The Lord Snape | |
---|---|
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | |
Assumed office 9 June 2004 Life Peerage | |
Member of Parliament for West Bromwich East | |
In office 28 February 1974 –14 May 2001 | |
Preceded by | Constituency established |
Succeeded by | Tom Watson |
Personal details | |
Nationality | British |
Political party | Labour |
Peter Charles Snape,Baron Snape (born 12 February 1942) is a Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom. He served as Member of Parliament (MP) for West Bromwich East from February 1974 until he stood down in the 2001 election. He is the former chairman of his hometown football club,Stockport County,as well as being a major shareholder in the club at the time. Lord Snape became Vice-Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Speedway Racing in July 2015. [1]
He once lived at Greenwood Gardens,Bredbury and was a railwayman and Bredbury and Romiley Urban District councillor representing Bredbury South ward. He was elected as Labour Member of Parliament for West Bromwich East in 1974,after which he moved to live in Buglawton. He retained links with the Bredbury area,serving for a time as a director of Stockport County Football Club,which he is now once again as of 2010. He held a number of government posts.
He was the member who formally proposed Michael Martin to be the new Speaker in 2000. He stood down in the 2001 election and was created a life peer as Baron Snape,of Wednesbury in the County of West Midlands on 9 June 2004. [2]
During the 1992 General Election campaign,Conservative MP Edwina Currie poured a glass of orange juice over Snape shortly after an edition of the Midlands-based debate show Central Weekend had finished airing. [3] Speaking about the incident later,Currie said,"I just looked at my orange juice,and looked at this man from which this stream of abuse was emanating,and thought 'I know how to shut you up.'" [3]
In late January 2009 The Sunday Times alleged that Lord Snape was one of four Labour Lords who had agreed to support legislative changes that were favourable to large businesses in exchange for cash. Two of its reporters, posing as lobbyists for a foreign company looking to set up a chain of shops in the UK, approached a range of peers to see if they could be bribed to help the company to obtain an exemption from the Business Rates Supplements Bill. The paper stated Snape agreed to do so in exchange for a fee of £24,000. [4]
The House of Lords Sub-committee on Lords' Interests was asked to report on the matter. [5] Although the sub-committee found that Lord Snape "expressed a clear willingness to breach the Code of Conduct", [6] the Privileges Committee considered the matter and took further evidence, concluding that he did not "express clear willingness to [act] in return for financial inducement,". [7]
They found no reason to doubt Snape's "assertion that his intention to consult the Registrar before taking any steps was genuine, the meeting with the journalists was on Thursday, and they telephoned him within 24 hours to reveal the sting." [7] However, they felt his conversation with the journalists "demonstrated an inappropriate attitude to the rules governing the conduct of Members" and they therefore invited him to make a personal statement of apology to the House. [7]
The Sunday Times agreed to publish the findings of the Privileges Committee and agreed to pay a 'substantial sum' towards Lord Snape's legal costs.
|
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest institutions in the world, its origins lie in the early 11th century and the emergence of bicameralism in the 13th century.
John Rhodes Horam, Baron Horam is a Conservative politician in the United Kingdom. He represented three parties in Parliament – originally Labour, he defected to the SDP on its foundation in 1981, then to the Conservatives in 1987 – and served as a Minister in both Labour and Conservative governments. On 4 September 2013, he was created a working life peer as Baron Horam of Grimsargh in the County of Lancashire. He is a founder and vice chair of the Common Sense Group of Conservative parliamentarians.
In the United Kingdom, representative peers were those peers elected by the members of the Peerage of Scotland and the Peerage of Ireland to sit in the British House of Lords. Until 1999, all members of the Peerage of England held the right to sit in the House of Lords; they did not elect a limited group of representatives. All peers who were created after 1707 as Peers of Great Britain and after 1801 as Peers of the United Kingdom held the same right to sit in the House of Lords.
Lewis George Moonie, Baron Moonie is a British politician. He was the Labour Co-operative Member of Parliament (MP) for Kirkcaldy from 1987 to 2005.
