Mike Gapes | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2017 | |
| Chair of theForeign Affairs Select Committee | |
| In office 19 July 2005 – 17 May 2010 | |
| Preceded by | Donald Anderson |
| Succeeded by | Richard Ottaway |
| Member of Parliament forIlford South | |
| In office 9 April 1992 – 6 November 2019 | |
| Preceded by | Neil Thorne |
| Succeeded by | Sam Tarry |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Michael John Gapes (1952-09-04)4 September 1952 (age 73) |
| Party | Labour and Co-operative (1968–2019; 2023–present) |
| Other political affiliations | Change UK (2019) |
| Spouse | |
| Children |
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| Alma mater | |
| Website | www |
Other offices
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Michael John Gapes (born 4 September 1952) is a British former politician who served asMember of Parliament (MP) forIlford South from 1992 to 2019.
Born inWanstead Hospital, Gapes attendedBuckhurst Hill County High School. He studied economics atFitzwilliam College, Cambridge, where he was Secretary of theCambridge University Students' Union, and later studied industrial relations atMiddlesex Polytechnic. He then served as chair of theNational Organisation of Labour Students.
Following an unsuccessful 1983 bid for Parliament, Gapes was elected as aLabour and Co-operative MP in 1992. He served as chair of theForeign Affairs Select Committee from 2005 to 2010. In February 2019, Gapes left Labour in protest atJeremy Corbyn's leadership to form The Independent Group, laterChange UK, along with six other Labour MPs. In the December 2019 election, Gapes was defeated by Labour'sSam Tarry. He rejoined the Labour Party in March 2023.[1]
Michael John Gapes was born on 4 September 1952, the son of Frank William Gapes, a postman, and Emily Florence Gapes,née Jackson.[2][3] He was educated at Staples Road Infants' School inLoughton before attending Manford County Primary School andBuckhurst Hill County High School inChigwell.[2] He worked as aVoluntary Service Overseas teacher inSwaziland in agap year before attending university in 1972.[4]
Gapes studied economics atFitzwilliam College, Cambridge, where he was awarded aBachelor of Arts degree in 1975,which was upgraded by convention to a Master of Arts degree in 1979.[5][6] He served as Secretary of theCambridge Students Union in 1973. He completed his education atMiddlesex Polytechnic inEnfield where he earned a diploma inindustrial relations in 1976, after which he served as chair of theNational Organisation of Labour Students before serving for three years as the student organiser for the Labour Party.[7]
Gapes was a founder, member, and convenor of theClause Four Group in 1974, and the sixth Chair of theNational Organisation of Labour Students from 1976 to 1977, taking over following the defeat of theentryistTrotskyistMilitant 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.[8][9] In 1981, he was a member of the anti-nuclearLabour Party Defence Study Group.[10] He toldThe Guardian that working withNeil Kinnock "to bring the Labour Party back fromthe abyss of 1983" was most influential in his political thinking.[11]
In his role as international secretary, in 1990 he (along with other MEPs associated with theFabian Society) urged Kinnock and the Labour Party to be morepro-European, including fulleconomic and monetary union, a common industrial policy, replacing theCommon 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 andWarsaw Pact co-operation.[12]
Gapes unsuccessfully contestedIlford North at the1983 general election.[13] He unsuccessfully stood for election toWandsworth Borough Council in the1986 election for West Hill ward inPutney, losing by only 50 votes.[14]
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He was elected to theHouse of Commons in the1992 general election for Ilford South when he defeated the sitting Conservative MPNeil Thorne by just 402 votes. He made hismaiden speech on 8 May 1992.[15]
InParliament he joined theForeign Affairs Select Committee in 1992 and, after the1997 general election, he was appointed as theParliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to theMinister of State at theNorthern Ireland OfficePaul Murphy; he also worked for the other Minister of StateAdam Ingram until 1999 when he joined theDefence Select Committee. Following the2001 general election, he was again appointed a PPS to the Minister of State at theHome OfficeJeff Rooker for a year. He rejoined the Defence Select Committee in 2003. Following the2005 general election he served as the chairman of theForeign Affairs Select Committee until 2010.[5][16]
Gapes was an officer of manyAll-party Parliamentary Groups (APPG), including Chair of the All-Party Crossrail Group,[17] Chair of the All-Party Global Security and non Proliferation Group[18] and Chair of the All-PartyUnited Nations Group.[19] He was part of theNorthern Ireland team which negotiated theGood Friday Agreement inBelfast in 1998.
