Thangam Debbonaire
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Thangam Elizabeth Rachel Debbonaire (' Singh; born 3 August 1966) is a British Labour Party politician, serving as Shadow Leader of the House of Commons since May 2021. She was previously the
Shadow Secretary of State for Housing The Shadow Secretary of State for Housing was a position in the United Kingdom's Shadow Cabinet that was created on 7 October 2016 by the Leader of the Opposition, Jeremy Corbyn during a cabinet reshuffle. This position succeeds the position of ...
from 2020 to 2021. She was elected
Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
(MP) for Bristol West at the 2015 general election, when she defeated the incumbent
Liberal Democrat Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties usually follow a liberal democratic ideology. Active parties Former parties See also *Liberal democracy *Lib ...
MP Stephen Williams. Shortly after being elected, Debbonaire was diagnosed with
breast cancer Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a re ...
, and did not attend a parliamentary vote from June 2015 until March 2016. She was appointed shadow Arts and Culture Minister in January 2016, but resigned on 27 June 2016 owing to her lack of confidence in the Labour Party Leader,
Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
. She rejoined his frontbench team as a whip in October that year, before being made Shadow Brexit Minister in January 2020.


Early life and education

Debbonaire was born in
Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...
on 3 August 1966 to a father of Indian and Sri Lankan Tamil family origin and an English mother. She was educated at two
independent school An independent school is independent in its finances and governance. Also known as private schools, non-governmental, privately funded, or non-state schools, they are not administered by local, state or national governments. In British Eng ...
s, Bradford Girls' Grammar School and
Chetham's School of Music Chetham's School of Music () is an independent co-educational music school in Manchester, England. Chetham's educates students between the ages of 8 and 18, all of whom enter via musical auditions. Students receive a full academic education a ...
. She then took the first stage of a mathematics degree at the
University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...
, leaving before graduating, while at the same time training as a cellist at the
Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...
. She went to St John's City College of Technology, Manchester. Subsequently, she gained an MSc in Management, Development and Social Responsibility at the
University of Bristol , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...
. In her twenties, she changed her name by deed poll from Singh to Debbonaire, borrowed from a relative from her first marriage.


Early career

Before becoming an MP, she performed professionally as a classical cellist, including for the
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Royal Liverpool Philharmonic is a music organisation based in Liverpool, England, that manages a professional symphony orchestra, a concert venue, and extensive programmes of learning through music. Its orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmon ...
. She has worked as National Children's Officer for the
Women's Aid Federation of England Women's Aid Federation of England, commonly called Women's Aid within England, is one of a group of charities across the United Kingdom. There are four main Women's Aid Federations, one for each of the countries of the United Kingdom. Its aim is t ...
, for which she moved to
St Werburghs St. Werburgh's is an area in north-east central Bristol, England. It is surrounded by the M32 motorway, railway embankments and allotment slopes. Geology The solid geology of St Werburghs comprises Triassic Redcliffe Sandstone to the south- ...
in Bristol in 1991, and later as an Accreditation Officer, Fundraising Manager, then National Research Manager for
Respect Respect, also called esteem, is a positive feeling or action shown towards someone or something considered important or held in high esteem or regard. It conveys a sense of admiration for good or valuable qualities. It is also the process of ...
, an anti-
domestic violence Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or family violence) is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. ''Domestic violence'' is often used as a synonym for ''intimate partner ...
organisation. She has co-authored two books, and a number of papers, about domestic violence. In 2004, Debbonaire and her husband, Kevin Walton, co-authored (along with Emilie Debbonaire) a report for Ireland's Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform entitled ''Evaluation of work with domestic abusers in Ireland''.


