Tom Hayes is the Labour MP for Bournemouth East, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Hayes received 18,316 votes (40.8%). The Conservative candidate, Tobias Ellwood, received 12,837 votes (28.6%), while the Reform UK candidate, Martin Houlden, secured 6,268 votes (14.0%). Hayes was elected with a majority of 5,479 votes.

The Bournemouth East constituency is located in Dorset, South West England. The seat, created in 1974, was held continuously by the Conservative Party from its creation until the 2024 general election.

Hayes’s immediate predecessor as the MP for Bournemouth East was Tobias Ellwood of the Conservative Party. Ellwood represented the seat from 2005 to 2024.

Political Career

Hayes currently serves as a parliamentary private secretary (PPS) in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. A PPS acts as an unpaid parliamentary assistant, providing a link between the senior frontbencher and backbench MPs. The role is widely regarded as the first step on the ministerial ladder. Although they cannot speak for the government in debates, a PPS is bound by collective responsibility and becomes part of the so-called “payroll vote”, expected to support the official line in all divisions. Hayes was appointed to this role in July 2026, following the Labour leadership contest and Andy Burnham’s elevation as prime minister.

Hayes previously served as a PPS in the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government from September 2025 to July 2026.

In May 2026, Hayes was among the over 100 Labour MPs who signed a joint statement insisting it was “no time for a leadership contest.” The letter was an intervention in the political crisis engulfing Keir Starmer’s premiership, after Labour suffered heavy losses in the 2026 local elections and devolved elections to the Scottish Parliament and Senedd Cymru. It was organised as a counterweight to a mounting rebellion that had seen high-profile figures, including some ministers, call for Starmer’s resignation.

The statement read: “Last week we had a devastatingly tough set of election results. It shows we have a hard job ahead to win back trust from the electorate.

“That job needs to start today – with all of us working together to deliver the change the country needs.

“We must focus on that. This is no time for a leadership contest.”

In the wake of the 2024 general election, which saw Labour returned to power after 14 years in opposition, Hayes was appointed by 10 Downing Street as a “national mission champion” for energy – a role intended to cut across departmental boundaries and support Labour’s programme for “national renewal”. These “missions”, first set out in 2023 and subsequently given less prominence, included boosting economic growth, reducing NHS waiting times, tackling crime, establishing a publicly owned clean energy company and expanding educational opportunity.

Hayes can sometimes be seen representing Labour on GB News.

Hayes is a patron of LGBT+ Labour – a socialist society formally affiliated with the Labour Party.

Hayes is listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) for play (chair).

Hayes delivered his maiden speech on 10 October 2024 during a debate on Team GB and Paralympics GB.

In it, he said: “I know that life is more than a zero-sum game in which what you gain, I lose. When teachers stayed late after the school day to give me the education I needed, they did not see my gain as their loss. When nurses and doctors went so many extra miles to care for my family, they did not regard my family’s gain as their loss.

“When family members and neighbours wrapped their arms around me and nourished and cared for me, they did not regard our gain as their loss.

“These kind, generous people gave so much of themselves because they wanted a young boy and his parents to have a better life. They believed, like me, that life is about enlarging the flourishing, the care and the love in our world, and that is why I am here in this place.”

He added: “Poverty is a systemic issue that needs big solutions: houses need building, healthcare needs re-establishing, education needs resurrecting. This is how we will make Bournemouth and Britain better and fairer.

“These are my values. These are the values of Bournemouth. Our town can and will do amazing things for the enduring benefit of generations to come, and I pledge to stand alongside my neighbours in making Bournemouth better.”

Before entering parliament, Hayes served as a Labour councillor on Oxford City Council from 2014 to 2024. He was deputy leader of the council from 2020 to 2022.

Political Views

Leadership elections

Labour deputy leadership 2025: Hayes was one of 175 Labour MPs who nominated Bridget Phillipson for the party’s deputy leadership in September 2025. The election followed the resignation of Angela Rayner, who stepped down as deputy prime minister and deputy party leader after an investigation into her tax affairs. It marked the first time since 2007 that Labour had held a deputy leadership contest while in government.

Phillipson, the serving education secretary, was widely viewed as the candidate favoured by Downing Street and the party leadership. She secured 175 nominations from the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), comfortably exceeding the 80 required to reach the final ballot. She was ultimately defeated by Lucy Powell.

