Peter Snape

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.

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.

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. 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.'"

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.

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.