Gareth Snell

On 24 February 2017, Snell defeated eight other candidates to win the Stoke-on-Trent Central by-election, including second-placed Paul Nuttall, the leader of UKIP. 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.

Before his election as an MP, Snell served as a member of the Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, including a period as leader from 2012 and 2014. As leader he made the Council a Living Wage employer and part of the Cooperative Council network. He also implemented a 'no redundancies' policy that remains in force. He lost his council seat in the 2014 elections but was re-elected in a by-election on 5 August 2016 with 56% of the vote. He was a supporter of Remain in the June 2016 European Union referendum; however, he has said that he respects the referendum result and will work for the best Brexit deal for Stoke.

Snell was educated at Stowmarket High School, in the market town of Stowmarket in Suffolk in East Anglia, followed by Keele University, where he studied History and Politics, graduating in 2008.

Gareth Craig Snell (born 1 January 1986) is a British Labour Co-operative politician, who entered Parliament as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Stoke-on-Trent Central at the 2017 Stoke-on-Trent Central by-election and served until his defeat in December 2019.