Born in Torfaen, representing Torfaen

Rt Hon Nick Thomas-Symonds MP was elected as the Labour MP for Torfaen in May 2015 and was re-elected in June 2017, and in December 2019.

He was born in Panteg Hospital and brought up in Blaenavon, where he attended St. Felix R.C. Primary School. He then went to St. Alban’s R.C. High School, Pontypool, at which he later served as a Governor (2007-2015). He read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, graduating in 2001 before working as a Tutor/Lecturer in Politics at his old college (2002-2015), specialising in twentieth-century British government.

After university, Nick trained as a barrister, and was a practising tenant at Civitas Law in Cardiff, Wales’s first specialist civil and public law Chambers. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2012 and has written three biographies of Labour Politicians, Attlee: A Life in Politics (2010) and Nye: The Political Life of Aneurin Bevan (2014) and in September 2022 he published Harold Wilson: The Winner.

Before being elected as an MP, Nick served as the Secretary of the Blaenavon Branch of the Labour Party and Secretary of the Torfaen Constituency Labour Party.

Shortly after his election, Nick was named the Shadow Minister for Work and Pensions from September 2015 until June 2016. During his first term, he also served on the Justice Committee. In October 2016 Nick became the Shadow Solicitor-General, and in July 2017, was given the added responsibility as the Shadow Minister for Security.

In April 2020, Nick was appointed as the Shadow Home Secretary, and appointed a member of the Privy Council by Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and, in that capacity, signed the Accession document for King Charles III.  Sir Keir Starmer QC MP in November 2021 appointed Nick Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade. Following this role, Nick was appointed as Shadow Minister Without Portfolio in the Cabinet Office. Nick was re-elected in 2024, and subsequently appointed Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office (Minister for the Constitution and European Relations).

Nick lives in Abersychan with his wife Rebecca, his daughters Matilda and Florence, his son William, and their dog, Pippa.