Gibson joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP) and at the 1935 general election was its candidate in Stirling East and Clackmannan.
[1] He was elected to Glasgow City Council,[2] and he stood unsuccessfully in the 1947 Liverpool Edge Hill by-election.
In 1948, Gibson succeeded Robert Edwards as chairman of the ILP.
[4] Gibson was succeeded as chairman by Fred Barton in 1951, and focussed on his role as chair of the Glasgow Corporation's Housing sub-Committee on Sites and Buildings, working to build council housing in the city as rapidly as possible.
[6] By 1961, Gibson was the baillie - most senior magistrate - of Glasgow and was active in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.