Factional identity and party tradition

Labour Growth Group: Hayes has been listed as a member of the Labour Growth Group (LGG) – a vocal faction of backbenchers committed to ensuring economic growth remains the central mission of the government. The group, largely composed of MPs from the 2024 intake, positions itself as the voice of “the builders, not the blockers” and provides organised support for ministers taking on politically difficult decisions in the name of economic expansion.

In an open letter addressed to Keir Starmer, issued upon the group’s founding in July 2024, LGG MPs said it was imperative that “the government grasps the nettle and goes for growth”.

They added: “This absolutely has to start with the sweeping planning reforms to get Britain building again. Under the Tories, planning permissions for new homes hit record lows and housebuilding cratered. Indeed, not once in their 14 years in power did the Conservatives meet their housing targets.

“Energy and transport projects were promised but not built. That’s why we are writing to you to make clear that it’s in the national interest to start delivering on our manifesto promise, including 1.5 million more homes across this parliament at the earliest opportunity.

“A failure to act will not be forgiven by the public. Britain has a housing crisis and a huge infrastructure deficit – without strong and immediate action, this will only worsen.”

Living Standards Coalition: Hayes is a member of the Living Standards Coalition. Established in July 2025, the group’s stated aim was to develop and promote policy ideas that directly reduce everyday costs for households, particularly in areas such as food, energy, housing and childcare. In an open letter published upon its founding, addressed to Keir Starmer, the MPs wrote: “Our constituents will ask one question at the next election: did this Labour government make me better off?”

They added: “To raise living standards, we support government interventions that will help to increase incomes and lower costs.”

SERA: Hayes has been listed as a member of the Socialist Environment and Resources Association (SERA) – a socialist society affiliated with the Labour Party. Founded in 1973, SERA is the party’s official environmental campaign group. The organisation campaigns on a wide range of issues, including renewable energy, biodiversity, air quality and the transition to a green economy. SERA describes its member MPs as “champions for the environment”.

Electoral reform

Fair elections APPG: Hayes has been listed as a supporter of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) for fair elections – a cross-party group of MPs and peers that campaigns for electoral reform. The group’s stated aims include replacing the first past the post (FPTP) voting system with a form of proportional representation, eliminating “dark money” and “undemocratic influence” from politics, and countering disinformation.

Proportional representation bill: In December 2024, Hayes voted in favour of the Elections (Proportional Representation) Bill – introduced by Liberal Democrat frontbencher Sarah Olney under the 10-minute rule procedure. The bill sought to “introduce a system of proportional representation for parliamentary elections and for local government elections in England”.

A total of 138 MPs supported the bill – with 136 opposed. Notably, 59 Labour MPs backed Olney’s bill.

Introducing the bill, Olney told the House: “First past the post is a broken and unfair system. This summer, the Labour party won a landslide election victory, securing 63% of seats in the House of Commons in return for just 34% of the vote.

“The system leaves millions of voices unheard and creates a divisive, adversarial political climate where collaboration is discouraged and accountability is often sidestepped.”

Welfare

Welfare vote (July 2025): Hayes voted in favour of the government’s flagship welfare bill at second reading. The vote came after ministers agreed to significant concessions to avoid defeat via a mass rebellion of Labour MPs on 1 July 2025.

Assisted dying

Hayes voted in favour of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, better known as the assisted dying bill, at both second reading (November 2024) and third reading (June 2025).

Social values and conscience issues

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Hayes voted in favour of a backbench amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill that sought to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales in June 2025. The amendment, which was passed by a majority of 242 votes, removed women from the threat of prosecution for ending a pregnancy at any stage. As an issue of conscience, MPs were allowed to vote according to their personal beliefs.

Before Politics

Born Thomas John Hayes, he grew up in Salford, attending All Hallows RC High School and Pendleton College in Salford. He studied politics and modern history at the University of Manchester.

Hayes then obtained an MPhil degree in international studies from the University of Cambridge. He then became a Fox International Fellow in International and Area Studies at Yale University.

Hayes served as chief executive of Elmore Community Services, an Oxford-based charity working in the fields of mental health, domestic abuse and homelessness.

Personal Life

Hayes lives in his Bournemouth East constituency.

In 2024, PinkNews listed Hayes among a number of out LGBTQ+ parliamentarians.

In his 2024 maiden speech, Hayes said he grew up as a “young carer to two disabled parents on low incomes”.

Trivia

Hayes is the first Labour MP ever elected for the Bournemouth East constituency.