Gareth Snell is the Labour and Co-operative Party MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central, having returned to parliament at the 2024 general election. He previously served as the MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central from 2017 until 2019.

Snell was first elected to parliament at the Stoke-on-Trent Central by-election on 23 February 2017.

In the 2024 general election for the Stoke-on-Trent Central constituency, Snell received 14,950 votes, representing 42.4% of the vote share. The Reform UK candidate, Luke Shenton, came second with 8,541 votes (24.2%), while the Conservative candidate, Chandra Kanneganti, secured 6,221 votes (17.6%). Snell was duly elected with a majority of 6,409.

The Stoke-on-Trent Central constituency is located in Staffordshire.

The seat encompasses the central areas of the City of Stoke-on-Trent, including Hanley, Shelton, and Fenton. Following the 2023 boundary review, the constituency was expanded to include significant parts of the Stoke-on-Trent South constituency.

Historically, Stoke-on-Trent Central was held by the Labour Party continuously from its creation in 1950 until 2019. Snell lost the seat to the Conservative candidate, Jo Gideon, in 2019. Gideon did not seek re-election in 2024.

Political Career

Snell is a member of the House of Commons standards and privileges committees (both since October 2024). The standards committee oversees the rules of conduct for MPs and investigates alleged breaches. The remit of the privileges committee is to consider any matter referred to it that may amount to a contempt of parliament.

At the beginning of the parliament elected in 2024, Snell stood unsuccessfully for election as chair of the procedure committee. In the contest, the results of which were announced in September 2024, Snell secured 126 votes, placing third. They were eliminated in the first round. They were ultimately defeated by Cat Smith, who won the support of 301 colleagues.

During his initial stint in parliament, Snell was a member of the House of Commons public accounts committee (2017-2019), the procedure committee (2019) and the science, innovation and technology committee (2017).

Snell successfully defended the Stoke-on-Trent Central seat for Labour upon his election to parliament in February 2017. Snell fought off a high-profile challenge from Paul Nuttall, the leader of the UK Independence Party (Ukip). Snell won with 7,853 votes to Nuttall’s 5,233. The Ukip leader won 79 more votes than the Conservative candidate, Jack Brereton.

Labour’s majority, 2,620, was reduced from the 2015 general election. However, holding the seat was a vital reprieve for Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, and prevented a narrative of total collapse in what would come to be known as the “red wall”. Commentators had talked up Nuttall’s chances during the campaign, with one even describing the contest as “Corbyn’s Waterloo”.

In his victory speech, Snell declared that Stoke-on-Trent had “chosen the politics of hope over the politics of fear”.

He added: “The city lazily dubbed by some as the capital of Brexit has once again proven to the world that we are so much more than that.”

Snell retained Stoke-on-Trent Central at the 2017 election with an increased majority of 3,897. However, the seat was one of the “red wall” constituencies to fall some two years later as the Conservatives under Boris Johnson won a landslide general election victory. In that contest, Jo Gideon was the victorious Tory candidate.

Snell predicted his own defeat before the result was officially announced during a BBC television interview. He immediately called on Corbyn and the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, to stand down.

Snell stated: “This is one of the worst results the Labour Party could have imagined.

“The fact is in seats like Stoke-on-Trent we’re going to have another five years of Tory government… the damage and untold horrors they will unleash in Stoke-on-Trent I believe lays firmly at the door of those running the national party’s campaign and the decisions that they have made, about where to target and the sort of Brexit response they should have made.”

He added: “Some of the siren voices in the shadow cabinet who have big Liberal Democrat votes in their London seats decided that stopping Brexit and therefore lining themselves up for future leadership bids was much more important than respecting the vote in marginal constituencies… and they’ve sacrificed us for whatever political ambitions they want to do next.”

During his time outside of parliament, Snell worked as campaign manager for the Labour MP Liam Byrne during his ill-fated bid in the 2021 West Midlands mayoral election.

Snell delivered his House of Commons maiden speech on 14 March 2017 during a debate on the budget.

In it, he said: “It is a privilege to have been elected as the Labour and Co-operative member of parliament for Stoke-on-Trent Central in an election that was not planned and following a campaign that, all too often, did not do justice to the wonderful city that I now represent”

He added: “Commentators talked down my city in order to play up their narrative. They dismissed a capital of culture as little more than the capital of Brexit, pigeonholing my constituents into a box that does not reflect their true character.

“While that narrative suited those seeking to win the election on a platform of hatred, division and nationalism dressed up as patriotism, it did a grave disservice to my city, whose motto is ‘United strength is stronger.’”

Before his election to parliament, Snell served as a councillor for Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council from May 2010 to May 2014. He was elected leader of the council in 2012, serving in the role until 2014. He lost his seat in the 2014 local elections to a Ukip candidate.

Snell subsequently returned to the council following a by-election in August 2016, serving until May 2018.

Political Views

Leadership elections and loyalty

Labour deputy leadership 2025: Snell was one of 117 Labour MPs who nominated Lucy Powell for the party’s deputy leadership in September 2025. The election followed the resignation of Angela Rayner, who stepped down as deputy prime minister and deputy party leader after an investigation into her tax affairs. It marked the first time since 2007 that Labour had held a deputy leadership contest while in government.

Powell, the former leader of the House of Commons, was seen as a candidate representing the party’s “soft left”; she was supported by leading soft left figures including Ed Miliband and Andy Burnham. She secured 117 nominations from the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), above the 80 required, and went on to win the election – defeating Bridget Phillipson with 54.3% of the vote.

Factional identity and party tradition

Usdaw: Snell is a member of the Usdaw Union Parliamentary Group – a group of MPs who are members of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (Usdaw) and work generally to represent the union’s interests within parliament.

Labour Movement for Europe: Snell was endorsed by the Labour Movement for Europe (LME) in the 2024 general election. Founded in 1981, LME is a pro-European socialist society affiliated with the Labour Party. It campaigns for a close relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union. The organisation refers to itself as the “home of the pro-Europeans in the Labour and trade union movement”.

Brexit and Europe

Brexit referendum: Snell supported Remain in the 2016 Brexit referendum, and therefore disagreed with a majority of his constituents, 64.8% of whom voted to Leave.

Welfare

Welfare vote (July 2025): Snell voted in favour of the government’s flagship welfare bill at second reading. The vote came after ministers agreed to significant concessions to avoid defeat via a mass rebellion of Labour MPs on 1 July 2025.

Assisted dying

Snell voted in favour of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, better known as the assisted dying bill, at second reading (November 2024) and third reading (June 2025).

Social values and conscience issues

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Snell voted in favour of a backbench amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill that sought to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales in June 2025. The amendment, which was passed by a majority of 242 votes, removed women from the threat of prosecution for ending a pregnancy at any stage. As an issue of conscience, MPs were allowed to vote according to their personal beliefs.

Before Politics

Born Gareth Craig Snell on 1 January 1986 in Stowmarket, Suffolk, he attended Stowmarket High School.

Snell studied history and politics at Keele University, graduating in 2008. During his time at university, he founded Keele Labour Students and served as the general secretary of the Students’ Union.

Personal Life

Snell married the former Labour MP and life peer Ruth Smeeth in Gibraltar in May 2025.

He serves as an unpaid governor for Abbey Hill Academy and College and the City of Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College.

Trivia

Ruth Smeeth represented the Stoke-on-Trent North constituency from 2015 to 2019. She was elevated to the peerage in November 2022.