Sir Peter Alfred Soulsby (born 27 December 1948) is a British Labour Party politician serving as Mayor of Leicester since 2011.

He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leicester South from 2005 until he resigned his seat in April 2011, in order to contest the new post of mayor.

[8] In 1984, he stood for election for the Leicester European Parliamentary constituency, narrowly losing to the Conservative incumbent Fred Tuckman by 1.6%.

[citation needed] Despite his anti-war stance, Soulsby lost by 5.6% to Parmjit Singh Gill of the Liberal Democrats in a by-election which was dominated by the Iraq War and the newly formed left-wing party Respect, which took 12.7% of the vote.

[12] On 31 October 2006, Soulsby was one of 12 Labour MPs to back Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party's call for an inquiry into the Iraq War.

The independence of the committee, which included the vice chancellor of De Montfort University, the head of the chamber of trade and a charity sector worker, was also challenged by the only Conservative councillor "as they worked closely with Sir Peter".

[29] On Thursday 5 May 2016, Mohammed Zameer Khan, a businessman, approached Sir Peter whilst he was outside a city school campaigning for the Labour Party candidate in that day's Police and Crime Commissioner election.

Soulsby stated that charity was not mentioned at any point and described the event as "the most blatant attempt to bribe me in forty years of public life".

Soulsby confirmed that the penalty would not be enforced, saying, "It was quite clear what Lee was doing was an act of a good Samaritan on Christmas Day and even though it's important to keep this safe... there are exceptions.

"[33] On 14 June 2020, the Leicester Mercury and The Sun newspapers published photographs appearing to show Soulsby breaking rules on movement during a lockdown[34] by visiting his girlfriend during the COVID-19 pandemic.

[35] In response, the leader of the opposition on the Leicester City Council, Nigel Porter, and local Liberal Democrat and Conservative councillors called for Soulsby to apologise and resign his position.