The same year,Thomas made an early attempt to ban smoking in restaurants via a Private Members' Bill.[4]
After a June 2007 reshuffle,Thomas remained at International Development whilst also being part of the new Department for Business,Enterprise and Regulatory Reform,being appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Trade Policy and Consumer Affairs. He had the responsibility of co-ordinating trade policy between the two departments.[5]
Following Gordon Brown's reshuffle of 3 October 2008,Thomas was promoted to Minister of State in both departments,taking on the portfolio of Trade,Investment and Consumer Affairs. In the June 2009 reshuffle DBERR was abolished,leaving Thomas to continue his role solely at International Development,with responsibility for consumer affairs passing to Kevin Brennan.
Thomas helping to cut fruit for donation to a local hospital in 2008.
In May 2010 he was re-elected as Member of Parliament for Harrow West with a reduced majority (based on a notional 2005 result). He was Shadow Minister for Higher Education and Science from October 2010 to October 2011,Shadow Minister for Civil Society from October 2011 to October 2013,Shadow Minister for Europe from March 2013 to October 2014,then Shadow Minister for Africa and the Middle East from October 2014 to March 2015.
At the 2015 general election the Conservative Party candidate Hannah David produced a significant swing from Labour to the Conservatives,reducing his majority to 2,208. Thomas received his worst general election result to date at the 2015 election.[6]
In the 2016 European Union referendum,Thomas campaigned for the UK to remain a member of the European Union (EU) and has consistently supported the United Kingdom's membership of the EU.[7]
In 2017,he voted against the bill permitting the government to start negotiations on withdrawal from the EU by sending an article 50 notice to the EU;in doing so he broke the party whip.[9]
In the 2017 and 2019 general elections,Thomas was re-elected as the Member of Parliament for Harrow West with majorities of 13,314 and 8,692 respectively.[10]
Thomas organised Harrow's first university fair at Whitmore High School in 2016,allowing students to engage with leading universities within the UK and abroad.[11] The event has been held annually since,and due to its success an additional careers fair was arranged for late 2020.
In 2020,Thomas said the next Labour leader "should confirm they will not support nationalising the water and energy industries",claiming that voters were put off voting Labour because they did not believe these pledges were deliverable alongside calls for nationalisation of the railways and Royal Mail,which Thomas supports.[12]
Thomas is a member of Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East and a founder member of Labour Friends of India.
2024 General Election
Thomas retained his seat with a majority of 6,642 in the 2024 General Election[14] whereupon was appointed the government role of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Business and Trade[15]
2016 London mayoral bid
In 2015,Thomas sought to become the Labour Party's candidate in the 2016 election for Mayor of London,receiving sufficient nominations to make it to the final six nominees for the party's mayoral candidate. He finished in last place on the party's final ballot,with Sadiq Khan becoming Labour's mayoral candidate.[16]
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