labour leader, Thomas was one of the first Labour MPs to return to the frontbench, as Shadow Minister for Local Government until June 2017.

In 2017, he voted against the bill permitting the government to start negotiations on withdrawal from the EU by sending an article 50 notice to the EU; in doing so he broke the party whip.[7]

In the 2017 and 2019 general elections, Thomas was re-elected as the Member of Parliament for Harrow West with majorities of 13,314 and 8,692 respectively.[8]

Thomas organised Harrow's first university fair at Whitmore High School in 2016, allowing students to engage with leading universities within the UK and abroad.[9] The event has been held annually since, and due to its success an additional careers fair was arranged for late 2020.

In 2020, Thomas said the next Labour leader "should confirm they will not support nationalising the water and energy industries", claiming that voters were put off voting Labour because they did not believe these pledges were deliverable alongside calls for nationalisation of the railways and Royal Mail, which Thomas supports.[10]

Thomas supported Emily Thornberry in the 2020 Labour leadership contest.

He has served on the Official Opposition frontbench as Shadow Minister for International Trade since April 2020.[11]

2016 London mayoral bid

In 2015, Thomas sought to become the Labour Party's candidate in the 2016 election for Mayor of London, receiving sufficient nominations to make it to the final six nominees for the party's mayoral candidate. He finished in last place on the party's final ballot, with Sadiq Khan becoming Labour's mayoral candidate.[12]

References

  1. ↑ "BBC NEWS | VOTE 2001 | RESULTS & CONSTITUENCIES | Harrow West". news.bbc.co.uk.
  2. ↑ "Smoking ban passes first test". BBC. 14 April 2003. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  3. ↑ "Gareth R Thomas MP". Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. Archived from the original on 14 October 2008. Retrieved 21 September 2008.
  4. ↑ "Harrow West parliamentary constituency – Election 2015 – BBC News". BBC Online. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
  5. ↑ "Gareth Thomas MP, Harrow West". TheyWorkForYou. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  6. ↑ Smith, Mikey; Bloom, Dan (20 July 2016). "Which MPs are nominating Owen Smith in the Labour leadership contest?". Mirror. Retrieved 10 November 2018.
  7. ↑ Batchelor, Tom (1 February 2017). "Article 50 Brexit vote: Full list of MPs who backed Theresa May starting official EU negotiations - and those who voted against". The Independent.
  8. ↑ "Harrow West parliamentary constituency - Election 2019". BBC News. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  9. ↑ "Students can talk to the top universities in the country at university fair". Harrow Times. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  10. ↑ "Gareth Thomas: Labour should drop water and energy nationalisation". Gareth Thomas MP.
  11. ↑ "Parliamentary career for Gareth Thomas - MPs and Lords - UK Parliament". members.parliament.uk. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  12. ↑ Stone, Jon (15 May 2015). "Labour MP Gareth Thomas joins the race to be his party's London Mayor candidate". Independent. Retrieved 14 July 2015.
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