Gareth Craig Snell (born 1 January 1986) is a British politician who served as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP) for Stoke-on-Trent Central from 2017 to 2019. A member of the Labour and Co-operative parties, he was Leader of

Newcastle-under-Lyme Newcastle-under-Lyme ( RP: , ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. The 2011 census population of the town was 75,082, whilst the wider borough had a population of 1 ...

Borough Council from 2012 to 2014. In July 2022, Snell was reselected as the Labour Parliamentary Prospective Candidate for Stoke-on-Trent Central.

Early life

Snell was educated at

Stowmarket High School Stowmarket High School is a co-educational secondary school and sixth form located in Stowmarket, Suffolk in England. It was at one time known as Stowmarket Grammar School. 728 students from school years 7 to 13. This includes a sixth form whic ...

in Suffolk, East Anglia, and graduated from

Keele University Keele University, officially known as the University of Keele, is a public research university in Keele, approximately from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as the University College of North Staffordshire, Keele ...

in 2008 after studying History and Politics. While studying at Keele in 2004, Snell founded Keele Labour Students.

Political career

Snell unsuccessfully stood for election to

Borough Council in 2007 and 2008, but was finally elected to represent

Knutton Knutton is a village in the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England. It lies between the town of Newcastle-under-Lyme, and the village of Silverdale, Staffordshire, Silverdale. References

Newcastle-under-Lyme {{Staffordshi ...

and Silverdale ward in May 2010. He was elected as the Leader of the Council after Labour won a majority at the 2012 local elections. During his tenure, the council became a living wage employer, joined the Co-operative Council network and implemented a 'no redundancies' policy. Seeking re-election in Chesterton ward, Snell's leadership came to an end upon narrowly losing to the

UKIP The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of Parliament and was the largest p ...

candidate in May 2014. However, he returned as a councillor in a by-election for Silverdale and Parksite ward in August 2016, and served until his term expired in May 2018. In January 2017, Snell was selected as the Labour Party candidate in the Stoke-on-Trent Central by-election, triggered following the resignation of Tristram Hunt. Held on 23 February, he won the seat with a reduced vote share but saw off a challenge from UKIP leader Paul Nuttall. He was re-elected with a majority of nearly 4,000 on 8 June 2017. This was an increase of the figure of 2,600 at the by-election, but compares to 20,000 from 1997. Snell lost his seat in the 2019 general election to Conservative Jo Gideon, predicting his defeat even before his result was announced on BBC television.

Political views

Snell supported Remain in the

2016 EU referendum The United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar to ask the electorate whether the country shoul ...

, but opposed a second referendum and supported an exit deal to avoid leaving without one.

West Midlands Mayoral Election

Between 2020 and 2021, Snell was Campaign Manager for the

(MP) for Birmingham Hodge Hill, Liam Byrne in the

2021 West Midlands mayoral election The 2021 West Midlands Mayoral Election was held on 6 May 2021 to elect the mayor of the West Midlands, on the same day as other local elections across England and Wales, including councillors in six of its seven boroughs and the police and ...

, where Byrne lost. Snell was in charge of managing volunteers and staff, as well as coordinating messaging and fundraising.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Snell, Gareth 1986 births Living people Alumni of Keele University Councillors in Staffordshire Labour Party (UK) councillors Labour Co-operative MPs for English constituencies People from Newcastle-under-Lyme People from Stowmarket UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 Leaders of local authorities of England