Thangam Debbonaire

Thangam Debbonaire MP
Member of Parliament for Bristol West
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 May 2015
Preceded by	Stephen Williams
Majority	5,673 (8.8%)
Personal details
Born	3 August 1966
Political party	Labour
Alma mater	University of Oxford University of Bristol
Website	Official website

Thangam Rachel Debbonaire (born 3 August 1966)^[1] is a British Labour Party politician. She has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bristol West since the 2015 General Election, when she beat incumbent Liberal Democrat MP Stephen Williams.^[2]

Shortly after winning Bristol West, Debbonaire was diagnosed with breast cancer,^[3] and has not attended a Parliamentary vote since June 2015.^[4] Debbonaire expects to return to Westminster in February 2016.^[5]

Early life and Education

Born in 1966 to an Tamil father and an English mother, Debbonaire was educated at Bradford Girls' Grammar School and Chetham's School of Music, then took the first stage of a Mathematics degree at the University of Oxford, and at the same time trained as a cellist at the Royal College of Music. Subsequently she gained an M.Sc in Management, Development and Social Responsibility at the University of Bristol.^[1][6]

Career

Before becoming an MP, she performed professionally as a classical cellist, including for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.^[1][6] She has worked as National Children’s Officer for the Women's Aid Federation of England (1991-1998), for which she moved to St Werburghs in Bristol,^[6][7] and later as National Research Manager for Respect, an anti-domestic violence organisation (2006-2008).^[1][8]

She has co-authored two books, and a number of papers, about domestic violence.^[1][9] She was a trustee of the University of Bristol Students’ Union.^[6]

Selected bibliography

Books

• Debbonaire, Thangam; Mullender, Audrey (2000). Child protection and domestic violence. Birmingham: Venture Press. ISBN 9781861780423.

Chapters in books

• Debbonaire, Thangam (1994), "Children in refuges", in Mullender, Audrey; Morley, Rebecca, Children living with domestic violence: putting men's abuse of women on the child care agenda, London Concord, Massachusetts: Whiting & Birch., ISBN 9781871177725.

Journal articles

• Debbonaire, Thangam; Mullender, Audrey; Kelly, Liz; Hague, Gill; Malos, Ellen (May 1998). "Working with children in women's refuges". Child & Family Social Work (Wiley) 3 (2): 87–98. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2206.1998.00074.x.

Papers

• Debbonaire, Thangam; Debbonaire, Emilie; Walton, Kevin (2004). Evaluation of work with domestic abusers in Ireland. Dublin: Department of Justice, Equality, and Law Reform. OCLC 65202770.
• Debbonaire, Thangam (2008). Respect position statement (with research review) on gender and domestic violence. London: Respect.
• Debbonaire, Thangam (2015). Responding to diverse ethnic communities in domestic violence perpetrator programmes. London: Respect. Pdf.

References

1. Thangam Debbonaire (2015). "CURRICULUM VITAE - Thangam Rachel Debbonaire". Democracy Club. Retrieved 10 May 2015.
2. "Elections 2015 - Bristol West Parliamentary constituency". BBC. 2015. Retrieved 10 May 2015.
3. "Bristol West MP Thangam Debbonaire diagnosed with breast cancer". Bristol Post. 2015. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
4. "Voting Record — Thangam Debbonaire MP, Bristol West (25402)". 2015. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
5. "Thangam Debbonaire MP poised for return after cancer treatment". BBC. 2016. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
6. "Election 2015 profile: The candidates in Bristol West". Bristol Post. 13 April 2015. Retrieved 10 May 2015.
7. Claire Dumbill (7 May 2015). "Thangam Debbonaire on running for Parliament". 50for15. Retrieved 10 May 2015.
8. "Election results Bristol West: Thangam Debbonaire wins seat for Labour". Western Daily Press. 8 May 2015. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
9. "Thangam Debbonaire". Amazon. Retrieved 8 May 2015.