A former Labour minister who was famously confronted by Joanna Lumley in a live TV showdown has died from brain cancer aged 66.
Phil Woolas was MP for Oldham West and Saddleworth from 1997 until 2010 and held several ministerial posts under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
But his political career ended in controversy and disgrace when a court ruled he had broken electoral law by deliberately making false statements about his Liberal Democrat opponent.
His TV clash with national treasure Ms Lumley came when she led opposition to proposals by Brown’s government in 2009 to restrict the rights of retired Gurkhas to settle in the UK.
Tony Blair and Phil Woolas in May 2010. Pic: AP
At the time, he was a combative immigration minister in the Home Office and Ms Lumley was spearheading the Gurkhas Justice Campaign fighting Woolas’s plans.
With Labour rebels joining Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs, the government suffered a humiliating defeat on the proposals in the Commons.
Then, after an original confrontation inside a TV studio in Westminster, the pair agreed to hold a joint news conference, which descended into chaos.
Broadcast live on Sky News and other channels, the actress appeared to persuade Woolas to accept that the Gurkhas’ lawyers would draw up new guidelines.
And after dramatic scenes, Ms Lumley declared: “I have met Mr Woolas now and I am reassured again. Because I know we are going to assist Mr Woolas in making the strongest guidelines possible.”
It was the defining moment of a life in politics that began when Woolas joined the Labour party at 16 and was president of the National Union of Students from 1984 to 1986.
Mr Woolas in February 2024. Pic: PA
Paying tribute, Defence Secretary John Healey, a close friend, told Sky News: “During the ’80s and ’90s many helped lay the foundations for New Labour, defeating the hard left and modernising the student movement, trade unions, media, Labour Party and Parliamentary Labour Party.
“No-one played a significant role in all these areas – except Phil.
“He was a highly regarded ministerial operator with friends across the political divide, despite being a fiercely loyal Labour man all his life.”
After a short career as a TV producer, he became head of communications for the GMB union and masterminded one of the most high-profile stunts ever staged by a trade union.
In 1996, protesting against a 75% pay rise to £475,000 a year for British Gas boss Cedric Brown, the union took a live pig called Cedric to the firm’s AGM to highlight “snouts in the trough”.
After unsuccessfully fighting the Littleborough and Saddleworth by-election in 1995, he was elected in the 1997 Blair landslide and after a spell as a parliamentary bag-carrier began his ministerial career in 2003.
He was deputy Commons leader and a local government minister under Blair, then under Brown he became an environment minister and then immigration minister in 2008.
But throughout his career he was outspoken and often controversial and in 2010, after he held his seat by just 103 votes, he was served with an election petition by LibDem opponent Elwyn Watkins.
He lost the subsequent court case – in an election court that was the first of its kind for 99 years – and the judge ordered a re-run of the election.
The court ruled that Woolas knew statements he made about Watkins during the campaign were untrue and he was therefore guilty of illegal practices under election law.
A bitter Woolas said after the ruling: “Those who stand for election and participate in the democratic process must be prepared to have their political conduct and motives subjected to searching, scrutiny and inquiry.
“They must accept that their political character and conduct will be attacked.”
But Labour’s acting leader Harriet Harman announced his suspension from the party and said: “It is not part of Labour politics to try to win elections by saying things that are not true.”
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After the controversial end to his career in parliament, Woolas formed a lobbying company with a former Conservative MP, Sir Sydney Chapman, and a former Liberal Democrat MP, Paul Keetch, both of whom later died.
He leaves a widow, Tracey Jane Allen, an events organiser and former co-director of a lobbying company. They met in 1982 through their activities in student politics and married in 1988.
They had two sons, Josh and Jed, and their first grandchild was born on 20 January, less than two months before Woolas’s death. He is also survived by his mother and older brother.
Mr Healey added: “Phil was a passionate Manchester United season ticket holder, wine connoisseur, fisherman, raconteur with a photographic memory and warm and engaging personality.
“But he didn’t suffer fools and was a principled fighter driven by the need to make a real change to society. His commitment to the Labour Party never wavered over 50 years, through many challenges.”
