Michael John "Mike" Gapes (born 4 September 1952) is a British Labour Co-operative politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ilford South since 1992.
Mike Gapes was born in Wanstead Hospital in what became the London Borough of Redbridge, the son of a postman, and educated locally at the Staples Road Infants' School in Loughton and the Manford County Primary School in Chigwell, before attending the Buckhurst Hill County High School. He continued his studies at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge where he was awarded a master's degree in economics in 1975; he also served as the secretary of the university's students' union in 1973. He completed his education at the Middlesex Polytechnic in Enfield where he earned a diploma in industrial relations in 1976. Gapes was a founder member of the Clause Four group and chair of the National Organisation of Labour Students from 1976 to 1977, taking over following the defeat of the entryist Trotskist Miltant tendency.
Except for a spell as a VSO teacher in Swaziland in a gap year before attending university in 1972, and a few months working as an administrator at the Middlesex Hospital in 1976, he has worked entirely in full time politics either for the Labour Party or as an elected Member of Parliament. He was national student organiser of the Labour Party in the late 1970s, taking over from Barry Clarke. He contested Ilford North at the 1983 General Election but was defeated by the sitting Conservative MP Vivian Bendall by some 11,201 votes. He was elected to the House of Commons at the 1992 General Election for Ilford South when he ousted the sitting Conservative MP Neil Thorne by just 402 votes and has remained the MP there since. He made his maiden speech on 8 May 1992.[1]