Before becoming an MP, Clarke had previously been a Social Work lecturer and Labour Councillor on Northampton Borough Council.

He won the parliamentary seat unexpectedly at the 1997 general election with a majority of 744[1] over the sitting Conservative MP Michael Morris, with a campaign based on local representation.

At the 2001 general election, Clarke held the seat with a majority of 885 votes over the Conservative candidate Shailesh Vara.

Despite his stance against the invasion of Iraq, on receiving a copy of a confidential memo between Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair, and US President George W. Bush, he chose to report the leak to the police rather than publicly expose what was said.

In December 2008, Howes expulsion was reversed and he was reinstated two days before his appeal was due to be heard by the Labour Party's National Executive Committee (NEC).

[6] However, no official announcement was made by the local party on the status of Clarke or the other two candidates, Evans and Dickie, previously expelled.

[7] In January 2009, Howes stood as a Labour candidate in a borough council by-election finishing a distant second to the Conservatives.

A row subsequently erupted when Clarke appeared in Labour by-election literature, endorsing the party's candidate.

Clarke now represented the Castle ward as an independent on both Northampton borough and Northamptonshire county councils.

In August 2008, Clarke stated that he would stand against Labour as an independent at the next parliamentary election for Northampton South Constituency and did so on 6 May 2010.

Labour's choice of official candidate was announced in November 2008 as Clyde Loakes, who was born and brought up in Northamptonshire, and who went on to become leader of Waltham Forest council in north-east London.

[18] He wrongly claimed that a company backed by City financier Nathaniel Rothschild had been funding terrorists.