Dr Adam Thompson: Our next parliamentary candidate

29 July 2022 | Blog

It’s time for change in Erewash. We need an MP that will fight for local people.

MY EXPERIENCE IN EREWASH

My whole time in the Labour Party has been about organising members and communities in Erewash to campaign for something better. I have participated heavily in every local Labour party campaign since 2016, acting as your voluntary organiser in the majority of these.

I have led teams, both within and outside of the Labour Party, to deliver successful campaigns in challenging situations with multiple interested parties. I have overhauled local Labour Party processes and protocols, and have co-organised international conferences as part of my job.

I always communicate as often as possible with stakeholders and am an active user of social media. As a member of the Co-operative Party, I am also a proud believer in mutualism and the fundamental policy drivers that underpin the co-operative movement.

“I believe I have the track record and organisational skills to make the best possible MP for Erewash.”

MY LIFE OUTSIDE OF POLITICS

Outside of politics, I sit on an international standards committee as an expert in the field of additive manufacturing, and I am an associate editor of the journal Precision Engineering, where I am currently active in efforts to broaden the diversity of the editorial board.

I am a contributing member of various professional institutions, particularly the European Society of Precision Engineers, the American Society of Precision Engineers and the Institute of Physics. I have also held various voluntary positions on committees for other apolitical bodies, representing members in a wide array of roles.

I’ve spent eight years as an educator, both in secondary schools and at a university, and I consider education a core part of my identity. As a research engineer, I am a practiced problem solver and have a strong grasp of data and science, that I believe provides the skills to make an excellent policy creator in parliament.

ORGANISING IN OUR COMMUNITY

During the COVID-19 pandemic, as Vice Chair (Policy) for Scientists for Labour, I co-led a team of over a hundred science-based volunteers, who provided daily briefings to the Labour front bench. The briefings covered scientific advances in COVID-19 research and were designed to support Labour’s opposition to bad Government policy throughout the pandemic. I have also coordinated and co-authored briefing documents and fact-checking documents for Labour politicians on a variety of scientific topics.

I have co-organised national campaigns with a former prime minister, MPs, peers and eminent scientists, and regularly interface directly on various campaigns with front bench MPs and peers, providing a conduit between elected representatives and experts in various scientific fields.

As the Erewash campaign co-ordinator and secretary, I have knocked on thousands of doors across the constituency, delivered tens of thousands of leaflets and organised dozens of campaigns.

A STRONG TRADE UNION BASE

As a rep in my trade union, I act as the primary representative for engineering researchers at the University of Nottingham. I take my union role very seriously, and make myself available to my colleagues to hear their concerns about our workplace and represent them accordingly.

I am a strong advocate for trade union activity as a means to provide better lives for ordinary working people across the country and internationally.

I am really proud to have received the support in this selection from various trade unions and will continue to work hard to support our trade unions in the East Midlands and nationally.

WHY I’M LABOUR

I was lucky enough to grow up under a Labour Government, in a family of trade unionists.

When I got my degree, I chose to train as a science teacher, and it was during this time that I had my eyes opened to the destruction that this government were wreaking on our education system.

The crisis they have caused in education was too much for me as a teacher, so I decided to become a university researcher. There, the situation was no better; students now regularly finish their degrees in incredible debt and the sector has been cut to the bone.

When I awoke to a Conservative majority in 2015, I decided to join the Labour Party to do something about what was happening, and I’ve never looked back.

All opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author, and are not official Labour Party policy.