Tom Collins was elected Labour MP for Worcester on 4 July 2024 with 18,622 votes (40.5 percent) and a majority of 7,116 (15.5 percent), succeeding the Conservative Robin Walker, who had held the seat since 2010. An engineer by background, he holds a BEng in Mechanical Engineering from Aston University and attended the Harvard Business School executive education High Potentials Leadership Programme in 2017 on a scholarship for future energy leaders, a more substantial professional profile than "local government and engineering" conveys.

His career was 19 years at Worcester Bosch, one of the city's largest employers, where he rose from development engineer to lead the company's hydrogen boiler products, with a technical specialism in micro combined heat and power and Stirling engines. He was also a Worcester City councillor for Rainbow Hill ward from 2018 to 2022.

That hydrogen expertise is also his greatest vulnerability. In August 2024, one month after his election, the Competition and Markets Authority accepted undertakings from Worcester Bosch after investigating misleading marketing of its "hydrogen-blend ready" boilers, finding the company had given the impression that buyers would cut their carbon footprint or "future-proof" their heating. Collins had led the development of those very products, so the CMA finding goes directly to his credibility on hydrogen policy. In February 2025 the Daily Telegraph also ranked him among the five least active MPs by spoken contributions, drawing local criticism.

Collins's strengths include an Aston engineering degree and Harvard executive education, 19 years at Worcester Bosch with clear progression, leadership of hydrogen boiler development, a micro-CHP and Stirling-engine specialism, four years as a Worcester councillor, and a 15.5 percent majority. His weaknesses include the CMA investigation of Worcester Bosch's hydrogen marketing undercutting his primary professional claim, the bottom-five ranking for spoken contributions, the Ecclesiastical Committee as his only standing committee placement, no select committee, no ministerial office, no legislative achievement, and the challenge of converting hydrogen expertise into visible constituency delivery. At 40, with Aston, Harvard and 19 years of engineering behind him, he has more technical substance than most MPs. Whether his hydrogen credibility survives the CMA finding that the company misled consumers, and whether he can lift his parliamentary activity from the bottom five, are the questions that will determine his trajectory.