From the age of eight years old, Tom Brake lived with his family in France and attended the Lycee International in the western suburbs of Paris. Ten years later Tom returned to England to continue his education at Imperial College, London where he gained a BSc (Hons) degree in Physics. As a student he became actively involved in human rights issues. He joined Amnesty International and was chairman of the Imperial College students’ group from 1981 to 1982.
After leaving University in 1983, Tom joined Hoskyns (now Cap Gemini) leaving the company as a Principal Consultant when he was elected to Parliament in 1997. Tom then moved to Carshalton, Surrey in 1990 and was elected a Sutton Councillor in 1994. He became a member of the Council’s Policy and Resources Committee and Vice-Chair of the Policy Sub-Committee.
He stood as the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Carshalton and Wallington in 1992; and won the seat in 1997. He was re-elected in 2001, 2005 and 2010.
Tom has held many posts in the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary team, including Environment Spokesman, Shadow Transport Minister, International Development Spokesman, Shadow Secretary of State for Transport and Shadow Minister in the Communities and Local Government Team. He served on the Transport Select Committee until November 2003. He was the Chairman of the National Council for Civil Protection, the Parliamentary Sponsor of the Air Safety Group and a member of the Franco-British Parliamentary Relations Group. In 2007 Tom was named Liberal Democrat Spokesman for London and the Olympics.
In January 2008, Tom moved to a new role as Shadow Minister for the Home Office. In February 2008 Tom was appointed to the prestigious Home Affairs Select Commitee.
On May 6th 2010 Tom was re-elected with a majority of over 5,000.
