Tom Clarke was appointed the UK's first Minister for Film in 1997 as Minister of State, responsible for Film and Tourism at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.   As a Minister he co-authored a Report on the British Film Industry, ‘A Bigger Picture’. 

He was educated at All Saints School, St Mary’s High School and the Scottish College of Commerce.  He was appointed his predecessor the Late Jimmy Dempsey MPs Election Agent, aged only 18.  He scored his first electoral success as a local Councillor at the age of twenty-two, was Provost of Monklands for three terms and President of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, and he was awarded the CBE for his services to Local Government.

Tom was elected for Coatbridge & Airdrie at a by-election in 1982.  The constituency became Monklands West the following year, Coatbridge and Chryston in 1997 and finally expanded in size and is named Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill.  In the General Election of 2005 Tom Clarke had the largest numerical majority in the UK amongst all MPs.

A widely respected MP, he was Opposition spokesman on Development and on Social Services, and successfully piloted his own Private Members’ Bill designed to help People with Disabilities in 1986.  This feat was repeated again when his Private Members’ International Development Bill passed its final reading in Parliament.  The Act received royal assent on 25th July 2006, and enshrines in legislation the UK Government’s commitment to give 0.7% of Gross National Income (GNI) in overseas aid by 2013, and tracks the progress of Government policy towards reaching the Millennium Development Goals.

In Parliament he was elected to the Shadow Cabinet on four separate occasions.  In 1992 Party Leader John Smith made him Shadow Scottish Secretary, where he successfully led the campaign against water privatisation.  He transferred to Overseas Development a year later and helped expose the Pergau Dam scandal.  Tony Blair appointed him spokesman on Disabled People in 1995.  Tom won the first ever Epolitix Charity Awards when he was voted Champion for Disabled People.

A study in 2000 showed that he had one of the best attendance records in the Commons.  In 2005 he still had a 90 per cent voting record. He has an international outlook, and has been on overseas delegations to Iran, Australia, Peru, Colombia, Rwanda, Bahrain and Kuwait.  He is chairman of All-Party Groups on learning disability and Iraqi Kurdistan, and holds office on others concerned with carers, Peru and Angola.