Tom Rutland | |
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![]() Official portrait, 2024 | |
Member of Parliament for East Worthing and Shoreham | |
Assumed office 4 July 2024 | |
Preceded by | Tim Loughton |
Majority | 9,519 (19.4%) |
Member of Lambeth London Borough Council for Streatham Common and Vale | |
In office 5 May 2022 –2 May 2024 | |
Personal details | |
Born | February 1992 (age 33) |
Political party | Labour |
Alma mater | Jesus College,Oxford (PPE) |
Website | Official website |
Thomas William Rutland [1] (born February 1992) is a British Labour Party politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for East Worthing and Shoreham since July 2024. [2]
Rutland was born in February 1992. [3] He was educated at The Skinners' School,an all-boys grammar school in Tunbridge Wells. He read philosophy,politics,and economics (PPE) at Jesus College,Oxford between 2010 and 2013,graduating with an upper second class honours degree. [4] [5] He was Junior Common Room president at Jesus College and subsequently president of Oxford University Student Union from 2013 to 2014. [6] [7]
After university,Rutland worked on Tessa Jowell's unsuccessful 2015 campaign to be chosen as Labour's candidate for Mayor of London and then as a parliamentary researcher for Andrew Adonis,Baron Adonis,a Labour member of the House of Lords. [8] From 2015 to 2016,he was an analyst at Deloitte. [9] He then worked as an executive support officer at Tower Hamlets London Borough Council from 2016 to 2017,an as a public affairs officer at Imperial College London from 2017 to 2019. [9] [10] He has worked as a press officer for the Financial Conduct Authority,and the Prospect trade union. [11] He left Prospect in July 2024,having been elected an MP. [12]
Rutland was a councillor for Streatham Common and Vale ward on Lambeth London Borough Council from 2022 to 2024. [13]
In the 2024 general election,Rutland was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for East Worthing and Shoreham with 22,120 votes (45.1%) and a majority of 9,519 over the second place Conservative candidate. [14] On 28 October 2024,he made his maiden speech in the House of Commons during a debate on Remembrance and Veterans. [15]
Rutland was elected as a member of the Culture,Media and Sport Select Committee on 21st October 2024. [16]
Rutland is gay, [17] and this led to his interest in politics as a teenager. [15]
I think everyone in this place had that moment when they switched on to politics and realised the difference that it could make. For me, it was realising as a teenager that I was gay