Rt Hon Nick Thomas-Symonds MP is the Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade, having been appointed to the role by Sir Keir Starmer QC MP in November 2021.

He was born and brought up in the Welsh Valleys constituency of Torfaen, where he has always lived, and which he has represented in Parliament since 2015.

He read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, graduating in 2001 before working as a Tutor/Lecturer in Politics at his old college. Appointed at the age of 21, he taught European and American politics, specialising in twentieth-century British government.

Nick was also a practising barrister prior to his election to Parliament, specialising in chancery and commercial law. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2012 and has written three biographies of Labour politicians: Attlee: A Life in Politics (2010), Nye: The Political Life of Aneurin Bevan (2014) and, most recently, Harold Wilson: The Winner, published in September 2022.

In Parliament, Nick has succeeded in widening access to off-patent drugs, securing a change in the law in January 2016, benefiting people with a range of conditions, including many cancers.

He has served on the Labour frontbench in a number of roles: Shadow Pensions Minister; Shadow Employment Minister; Shadow Solicitor-General; Shadow Security Minister; Shadow
Welsh Office Minister and Shadow Home Secretary.

In February 2021, he was appointed a member of the Privy Council by Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and, in that capacity, signed the Accession document for King Charles III.

He is married to Rebecca, and they have three children: Matilda, Florence and William.