The House of Lords Act 1999 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed the House of Lords, one of the chambers of Parliament. The Act was given Royal Assent on 11 November 1999. For centuries, the House of Lords had included several hundred members who inherited their seats ; the Act removed such a right. However, as part of a compromise, the Act allowed ninety-two hereditary peers to remain in the House. Another ten were created life peers to enable them to remain in the House.
Manzila Pola Uddin, Baroness Uddin is a British non-affiliated life peer and community activist of Bangladeshi descent. In 2009 she was included on The Guardian's Muslim Women Power List for Britain. She previously sat for Labour when, in 2012, Uddin was required to repay £125,349, the largest amount in the United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal.
Robert Edward Sheldon, Baron Sheldon PC was a British Labour Party politician and life peer who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashton under Lyne from 1964 to 2001.
Robin Corbett, Baron Corbett of Castle Vale was a British Labour Party politician and journalist.
The parliamentary committees of the United Kingdom are committees of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Each consists of a small number of Members of Parliament from the House of Commons, or peers from the House of Lords, or a mix of both, appointed to deal with particular areas or issues; most are made up of members of the Commons. The majority of parliamentary committees are select committees. The remit of these committees vary depending on whether they are committees of the House of Commons or the House of Lords.
Nazir Ahmed, Baron Ahmed is a former Labour politician and convicted sex offender. He was appointed a life peer in 1998 by the Labour Government.
John Steven Bassam, Baron Bassam of Brighton, is a British Labour and Co-operative politician and a member of the House of Lords.
Bredbury is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. It is located 8 miles (12.9 km) south-east of Manchester, 2 miles (3.2 km) east of Stockport and 3 miles (4.8 km) south-west of Hyde. At the 2011 census, it had a population of 16,721.
Anthony Paul Lester, Baron Lester of Herne Hill, QC was a British barrister and member of the House of Lords. He was at different times a member of the Labour Party, Social Democratic Party and the Liberal Democrats. Lester was best known for his influence on race relations legislation in the United Kingdom and as a founder-member of groups such as the Institute of Race Relations, the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination and the Runnymede Trust. Lester was also a prominent figure in promoting birth control and abortion through the Family Planning Association, particularly in Northern Ireland.
Thomas Murray Elder, Baron Elder, was a British Labour politician and member of the House of Lords. A childhood friend of Gordon Brown, he served as the general secretary of the Scottish Labour Party, the chief of staff to Labour leader John Smith, and a special adviser to Donald Dewar at the Scottish Office.
Peter Derek Truscott, Baron Truscott is a British petroleum and mining consultant, independent member of the House of Lords and writer. He was a Labour Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1994 to 1999 and was elevated to the peerage in 2004. He has written on Russia, defence and energy, and works with a variety of companies in the field of non-renewable resource extraction.
John Dunn Laird, Baron Laird,, of Artigarvan was a Northern Irish politician, life peer and former chairman of the cross-border Ulster-Scots Agency. In 2013 Laird allegedly offered to lobby for a firm against parliamentary rules. Consequently, he resigned from the Ulster Unionist Party.
Thomas Taylor, Baron Taylor of Blackburn, was a businessman and Labour politician. He was a member of Blackburn Council for 22 years, serving as its leader from 1972 to 1976. In 1978, he became a member of the House of Lords. In 2009, he was suspended from the House, along with Baron Truscott, as a result of the cash for influence scandal, the first peers to be suspended since the 17th century.
The 2009 cash for influence scandal was a political scandal in the United Kingdom in 2009 concerning four Labour Party Life Peers offering to help make amendments to legislation for up to £120,000. The Lords Privileges Committee recommended the two men be suspended from the House for up to six months after an investigation into allegations made against four Labour peers. Lord Taylor of Blackburn was suspended as a Labour Party member pending the investigation while Lord Truscott quit the party. On 20 May, the House of Lords considered the report of the Privileges Committee and voted to suspend Lord Taylor and Lord Truscott for six months.
Tarsem King, Baron King of West Bromwich was a British Labour politician and member of the House of Lords.
Benjamin Russell Mackintosh Stoneham, Baron Stoneham of Droxford is a British peer, journalist, and Liberal Democrat politician. He is currently the Liberal Democrat Chief Whip in the House of Lords, having been elected to that position in October 2016.