Labour’s Mike Gapes has held his Ilford South seat, increasing his majority despite a bitter face-off with anti-Israel extremists who were determined to oust him.
Mr Gapes received 25,311 votes and a slight increase on his share of the vote. The result gave him a majority of 11,297.
Leaflets distributed in the run up to polling day had described him as a “pro-war, pro-Israel and Islamophobic MP”.
Mr Gapes declared the personal attacks, carried out by the Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC), as “poisonous”.
His nearest challenger was Tory candidate Toby Boutle, with 14,014 votes. Liberal Democrat Anood Al-Samerai was third with 8,679.
Mr Gapes has held the seat for 18 years and said his win was “a magnificent result which goes against the national trend”.
He said that while the national picture remained uncertain he would be working hard to represent the local community.
All the results from the key constituencies on our Election 2010 page
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