Mike Hancock, MP for Portsmouth South, is a native of Portsmouth and has been committed to the city all his life.

Born and educated in Portsmouth, the son of a sailor, Mike worked as an engineer and was first elected to Portsmouth City Council as a Labour councillor in 1971. Following local government reorganisation he was elected to the reformed City Council for Fratton ward in 1973, and also Hampshire County Council. He has represented Fratton ward ever since. In 1981 he became leader of the Labour oppositiion group on Hampshire County Council, but in the summer of that year joined the SDP.

He was the SDP candidate for Portsmouth South in the General Election of 1983, and won the seat for the SDP at a by-election the following year. Narrowly defeated in 1987 and again in 1992, he regained the seat as a Liberal Democrat in 1997 and has successfully retained it at two subsequent General Elections (2001 and 2005).

During a break in his parliamentary career Mike was a director of BBC Daytime and a district officer for the charity MENCAP. He was chair of the planning committee of Portsmouth City Council from 1991-2 and in 1993 became leader of Hampshire County Council at the head of an administration which lasted until 1997. Mike also contested the European Parliamentary election as a candidate for Wight and Hampshire in 1994.

After his re-election to Westminster in 1997, Mike was promoted to the frontbench by Paddy Ashdown as spokesman on Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. In 2000 Charles Kennedy moved him to speak on Environment, Transport and the Regions, but Mike returned to the backbenches following the election of 2001.

Mike has been chairmen of the southern region of the NSPCC since 1989 and vice-chairman of Portsmouth Dock since 1992. He was appointed CBE in 1992. Mike has been married to his wife Jacqueline since 1967 and they have two grown-up children, a son and a daughter.