Sam Tarry

Sam Tarry comfortably beat Labour defector Mike Gapes in the race for Ilford South in 2019, winning the safe Labour seat with a majority of 24,101. Gapes had been hoping to hold on to the seat he had held since 1992 after he left Labour earlier in a year that encompassed both Brexit and the anti-Semitism scandal. Tarry grew up in the area and attended local schools. His first job was working as a cleaner at a local college and he later became involved in activism, campaigning against the Iraq War and going on the work for anti-racism charity Hope Not Hate (in which post he organised against the British National Party). He has also served as the chair of Young Labour, before going on to become Labour party councillor for Chadwell Heath. More recently he worked for unions including GMB and the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association and is president of the Centre for Labour and Social Studies (CLASS) think tank. In 2016, he led Jeremy Corbyn’s successful second leadership campaign. He currently sits on the Transport Committee and is a member of the Socialist Campaign Group.