Parliamentary career

At the 2015 general election, Debbonaire was selected as a Labour candidate via an all-women shortlist for the constituency of Bristol West. She was elected with a majority of 5,673 votes, defeating incumbent
Liberal Democrat Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties usually follow a liberal democratic ideology. Active parties Former parties See also *Liberal democracy *Lib ...
MP Stephen Williams, who finished in third place after the
Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...
. Debbonaire was diagnosed with
breast cancer Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a re ...
on 16 June 2015. She subsequently called on Parliament to allow MPs to vote remotely after she was unable to participate in votes during her recovery. During her treatment period she was appointed as Shadow Arts and Culture Minister by
Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
. According to Debbonaire, she found out about the role when a journalist contacted her in hospital in response to a Labour press release announcing that she was taking it on, and was then briefly removed from the position before she got a chance to meet with Corbyn. According to Debbonaire's colleague Chi Onwurah, whose frontbench portfolio was briefly split with hers, Corbyn's communication with both women, directly or indirectly, was practically non-existent. 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. She also opposed Corbyn's call for Article 50 to be triggered on the day immediately following the referendum on the European Union. Debbonaire's resignation attracted criticism in her
Constituency Labour Party __NOTOC__ A constituency Labour Party (CLP) is an organisation of members of the British Labour Party who live in a particular parliamentary constituency. In England and Wales, CLP boundaries coincide with those for UK parliamentary constituenc ...
(CLP), with some concerned members accusing her of being a liar, a "traitor", and a "scab". Debbonaire endorsed
Owen Smith Owen Smith (born 2 May 1970) is a former Labour Party politician and subsequently a British lobbyist, who has been the UK government relations director for pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb since 2020. Smith was Member of Parliamen ...
in the 2016 Labour leadership election. After Corbyn defeated Smith, on 12 October 2016, Debbonaire accepted an appointment as a shadow whip in Corbyn's frontbench team, overcoming her former belief that Corbyn was not the right person to lead the Labour Party into the next election. Debbonaire was reelected in the 2017 general election with an increased majority of 37,336 votes; this was the fourth-largest majority by vote size nationally. Bristol West had been the number one target for the Green Party, which slipped to third place behind the Conservatives with a 12.9% vote share. Debbonaire had resisted calls from the Green Party for her to stand aside as part of a progressive alliance. The size of Debbonaire's majority was considered a shock, as the seat had been billed as a four-way marginal. On 15 September 2017, Debbonaire held what is thought to be the UK's first constituency surgery specifically for people on the autism spectrum. In the same month, she urged local constituency members discontented about her resignation to stop planning her deselection, which she claimed was "a catastrophic waste of time". On 9 May 2021, Debbonaire was moved from the post of
Shadow Secretary of State for Housing The Shadow Secretary of State for Housing was a position in the United Kingdom's Shadow Cabinet that was created on 7 October 2016 by the Leader of the Opposition, Jeremy Corbyn during a cabinet reshuffle. This position succeeds the position of ...
to Shadow Leader of the House of Commons in a shadow cabinet reshuffle.


Views

Debbonaire describes herself as a "northern European socialist – a democratic socialist". She supports "fettered capitalism". Debbonaire opposes the decriminalisation of prostitution and has called for more funding and research to help reform male perpetrators of domestic violence. She supports mandatory education classes in female equality for newly arrived male refugees, as well as more English language support for refugees as part of a broader integration strategy. She has called on
Bristol City Council Bristol City Council is the local authority of Bristol, England. The council is a unitary authority, and is unusual in the United Kingdom in that its executive function is controlled by a directly elected mayor of Bristol. Bristol has 34 ward ...
to stop issuing licences to
strip club A strip club is a venue where strippers provide adult entertainment, predominantly in the form of striptease or other Erotic dancing, erotic or exotic dances. Strip clubs typically adopt a nightclub or Bar (establishment), bar style, and can also ...
s in the city. Debbonaire has also called for student accommodation providers to pay
council tax Council Tax is a local taxation system used in England, Scotland and Wales. It is a tax on domestic property, which was introduced in 1993 by the Local Government Finance Act 1992, replacing the short-lived Community Charge The Community C ...
.


