Tom Gray

Statement to voters

Music and politics have shaped Tom's life. Tom is a renowned campaigner, a Mercury Prize-winning musician and the elected Chair of the British Association of Songwriters, Composers & Authors (The Ivors Academy). A high-profile advocate, his campaigning has led a global conversation around rights and equity in his industry.

 Tom joined the Labour Party aged 15 and studied politics in Leeds before his career in music took off. He has been a stalwart of grassroots party activism, organising and volunteering over the course of his life. He works closely with the Musicians Union on their campaigns alongside the organisation he leads. As a result, he is familiar to many in Westminster as a champion of music and the arts, but he has been concerned about the environment and nature for nearly as long. As a touring musician, Tom attempted the first carbon neutral tour of North America eighteen years ago. He is a signatory of the ‘Music declares emergency’ declaration. He is a member of SERA - Labour’s Campaign for the Environment and has worked closely with their President, Feargal Sharkey on campaigns against illegal sewage dumping. Feargal is one of Tom’s most vocal supporters alongside Dale Vince, the founder of Britain’s first green energy company Ecotricity and Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester. 

 Tom founded the #BrokenRecord campaign in 2020. Garnering the support of over 200 of the country's greatest music-makers (Sir Paul McCartney and Kate Bush amongst them), he was successful in bringing about a UK parliamentary inquiry into the music industry. He coordinated a private members bill with Kevin Brennan MP, forced a CMA study and there is now a formal process with the British government to investigate industry interventions in which Tom is a lead negotiator. He considers the forgiveness of historic debt held against thousands of musicians to be his greatest campaigning achievement.

 As a founding member of Gomez, he won the Mercury Prize in 1998. Still occasionally a working musician, he scored the first series of the BAFTA-winning 'In My Skin' for the BBC and is presently commissioned to write a stage adaptation of 'Danny the Champion of the World' for the Roald Dahl Story Company.

 Tom also sits elected on the Council of PRS For Music, is a director of the umbrella organisation for the British music industry, UK Music, has previously worked with the Helen Bamber Foundation Charity on their campaigns for victims of trafficking and torture and has long been a delegate of Labour’s Campaign for International Development (LCID). He was the recipient of the Music Producers Guild’s ‘Unsung Hero’ award in 2022.

Election history

Westminster general elections