Dr Adam Thompson is the Labour MP for Erewash, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Thompson won 17,224 votes, representing 40.1% of the vote. The Conservative candidate, Maggie Throup, received 11,365 votes (26.4%), while the Reform UK candidate, Liam Booth-Isherwood, secured 9,162 votes (21.3%). Thompson was duly elected with a majority of 5,859.

The Erewash constituency is located in Derbyshire, in the East Midlands region. The seat was held by the Conservative Party from 2010 to 2024, and before that by Labour from 1997 to 2010.

Political Career

Thompson serves as a parliamentary private secretary (PPS) in the Home Office (since March 2026). 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.

Thompson has sat as a member of the House of Commons science, innovation and technology select committee (2024-2026).

Thompson has been listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) for the furniture industry (chair) and reserves and cadets (co-chair).

Thompson delivered his maiden speech on 29 October 2024, during a debate on the Great British Energy Bill.

In it, he said: “In truth, both of our towns have been hard done by for the past 14 years. Despite the hard work of incredible and passionate teaching and support staff, for example, many of our schools struggle with underfunding – something I witnessed at first hand when I trained as a secondary physics teacher.

“Both high streets have declined, and while towns funding is helping to support Long Eaton’s regeneration, the underlying problems remain: antisocial behaviour, crime, shopkeepers forced out by online giants, and a general malaise and the feeling that nothing will fix the foundations.”

He added: “I feel the weight of my community, the weight of responsibility, and the weight of the need to deliver a better future for my constituents and the whole country.

“Throughout my tenure, I will always be guided by reason not dogma, by the scientific method and by a desire to serve.”

Thompson previously stood unsuccessfully as the Labour candidate for Amber Valley in the 2019 general election.

Political Views

Leadership elections

Labour deputy leadership 2025: Thompson 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

Fair elections APPG: Thompson 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.

Brexit and Europe

Remain pledge: During the 2019 general election campaign, Thompson was one of 193 Labour candidates to sign the anti-Brexit “Remain pledge”, drawn up by the campaign group Remain Labour.

It stated: “Labour is committed to a confirmatory referendum, to give you the final say on Brexit. If elected as your Labour MP, I pledge to campaign to Remain in the EU.”

Welfare

Welfare vote (July 2025): Thompson 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

Thompson 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): Thompson 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

Thompson was born on 30 November 1990. He grew up in Cardiff and attended Llanishen High School.

Thompson studied physics at the University of Warwick, graduating in 2013. He obtained a postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE) from the University of Southampton and a PhD in metrology from the University of Nottingham.

Thompson held a series of teaching and academic posts before entering frontline politics.

In his 2024 maiden speech, Thompson told the House: “In my previous day job, I taught engineering apprentices at the University of Nottingham.

“I worked there for a decade, specialising in metrology research and training the next generation of world-leading manufacturers.

“I believe I am the first metrologist elected to this place, metrology being the science of measuring things and definitely not meteorology – as I said in the opening quote to my PhD thesis, it has absolutely nothing to do with clouds.”

Speaking in the commons during an April 2025 debate on the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill, Thompson said metrology “encompasses the various fields of research that seek to develop the science and technology of measurement, be that measurement of any of the seven base quantities from the système international d’unités – the SI – or any of the units derived from those base quantities.”

In that address, Thompson threatened to deliver a 97-slide lecture on the subject.

Thompson was previously vice chair of Scientists for Labour.

Personal Life

Thompson lives in his Erewash constituency.

Trivia

Thompson joined the Labour Party in 2015.

Thompson claims to be the first metrologist elected to parliament.