Tributes paid to ITT supporter Peter Snape

Member of the House of Lords Peter Snape, known to many members of the Institute of Travel and Tourism (ITT) as the sponsor of and regular speaker at ITT dinners at Westminster, has died at the age of 84.

Snape spent almost five decades in the Houses of Parliament, first as Labour MP for West Bromwich East from February 1974 to May 2001 and then as Baron Snape upon entering the Lords as a life peer in June 2004.

He held office in the Treasury for a period during the 1970s, serving as Lord Commissioner in 1977-79, but otherwise spent his time in the Commons as a backbencher until standing down as an MP at the 2001 general election.

Lord Snape was political advisor to the ITT for more than 23 years, attending all the organisation’s major events and conferences, and an entertaining host of ITT events.

In a tribute, the ITT wrote: “We shall miss his advice and wonderful sense of humour.”
 

Former A-Rosa UK and Ireland managing director Lucia Rowe paid tribute to him on social media, writing: “How lucky and privileged I am for him to have been such a huge part of my life.”

In January 2009, the Sunday Times alleged that Lord Snape and three other Labour peers told undercover reporters posing as lobbyists that they were willing to try to amend legislation on business rates then going through Parliament in return for a fee.

Two of the peers were found guilty and suspended. Lord Snape and a fellow peer were cleared of wrongdoing but ordered to apologise to the Lords for “an inappropriate attitude to the rules” governing the conduct of members. The Sunday Times agreed to pay towards his legal costs.

A former railway worker, and at one time chairman of Stockport County football club, Snape died on August 14.