Brexit

Before the 2016 referendum on the UK's membership of the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
, Debbonaire endorsed remaining in the EU. Bristol West voted to remain in the European Union by 79.3%; this was the third-highest percentage result for the Remain campaign by parliamentary constituency. On 27 January 2017, Debbonaire stated that she would vote against triggering Article 50, despite being a whip herself and Labour imposing a
three-line whip A whip is an official of a political party whose task is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. This means ensuring that members of the party vote according to the party platform, rather than according to their own individual ideology o ...
to vote for the government motion. She explained that this was because the government intended to leave "the Single Market or something close to it". On 29 June 2017, Debbonaire abstained from voting in an amendment by
Chuka Umunna Chuka Harrison Umunna (; born 17 October 1978) is a British retired politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Streatham from 2010 until 2019. A former member of the Labour Party, he was part of the Shadow Cabinet from 2011 to ...
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 Sarah Margaret "Molly" Scott Cato (born 21 May 1963) is a British Green politician, economist and activist. She served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South West England from 2014 to 2020. From 2012, until her election as an M ...
, the local Green Party candidate in the 2017 general election. Debbonaire defended her abstention, stating that she had supported a similar amendment drafted by Labour. She affirmed: "I will do everything I can to stop the UK from leaving the EU." In December 2017, Debbonaire criticised the quality of the Brexit impact papers published by David Davis, then the
Brexit Secretary Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union or, informally, Brexit Secretary, was a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the business of the Department for Exiting the Europ ...
. She stated that the sectoral analyses "wouldn't get an A grade...if
he government He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
were submitting it as GCSE research" and believed that the papers only compiled information already publicly available. She accused the government of "a dereliction of duty". In July 2018, Debbonaire said that she did not support a referendum on the
Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or ...
deal. She was criticised by
Vince Cable Sir John Vincent Cable (born 9 May 1943) is a British politician who was Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2017 to 2019. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Twickenham from 1997 to 2015 and from 2017 to 2019. He also served in the Cabinet as ...
, the leader of the Liberal Democrats. In response, Debbonaire said that there was insufficient public support for a final vote on the deal, and she accused the Liberal Democrats of "playing politics" on the issue.


Drugs reform

Debbonaire's treatment for breast cancer led her to support greater regulation of alcohol. She supports mandatory graphic health warnings on alcoholic drinks, akin to those on cigarette packaging, and has called for parliamentary debate to raise awareness of the link between alcohol and cancer. Debbonaire has previously called for an “evidence-based policy review” of the laws around drugs such as ecstasy and
marijuana Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...
. She supports sending addicted users to mandatory rehabilitation programmes. Debbonaire has also voiced support for "drug consumption rooms", telling ministers that drug-related admissions to
Bristol Royal Infirmary The Bristol Royal Infirmary, also known as the BRI, is a large teaching hospital situated in the centre of Bristol, England. It has links with the nearby University of Bristol and the Faculty of Health and Social Care at the University of the Wes ...
cost the
NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...
£1.3 million per year. On 10 July 2018, Debbonaire co-launched a campaign for drugs policy reform alongside fellow Labour whip Jeff Smith. The campaign was launched without policy proposals, intended as a forum for Labour members to discuss drugs policy reform. Shortly after launching the campaign, Debbonaire called for drug-testing services to be made compulsory at festivals and nightclubs across the UK. She 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.


Harassment

In August 2016, a student at the University of Bristol was investigated after telling Debbonaire to "get in the sea", an
Internet meme An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...
, which she interpreted as a death threat. Following a complaint to the university by Debbonaire concerning that tweet and others, including one which called her a "traitor", the student apologised, deleted the tweet, and closed her Twitter account. The tweet was posted on the day of the funeral of Jo Cox, another Labour MP, who was murdered in June 2016. In November 2017, a constituent who harassed Debbonaire was jailed for 20 weeks after leaving multiple "upsetting and disturbing" racially offensive answerphone messages for a senior case worker.


Personal life

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 Special educational needs (SEN), also known as special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in the United Kingdom refers to the education of children who require different education provision to the mainstream system. Definition The definiti ...
. Since her breast cancer treatment, during which time she read about the links between cancer and alcohol, Debbonaire drinks very little alcohol, is
vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. ...
and spent a month in 2017 attempting to live without single-use plastics. Debbonaire cites music, knitting and observing space as her hobbies. During her treatment for breast cancer, she credited listening to classical music with helping her recovery.


Selected bibliography

Books * Chapters in books * Journal articles * Papers * * *


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Debbonaire, Thangam 1966 births Alumni of the University of Bristol Alumni of the University of Oxford British politicians of Indian descent English people of Sri Lankan Tamil descent Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Living people Members of Parliament for Bristol People educated at Bradford Girls' Grammar School People educated at Chetham's School of Music Politics of Bristol UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 UK MPs 2019–present 21st-century British women politicians 21st-century English women 21st-century English people