The Rt Hon Nick Thomas-Symonds

Nick was first elected as the Labour MP for his home constituency of Torfaen in 2015, and was re-elected in 2017, 2019 and 2024. A regular on political shows on TV and radio, Nick has served in a number of frontbench roles: Shadow Pensions Minister; Shadow Employment Minister; Shadow Solicitor-General; Shadow Security Minister; Shadow Home Secretary; Shadow International Trade Secretary; and Shadow Minister Without Portfolio.

In 2021, he was appointed to the Privy Council and, in 2024, after the General Election, he was appointed to Government as Paymaster-General and Minister for the Cabinet Office (Minister for the Constitution and European Union Relations). Nick was the UK Government’s Lead Negotiator on the UK-EU “Reset”: the new UK-EU Strategic Partnership was agreed at a Summit in London in May 2025.

Nick attended St. Alban’s R.C. High School, Pontypool, and read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at St. Edmund Hall before becoming a Tutor and Lecturer in Politics at the college, specialising in twentieth-century British government.

Prior to entering Parliament, he practised as a barrister, specialising in chancery and commercial law. For his work, he was recognised in the Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners.

He is the author of three critically-acclaimed biographies: Attlee: A Life in Politics (London: I.B. Tauris, 2010, now Bloomsbury); Nye: The Political Life of Aneurin Bevan (London: I.B. Tauris, 2014, now Bloomsbury); and Harold Wilson: The Winner (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Orion Publishing, 2022). Nick has reviewed books, published a range of academic articles and penned many opinion-pieces for newspapers. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2012.

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