42 Facts About Thangam Debbonaire

Thangam Elizabeth Rachel Debbonaire, Baroness Debbonaire is a British politician who was the Member of Parliament for Bristol West between 2015 and 2024.

Thangam Debbonaire was previously Shadow Secretary of State for Housing from 2020 to 2021 and Shadow Leader of the House of Commons from 2021 to 2023.

Thangam Debbonaire was appointed shadow Arts and Culture Minister in January 2016, but resigned the following June owing to her lack of confidence in the Labour Party Leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

Thangam Debbonaire rejoined his frontbench team as a whip in October that year, before being made Shadow Brexit Minister in January 2020.

In December 2024, it was announced that Thangam Debbonaire had been made a Life Peer.

Thangam Debbonaire Singh was born on 3 August 1966 in Peterborough to a father of Indian and Sri Lankan Tamil family origin and an English mother.

Thangam Debbonaire then took the first stage of a mathematics degree at the University of Oxford, leaving before graduating, while at the same time training as a cellist at the Royal College of Music.

Thangam Debbonaire went to St John's City College of Technology, Manchester.

Thangam Debbonaire has worked as National Children's Officer for the Women's Aid Federation of England, for which she moved to St Werburghs in Bristol in 1991, and later as an Accreditation Officer, Fundraising Manager, then National Research Manager for Respect, an anti-domestic violence organisation.

Thangam Debbonaire has co-authored two books, and a number of papers, about domestic violence.

In December 2015, shortly after being elected, Thangam Debbonaire was diagnosed with breast cancer, and did not attend a parliamentary vote from June 2015 until March 2016.

Thangam Debbonaire subsequently called on Parliament to allow MPs to vote remotely after she was unable to participate in votes during her recovery.

Thangam Debbonaire resigned from her role on 27 June 2016 following a series of other resignations, saying that she did not believe Corbyn was the right person to lead the Labour Party into the next election.

Thangam Debbonaire opposed Corbyn's call for Article 50 to be triggered on the day immediately following the referendum on the European Union.

Thangam Debbonaire's resignation attracted criticism in her Constituency Labour Party, with some members accusing her of being a liar, a "traitor", and a "scab".

Thangam Debbonaire endorsed Owen Smith in the 2016 Labour leadership election.

On 15 September 2017, Thangam Debbonaire held what was thought to be the UK's first constituency surgery specifically for people on the autism spectrum.

On 9 May 2021, Thangam Debbonaire was moved from the post of Shadow Secretary of State for Housing to Shadow Leader of the House of Commons in a shadow cabinet reshuffle.

In January 2022, Thangam Debbonaire was selected as the Labour candidate for Bristol Central at the 2024 general election.

In December 2024, it was announced that Thangam Debbonaire had been nominated for a life peerage as part of the 2024 Political Peerages.

Thangam Debbonaire opposes the decriminalisation of prostitution and has called for more funding and research to help reform male perpetrators of domestic violence.

Thangam Debbonaire has called on Bristol City Council to stop issuing licences to strip clubs in the city.

Thangam Debbonaire has called for student accommodation providers to pay council tax.

Thangam Debbonaire has supported removal of the Statue of Edward Colston in Bristol.

On 27 January 2017, Thangam Debbonaire stated that she would vote against triggering Article 50, despite being a whip herself and Labour imposing a three-line whip to vote for the government motion.

Thangam Debbonaire said that this was because the government intended to leave "the Single Market or something close to it".

On 29 June 2017, Thangam Debbonaire abstained from voting in an amendment by Chuka Umunna to the Queen's Speech which would have kept the UK in the Single Market and held a vote on the final Brexit deal; her abstention was criticised by Molly Scott Cato, the local Green Party candidate in the 2017 general election.

Thangam Debbonaire defended her abstention, stating that she had supported a similar amendment drafted by Labour.

Thangam Debbonaire said: "I will do everything I can to stop the UK from leaving the EU".

In December 2017, Thangam Debbonaire criticised the quality of the Brexit impact papers published by David Davis, then the Brexit Secretary.

Thangam Debbonaire accused the government of "a dereliction of duty".

In July 2018, Thangam Debbonaire said that she did not support a referendum on the Brexit deal.

Thangam Debbonaire was criticised by Vince Cable, the leader of the Liberal Democrats.

Thangam Debbonaire supports sending addicted users to mandatory rehabilitation programmes.

On 10 July 2018, Thangam Debbonaire co-launched a campaign for drugs policy reform alongside fellow Labour whip Jeff Smith.

Shortly after launching the campaign, Thangam Debbonaire called for drug-testing services to be made compulsory at festivals and nightclubs across the UK.

Thangam Debbonaire had previously called for a Royal Commission to investigate the impact of drugs and had called for the Prime Minister to watch Drugsland, a BBC documentary on drugs in Bristol.

Thangam Debbonaire is married to Kevin Walton, an opera singer, former actor and a director of Ark Stichting, an Amsterdam charity that works with children with special educational needs.

Thangam Debbonaire cites music, knitting and observing space as her hobbies.

Since her breast cancer treatment, during which time she read about the links between cancer and alcohol, Thangam Debbonaire stopped drinking alcohol and transitioned to a vegan diet.

Thangam Debbonaire spent a month in 2017 attempting to live without single-use plastics.

In November 2017, a constituent who harassed Thangam Debbonaire was jailed for 20 weeks after leaving multiple "upsetting and disturbing" racially offensive answerphone messages for a senior case worker.