Labour Party Gapes was a founder, member, and convenor of the
Clause Four Group in 1974, and the sixth Chair of the
National Organisation of Labour Students from 1976 to 1977, taking over following the defeat of the
entryist Trotskyist Militant tendency. In 1977, he was appointed as the first National Student Organiser of the Labour Party. Gapes worked at Labour Party Headquarters for 15 years from 1977 until 1992, including serving from 1988 to 1992 as International Secretary of the party. In 1981, he was a member of the anti-nuclear
Labour Party Defence Study Group. He told
The Guardian that working with
Neil Kinnock "to bring the Labour Party back from
the abyss of 1983" was most influential in his political thinking. In his role as international secretary, in 1990 he (along with other MEPs associated with the
Fabian Society) urged Kinnock and the Labour Party to be more
pro-European, including full
economic and monetary union, a common industrial policy, replacing the
Common Agricultural Policy with a "good food policy" promoting healthier diets with fewer additives, pesticides, and diversified crops, as well as a European Security Organisation based on NATO and
Warsaw Pact co-operation. Gapes unsuccessfully contested
Ilford North at the
1983 general election.
Member of Parliament for Ilford South ,
Bob Ainsworth and Mike Gapes (left to right) at a Foreign Affairs Select Committee briefing He was elected to the
House of Commons in the
1992 general election for Ilford South when he defeated the sitting Conservative MP
Neil Thorne by just 402 votes. He made his
maiden speech on 8 May 1992. In
Parliament he joined the
Foreign Affairs Select Committee in 1992 and, after the
1997 general election, he was appointed as the
Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the
Minister of State at the
Northern Ireland Office Paul Murphy; he also worked for the other Minister of State
Adam Ingram until 1999 when he joined the
Defence Select Committee. Following the
2001 general election, he was again appointed a PPS to the Minister of State at the
Home Office Jeff Rooker for a year. He rejoined the Defence Select Committee in 2003. Following the
2005 general election he served as the chairman of the
Foreign Affairs Select Committee until 2010. Chair of the All-Party Global Security and non Proliferation Group and Chair of the All-Party
United Nations Group. He was part of the
Northern Ireland team which negotiated the
Good Friday Agreement in
Belfast in 1998. During the
2001 and
2005 general election campaigns, he was the target of Muslim groups, including (according to the
Ilford Recorder) the Association of Ilford Muslims, and Islamic Society of Britain (Ilford Branch), who he says sought to unseat him because of his pro-Israel views. In 2007, the Foreign Affairs Select Committee reported that it was "unlikely" any abuse was continuing at the
Guantanamo Bay detention camp since 2004, calling the facilities "broadly comparable" to
HM Prison Belmarsh. Gapes said: "I thought that we would see detainees in orange overalls kept in cages, but they are now in modern blocks. The images from 2002 were of
Camp X-Ray and that is now shut", adding that an immediate shutdown of Guantanamo Bay would lead to a release of individuals back into society who were "dangerous".
Andrew Tyrie, chair of the all-party group on
extraordinary rendition said the report was a "deep disappointment" and did not acknowledge the moral responsibility to British residents in Guantanamo;
Clive Stafford Smith, who represented prisoners at the base, said the report was "full of factual errors" and based on a "show tour" In 2008, as chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Gapes met with the
Dalai Lama and asked his opinion on
human rights in Tibet. As head of the committee, he was heavily critical of the
nuclear program of Iran, arguing that there was a "strong possibility"
Iran would develop a nuclear bomb by 2015. Gapes was Chair of the committee until 2010 and continued to be a member of the committee until 2019.
Change UK In the summer of 2018,
The Independent noted that there was speculation that Gapes might resign over allegations of
antisemitism in the party, which he eventually did in 2019. On 18 February 2019, Gapes and six other MPs—
Chuka Umunna,
Chris Leslie,
Angela Smith,
Luciana Berger,
Gavin Shuker, and
Ann Coffey—quit
Labour in protest at
Jeremy Corbyn's leadership to form
Change UK. It cited disagreements over the handling of
Brexit and mishandling of
anti-Semitism within the Labour Party as key reasons for leaving. For Gapes, foreign policy differences were the major factor, accusing Corbyn in his resignation letter of taking the "wrong side on so many international issues from Russia, to Syria, to Venezuela." Gapes and his new party came under fire after he described those who criticised them as Islamophobic based on those selected to fight for the party in the
European Elections 2019, including the
Muslim Council of Britain and anti-racism charity
Tell MAMA, as "far left
trot trolls" and "cultists." In September 2019, Gapes was ridiculed and accused of '
mansplaining' after he incorrectly corrected the grammar of a tweet by
Diane Abbott while making a grammar mistake of his own. During the
2019 general election campaign, Gapes contacted the
Metropolitan Police and electoral authorities after he was targeted by a
Twitter troll known as 'Mr Richard Miller', who posed as Gapes' campaign manager and said he was fired for losing Mike Gapes' shoes. Gapes was also threatened with a
cease and desist letter from lawyers representing Labour after his campaign leaflets featured the party's red and yellow colours and a slogan reading: "Real Labour Values, Independent Mind". On election night, he lost his seat to Labour's
Sam Tarry, ending his 27-year career in the UK Parliament. ==After parliament==