Trade union 'giant' Scanlon dies

Hugh Scanlon was once blacklisted by the security services

Veteran union leader Lord Scanlon, once famously ordered to take his "tanks off my lawn" by Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson, has died at the age of 90.

Hugh Scanlon, who led the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers in the 1970s, became well-respected for his tough negotiating style.

Salford-born Scanlon was once a card-carrying Communist, but his hard-line left-wing stance mellowed as his grew older and he accepted a peerage by the time Britain was hit by the Winter of Discontent in the late 1970s.

Derek Simpson, general secretary of Amicus, which succeeded the AEEU, said: "We receive the news with great sadness. The movement has lost one of its past giants."

Prime Minister Tony Blair said he was "greatly saddened" to hear of Lord Scanlon's death.

"Hugh was one of the towering figures of the Labour movement in the 1970s and a formidable champion of the interests of his members and all working people," he said.

"His tremendous contribution will be remembered by an entire generation of our movement and he will be sadly missed."

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: "Hugh Scanlon was a giant among trade union leaders.

Hugh was one of the towering figures of the Labour movement... His tremendous contribution will be remembered by an entire generation Tony Blair

"His heart was always with the left, yet he was a pragmatic leader who always sought the best for his members and to sustain a Labour government."

Scanlon became such a thorn in Harold Wilson's side that the Prime Minister once ordered him: "Get your tanks off my lawn."

He became a union shop steward at the age of 23 in Manchester in 1936, at about the same time joined the Communist Party.

He said being involved in both communism and the labour movement was not "schizophrenic".

"To be a Marxist does not mean that you subscribe to revolutionary means of changing society, or that you would use the unions to do that," he once said.

"It does mean that you see the trade union movement as a means to an end, not an end in itself."

That pragmatism was demonstrated during the Spanish Civil War, when he converted old lorries into ambulances.

Mellowing views

He worked his way up from a shop steward in Manchester to become national president of the Associated Electrical Industries Works in 1967.

During negotiations he was well known for tough talk, and did not enjoy losing a fight.

Scanlon's political beliefs led to him being effectively blacklisted by the British security service from 1966 to 1977, it emerged years later.

In 1977, he was prevented from becoming chairman of British Shipbuilding because MI5 advised that he should not see documents marked "confidential" or above.

Two years earlier, he was refused security clearance to join the British Gas Board, but was later appointed after his files were examined.

His elevation to the House of Lords was greeted with disbelief by some of his former left wing colleagues.

But he used his position to remain a vocal advocate for workers' rights.

Lord Scanlon's daughter, Janet Kilani, said her father died peacefully in his sleep at his home in Broadstairs on Tuesday, after a long illness.

His wife Nora was by his bedside.