Ronald Thomas

Ronald Richard Thomas (16 March 1929 – 19 December 2020) was a British Labour Party politician and Member of Parliament (MP) who represented Bristol North West from 1974 to 1979. He was also a councillor on Bristol City Council (from 1973 to 1976) and Avon County Council (from 1985 to 1993).

Early life Born on 16 March 1929 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, Thomas was educated at the University of Oxford. He was at Ruskin College for two years, and then Balliol, where he took a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, receiving an MA. He became a Senior Lecturer in Economic and Industrial Studies at the University of Bristol, and edited the book An Exercise in Redeployment: The Report of a Trade Union Study Group, published in 1969.

Political career Thomas was a member of Unite the Union (which his former union, the Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs ASTMS, has since merged with). He was elected to Bristol City Council in 1973, representing the Hillfields ward (part of the Bristol North East constituency).

Thomas remained a Bristol City councillor until the 1976 Bristol elections.

In 1979, another election was called, following the loss of the Labour majority in Parliament. By this time, James Callaghan had taken over from Wilson as Labour leader and prime minister, but he lost the general election to the new Conservative leader, Margaret Thatcher. In this context, Thomas lost his seat to the Conservative candidate, Michael Colvin, on a swing of 5.0%, who won with a majority of 4,677 (8.8%).

After Parliament Thomas did not contest his former seat again, or stand at the next general election, in 1983. He was elected as a councillor on Avon County Council in 1985, representing Eastville ward (centred on the area of the same name).

As a member of the Bristol Trades Council, he supported the launch of the Justice for Pensioners Campaign in August 2000, which took place in Bristol.

On 22 June 2016, a letter from Thomas, describing himself as a "former 'old' Labour MP", was published in the Bristol Post. Striking a Eurosceptic tone, he noted the link between the vice-chancellor of the University of the West of England advocating a vote for 'Remain' in the forthcoming European Union referendum, and a subsequent report on the university receiving £60 million from the EU. The day before the referendum, Thomas appeared to be endorsing a vote for 'Leave', when he wrote:Was this not an example of the recycling back to the UK of part of the massive annual fee paid to be a member of the EU Club? And is it not the case that unelected bureaucrats decide who the recipients shall be? Some of us believe that taxation and payments and grants etc., out of that taxation should be determined by our elected representatives in the House of Commons. It is an essential part of the sovereignty of people and parliament which hopefully will be restored after the Referendum vote.

Personal life and death Thomas married artist Lilian Audrey Jones in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, in 1951; the couple had two sons, musicians Paul Thomas (who predeceased him) and Sean Thomas (later Sean Thomas-Bouzas), and a grandson, Alain Thomas-Bouzas. Lilian predeceased her husband.

Thomas lived in Lockleaze, Bristol.