Leeds Trades Council

In 1871, the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science held a conference in the town, and a speaker at the event denounced trade unionism.

The trades council wrote an address in response to this, and then called a national conference on 2 December, chaired by its president, E. C. Denton.

At the 1891 elections, Judge initially stood in North ward, but withdrew as the Liberal candidate accepted the trades council programme.

Initially led by Ben Turner, its founding members were the trades councils of Bradford, Brighouse, Castleford, Doncaster, Huddersfield, Leeds, Mexborough, Morley, Shipley, Spen Valley, Wakefield and York.

[1] The council affiliated to the Labour Representation Committee (LRC) in 1900, against the wishes of Connellan, who attempted to resign as secretary, but was persuaded to remain in post.

[2] At the 1900 UK general election, it sponsored William Pollard Byles as an LRC candidate in Leeds East, though he could take only third place.

A week later, the Leeds Trades Council hosted a Labour conference intended to organise mass rent resistance, and this formed a Tenants' Defence League.