Gordon Oakes

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Gordon James Oakes

| image =

| alt =

| constituency_MP = Bolton West

| parliament = United Kingdom

| term_start = 15 October 1964

| term_end = 29 May 1970

| predecessor = Arthur Holt

| successor = Robert Redmond

| constituency_MP2 = Halton
{{small|Widnes (1971-1983)}}

| parliament2 = United Kingdom

| term_start2 = 23 September 1971

| term_end2 = 8 April 1997

| predecessor2 = James MacColl

| successor2 = Derek Twigg

| birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1931|12|22}}

| birth_place = Widnes, England

| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|2005|8|14|1931|6|22}}

| party = Labour

| alma_mater = Liverpool University

| profession = Solicitor

| spouse = {{marriage|Esther O'Neill|1952|1998|end = died}}

| children = 3

}}

Gordon James Oakes (22 December 1931 – 14 August 2005){{cite news |author1=Bryan Davies |author-link1= |title=Gordon Oakes |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/aug/22/guardianobituaries.politics |url-access= |access-date=18 October 2024 |work=The Guardian |language= |date=22 August 2005}} was a British Labour Party politician.

Early life

Oakes was born in Widnes, Cheshire, and was educated at Wade Deacon Grammar School, in Widnes and at Liverpool University.{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1496271/Gordon-Oakes.html|title=Gordon Oakes - Obituary|date=16 August 2005|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|accessdate=1 June 2017|url-access = subscription}} A solicitor by profession, he became a councillor on Widnes Borough Council in 1952, serving as Mayor in 1964.

Parliamentary career

Oakes unsuccessfully contested Bebington in 1959 and Manchester Moss Side at a 1961 by-election.

He served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bolton West from 1964 to 1970, when he was beaten by the Conservative Robert Redmond by 1,244 votes. He was re-elected for Widnes from a 1971 by-election until 1983, and for Halton from 1983 until 1997.

Oakes served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Home Secretary from 1966, and in the government of Harold Wilson as a junior minister and as a Minister of State under James Callaghan. He was made a member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom in 1979. He left the Opposition front bench in 1983.

He was one of the MPs approached in the 1994 Cash-for-Questions affair, to which he responded "That is not how we do things here".