An active member of Labour Students, he was on the national executive of the National Union of Students from 1996 to 2000 and was twice elected the national president of NUS, serving in the role from 1998 to 2000.[3] He had previously served as the organisation's National Treasurer from 1997 to 1998.[4] Pakes was the second openly gay individual to be elected NUS president after Stephen Twigg (who was president from 1990 to 1992).[5]
He was a special adviser to Mary Creagh, working with the shadow DEFRA team.[6] He was the initial head of PR for the British Kebab Awards.
He previously worked as Head of Communications, Organising and External Affairs at the science and engineering trade union, Prospect. He was formerly in public affairs at Tetra Strategy,[6] and earlier worked for Connect Public Affairs.[2] Among his voluntary positions, he served as a Trustee of the National Energy Foundation, a Milton Keynes-based charity, from June 2017 to April 2018.[7]
From 2019 to 2022 Pakes was a trustee of Stonewall, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights charity.[8] He was also a Board Member at CDS Co-Operatives, providing social housing and co-op housing services in London and the South East of England.
Pakes was selected as Labour Co-op's Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Milton Keynes South in the 2015 general election. Pakes went on to lose this election to Iain Stewart of the Conservative Party, with Stewart increasing his majority by almost 3,500 votes.
Peterborough
In July 2022, Pakes was selected as the Labour Co-op candidate for the marginal Conservative seat of Peterborough, in preparation for the next general election.[10]
In March 2015, Pakes attracted criticism for his decision to accept a donation from Tony Blair despite Pakes having campaigned against the Iraq War, with the donation being described as "blood money" in the local press and a local anti-war campaign group stating that Pakes was guilty of "selling [his] principles on the cheap".[11]
