Thangam Debbonaire
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Thangam Debbonaire MP |
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| Member of Parliament for Bristol West |
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Assumed office 7 May 2015 |
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| Preceded by | Stephen Williams |
| Majority | 5,673 (8.8%) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 3 August 1966 |
| Political party | Labour |
| Alma mater |
University of Oxford University of Bristol |
| Website | Official website |
Thangam Rachel Debbonaire (born 3 August 1966) is a British Labour Party politician. Debbonaire was a professional cellist and has also worked as National Research Manager for domestic violence charity Respect. She became Member of Parliament (MP) for Bristol West at the 2015 General Election, when she defeated the incumbent Liberal Democrat MP Stephen Williams. Shortly after winning Bristol West, Debbonaire was diagnosed with breast cancer, and did not attend a Parliamentary vote from June 2015 until March 2016.
In January 2016 she started to plan a phased return to Westminster from February, and was appointed as shadow minister for Culture, Media and Sport until resigning on 27 June 2016 (among many others) because of her lack of confidence in the Labour Party Leader, Jeremy Corbyn. She rejoined his front bench team as a whip in October that year.
Born Thangam Singh in 1966 to a Tamil father and an English mother, she was educated at two independent schools, Bradford Girls' Grammar School and Chetham's School of Music. She then took the first stage of a mathematics degree at the University of Oxford whilst at the same time training as a cellist at the Royal College of Music. Subsequently, she gained an MSc in Management, Development and Social Responsibility at the University of Bristol.
Before becoming an MP, she performed professionally as a classical cellist, including for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (1990–1991). She has worked as National Children's Officer for the Women's Aid Federation of England (1991–1998), for which she moved to St Werburghs in Bristol, and later as an Accreditation Officer, Fundraising Manager, then National Research Manager for Respect, an anti-domestic violence organisation (2006–2015).
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