During the2001 and2005 general election campaigns, he was the target of Muslim groups, including (according to theIlford Recorder) the Association of Ilford Muslims,[20] and Islamic Society of Britain (Ilford Branch),[20] as well as (according toThe Jewish Chronicle) theMuslim Public Affairs Committee UK,[21] who he says sought to unseat him because of his pro-Israel views.[20] Gapes is a member ofLabour Friends of Israel (LFI).[22]
In 2007, the Foreign Affairs Select Committee reported that it was "unlikely" any abuse was continuing at theGuantanamo Bay detention camp since 2004, calling the facilities "broadly comparable" toHM 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 ofCamp X-Ray and that is now shut",[23] adding that an immediate shutdown of Guantanamo Bay would lead to a release of individuals back into society who were "dangerous".[24]Andrew Tyrie, chair of the all-party group onextraordinary 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"[24] andKate Allen, director ofAmnesty International, called the report "a missed opportunity".[23]
Also in 2007, Gapes was criticised for claiming £22,110 for a second home despite his constituency being only 39 minutes away from Westminster. Gapes responded to the criticism saying "It's perfectly allowed".[25] In 2008, as chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Gapes met with theDalai Lama and asked his opinion onhuman rights in Tibet.[26] As head of the committee, he was heavily critical of thenuclear program of Iran, arguing that there was a "strong possibility"Iran would develop a nuclear bomb by 2015.[27] Gapes was Chair of the committee until 2010[16] and continued to be a member of the committee until 2019.[28]
In the summer of 2018,The Independent noted that there was speculation that Gapes might resign over allegations ofantisemitism in the party,[29] which he eventually did in 2019.[30] On 18 February 2019, Gapes and six other MPs—Chuka Umunna,Chris Leslie,Angela Smith,Luciana Berger,Gavin Shuker, andAnn Coffey—quitLabour in protest atJeremy Corbyn's leadership to formChange UK. It cited disagreements over the handling ofBrexit and mishandling ofanti-Semitism within the Labour Party as key reasons for leaving.[31] 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."[13]
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 theEuropean Elections 2019, including theMuslim Council of Britain and anti-racism charityTell MAMA, as "far lefttrot trolls" and "cultists."[32] In September 2019, Gapes was ridiculed and accused of 'mansplaining' after he incorrectly corrected the grammar of a tweet byDiane Abbott while making a grammar mistake of his own.[33]
During the2019 general election campaign, Gapes contacted theMetropolitan Police and electoral authorities after he was targeted by aTwitter troll known as 'Mr Richard Miller', who posed as Gapes' campaign manager and said he was fired for losing Mike Gapes' shoes.[34] Gapes was also threatened with acease 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".[35] On election night, he lost his seat to Labour'sSam Tarry, ending his 27-year career in the UK Parliament.[36]
Gapes rejoined the Labour Party on 7 March 2023.Keir Starmer welcomed his return, stating that it was "a tribute to the hard work already done to change our party."[37] His re-entry came afterLuciana Berger rejoined the party in February 2023.
Gapes has defended the legacies of the former British prime ministerTony Blair and the former American presidentBill Clinton. He is a supporter ofhumanitarian intervention and voted for theinvasion of Iraq in 2003 and opposed theChilcot Inquiry into the causes of theIraq War.[38] In August 2014 he called for arecall of Parliament to authorise military support for Iraq[39] and intended to vote for Britain becoming involved withthe bombing of IS in Syria on 2 December 2015, but was in hospital after suffering chest pains at the time of the vote.[40][41]
In 2018 Gapes supported a call by theForeign Affairs Select Committee for an independent inquiry into "the consequences of non-intervention" by Britain in theSyrian civil war.[42] Gapes later criticisedLabour Party leaderJeremy Corbyn for apologising for the Iraq War,[43] and argued that the Middle East is better off following the British and American interventions.[44][13] However, the Foreign Affairs Committee under his chairmanship argued for a re-evaluation of the "special relationship" between Britain and America and criticised Blair's closeness to the American presidentGeorge W. Bush after theSeptember 11 attacks as damaging to British interests.[45]
Gapes is staunchlypro-European, once declaring that he would prefer closer ties with theEuropean Union, rather than Britain becoming an amusement park for American and Japanese tourists. He introduced 36 amendments to the EU Referendum Bill of 2013.[46] The bill's proposer,James Wharton, alleged that the amendments were an attempt tofilibuster.[47] In December 2017, Gapes delivered a speech to the House of Commons in which he warned that Brexit would put the production ofBaileys Irish Cream, the milky whiskey liqueur, in jeopardy.[48] The speech, in which he explained how Baileys is produced, was described by Patrick Maguire in theNew Statesman as "infinitelymemeable" and as giving Gapes "a bizarre online infamy".[13]
During the Labour Party leadership elections in2010,2015 and2016, he supportedDavid Miliband,Liz Kendall andOwen Smith, respectively.
Gapes is a long-time critic of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, and has called him "the racist antisemite".[49] He also criticised Corbyn's supporters, including the prominent groupMomentum.[50][51] Gapes opposedCorbyn's political views on issues such as foreign policy[52] andBrexit. In December 2015, he criticised the Labour Party onTwitter for a U-turn on whether to run a budget surplus in 'normal' economic conditions.[51] This led to him beingtrolled by supporters of Corbyn online – many of whom told him to leave the party.[51] He also called for the resignation of Corbyn's director of communications,Seumas Milne, following comments Milne made doubting Russian state involvement in thepoisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal.[53]
Gapes married Frances Smith in 1992[7] and they divorced in 2004. Their daughter Rebecca Gapes died ofsudden arrhythmic death syndrome in 2012, at the age of 19.[54] He has two adult stepdaughters. He is a keen supporter ofWest Ham United.[55]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)The perception that the British government was a subservient 'poodle' to the US administration leading up to the period of the invasion of Iraq and its aftermath is widespread both among the British public and overseas ... [such a perception is] deeply damaging to the reputation and interests of the UK
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forIlford South 1992–2019 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| People | |