Ian Gibson, former radical who became a Labour MP after a distinguished academic career investigating cancer – obituary In Parliament Gibson was a respected voice on science, urging more research into organophosphates and insisting Gulf War Syndrome was real Ian Gibson, 2008 Credit: Jason Bye/Jason Bye Ian Gibson, who has died aged 82, was a geneticist who gave up the leadership of a cancer research team at the University of East Anglia (UEA) at the age of 58 when elected Labour MP for Norwich North. A Scot who began his political life on the extreme Left, Gibson from 1997 to 2009 was a listened-to scientific voice in the Commons, chairing the Science and Technology Select Committee and the all-party group on cancer.