Len McCluskey

Background

McCluskey was born in Liverpool and went to the Cardinal Godfrey School in Everton.

Career

He previously spent some years working on the Liverpool Docks prior to becoming a full-time union official After leaving school as a teenager, he went to work for the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company and remained there for the next 11 years. McCluskey first became a trade unionist in 1968, while working on the docks.

He became a shop steward a year later, aged 19, and joined the Labour Party in 1970.

McCluskey was elected as the National Secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union General Workers Group in 1990, and moved to London to work in the union"s national headquarters. In 2004 he became the Transport and General Workers' Union"s national organiser for the service industries.

In 2007, he was appointed as the Assistant General Secretary for Industrial Strategy of the newly merged Unite the Union. He defines himself as being on the left of the union, and has been given the label of "Red Len" in the British press because of his involvement in Unite"s dispute with British Airways.

In 2010, McCluskey stood for election as General Secretary of Unite to replace joint-General Secretaries Derek Simpson and Tony Woodley, who had both announced their retirement.

Derek Simpson retired a few weeks later, in December 2010, and Tony Woodley followed shortly after that, leaving McCluskey to take office as the General Secretary on 1 January 2011. In 2013, McCluskey announced that he would be running for re-election as General Secretary. He was re-elected in 2013 with the following results posted.

The full election results are as follows:

Len McCluskey: 144,570 votes.

Jerry Hicks: 79,819 votes. Number of ballot papers found to be invalid: 1,412.

Total number of valid votes cast: 224,389. Turnout: 15.2 per central

In 2013, McCluskey co-signed a letter which was published in The Guardian newspaper to announce his support for the People"s Assembly movement.

He also gave a speech at the closing plenary of the People"s Assembly Conference, held at Westminster Central Hall on 22 June 2013. In July 2013, McCluskey accused Labour of "picking the wrong fight" over the selection of a prospective candidate in the Falkirk constituency. He described Labour party headquarters" handling of the matter as "nothing short of disgraceful".

In November 2013, McCluskey denied fresh claims that his Unite Union had tried to prevent a Labour Party investigation into alleged vote rigging in Falkirk.

In March 2015, McCluskey threatened to disaffiliate Unite from Labour and launch a new workers" party if Labour loses the 2015 general election.

Achievements

• On 21 November 2010, it was announced that McCluskey had won the election.

Membership

He became an officer of the Transport and General Workers' Union in Merseyside in 1979 and was its campaign organiser throughout the 1980s, during which he supported Militant tendency, but was not a member of lieutenant