Peter Soulsby

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Sir Peter Alfred Soulsby (b. December 27, 1948, Bishop Auckland) is a British Labour Party politician. He served as leader of Leicester City Council from 1981 to 1999. He has been Member of Parliament for Leicester South since 2005.

Since 1998 he has been on the board of British Waterways. He is a Unitarian, and was knighted in 1999 for his services to local government. He has also served as a member of the Audit Commission.

He was first elected to Leicester City Council in 1974 and remained a Labour councillor until he was defeated in Spinney ward in May 2003. Despite his own opposition to the Iraq war and his participation in rallies and marches, his defeat (and that of other sitting Labour councillors) reflected the widespread local opposition to the war.

He was the Labour Party's candidate in the Leicester South by-election in 2004, but lost to Parmjit Singh Gill of the Liberal Democrats in a by-election which was run by Labour's Party machine.

In the 2005 general election, less than a year later, he won the seat back for Labour from Gill. This time the campaign was run by his supporters and he was able to make more of his opposition to the Iraq was and address the many different communities in Leicester. His win came as something of a suprise to the national Labour party.

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