T&G chooses Woodley as boss

Mr Woodley made his name fighting for car workers

Left-winger Tony Woodley has been chosen to become the new leader of one of Britain's best known trade unions.

TGWU general secretary Bill Morris is retiring from his post after 12 years in the job.

The ballot to choose his successor closed on Friday with four candidates and Woodley was regarded as a front-runner along with Jack Dromey, the husband of Solicitor General Harriet Harman.

Mr Woodley took 66,958 votes with Mr Dromey garnering 45,136 votes on a turnout of 20.9%.

Two T&G assistant general secretaries were also in the running - Labour Party Treasurer Jimmy Elsby who got 13,336 votes and eurosceptic Barry Camfield who received 28,346 votes.

Mr Woodley's success comes after a series of well-known faces from the union movement have been replaced by a new generation of left-wing leaders.

It's about trade unions starting to act like trade unions

Tony Woodley

New thorn in Blair's side

Mr Woodley plans to call a conference of all trade unions to review links with Labour and to look again at relationships with particular MPs.

He told BBC News 24 he would be calling a summit of his fellow union leaders.

"As a matter of priority of course we will meet, of course we will talk."

Minimum wage

Mr Woodley denied there was anything in his platform that was radical.

"It's about trade unions starting to act like trade unions as opposed to acting like they are businesses.

"I don't think it's too much for working people to want a living wage and not a poverty minimum wage. I don't think it's too much to have dignity in retirement... or have pensions that they can rely on instead of pensions that take them into further poverty."

Mr Woodley refused to consider what his position would be toward industrial action, saying it was too early to move into "negative vibes".

The 54-year-old, who lives with his wife and children in Ellesmere Port, is currently the 800,000-strong T&G's deputy general secretary and has won plaudits as a negotiator for saving car workers' jobs on Merseyside and in the Midlands.

Labour Party chairman Ian McCartney welcomed the T&G appointment and said he would "look forward" to working with Mr Woodley.

Mr Woodley's beaten rival Mr Dromey has been described as a New Labour-style moderniser.

'Enormous importance'

But Mr Woodley's election was lauded by Labour backbenchers, with Nottingham South MP Alan Simpson saying it was "great news".

"This is of enormous importance in that it marks the return of Labour to Real Labour.

"We are entering an era in which you couldn't win a trade union election on a New Labour ticket if you were the only candidate.

"Tony Woodley represents a return to the days when union leaders stood for the interests of their members and the Labour movement expected the Labour Party to do the same."

And Luton North MP Kelvin Hopkins, who fought alongside Mr Woodley against the closure of the town's Vauxhall car plant, said: "He is a good socialist and will be a great leader in the T&G tradition.

"I want to see the Labour Party remain a party of the left, supported by the trade union movement. Tony will be doing all he can to achieve that."