WHO'S WHO
Tom Brake MP
Lib Dem majority: 1,068 (2%)
Constituency: Carshalton & Wallington
Region: London
PA Number: 132
Address:
Kennedy House
5 Nightingale Road
Carshalton
Surrey
SM5 2DN
Tel: 020 8255 8155
Email: braket@parliament.uk
Web: http://www.tombrake.co.uk
Date of Birth: 06/05/1962
Occupation: MP
Education: Lycee International, France, Imperial College, London University
Experience: Principal Consultant (Information Technology) for Cap Gemini
Council Experience: Elected to Hackney Borough Council in 1988, Sutton Council 1994
Parliamentary Experience: 2008- Home Affairs Spokesperson, 2007- Shadow Minister for London and Olympics ,Shadow Minister for Local Government; 2006- London spokesperson; 2005-06 Shadow Secretary of State for Transport, Shadow Secretary of State for Int. Development 2003-05
Memberships: Amnesty International and Greenpeace
Marital status/children: Married, one daughter and one son
Interests: Environmental issues and Human Rights
Seat:Carshalton & Wallington |
Liberal Democrats17,357 (40%) |
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Turnout:43,061 (63%) |
Conservative16,289 (38%) |
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Swing4.4% Lib Dem to Con |
Labour7,396 (17%) |
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Other2,019 (5%) |
BIOGRAPHY
Tom Brake is the Liberal Democrats' Spokesperson on Home
Affairs.
Tom was born in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, but from
the age of eight lived with his family in France where he was educated at the
Lycee International School in Saint-Germain-en-Laye near Paris. He returned to
England to take a BSc in Physics at Imperial College, London. As a student Tom
joined Amnesty International and was chairman of the Imperial College students'
group from 1981 to 1982. After leaving university in 1983 he joined Hoskyns
(later Cap Gemini) as a trainee computer programmer and worked his way up to
become a principal information technology consultant.
He joined the
Liberal Party in 1983 when he helped the Alliance candidate’s General Election
campaign in the North Kensington constituency. In 1988 he was elected as a
Liberal Democrat councillor in the London Borough of Hackney, where he was the
council's joint lead member on Environment, but left the council in 1990
when he moved to Carshalton, Surrey.
He stood for Parliament at the 1992
General Election in Carshalton and Wallington, reducing the Tory MP’s majority
by nearly 4,500 votes, and was elected as a councillor in the London Borough of
Sutton in 1994. At the 1997 General Election he succeeded in winning election as
the Liberal Democrat MP for Carshalton and Wallington, overturning a majority of
nearly 10,000 to win by 2,267.
He was appointed by Paddy Ashdown as a
parliamentary spokesman on the Environment, Transport and the Regions in 1999.
He joined the Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet in 2003 as Shadow Secretary of
State for International Development spokesman and after the 2005 General
Election became Shadow Transport spokesman.
He left the Shadow Cabinet
after the election of Sir Menzies Campbell as party leader in March 2006 but
became Shadow Minister for Local Government and Community Cohesion. In 2007 Tom
became Shadow Minister for London and the Olympics. Tom currently
serves as Shadow Minister for Home Affairs under Nick Clegg. Tom is also
Lib Dem Governor on the Westminster Foundation for Democracy.
Tom
speaks fluent French, and some Portuguese and Russian. He and his wife Candida
have two children, and Tom keeps fit by running and cycling.
