Born in Kexborough near Barnsley, Driver studied at the University of Sheffield, where he edited the student newspaper, ran the Socialist Club, and joined the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB).
After university, he returned to Kexborough, where he picked potatoes and ran the local Labour Party.
He persuaded the NUT to join the TUC in 1969, and it was gradually followed by the other main unions of teachers.
He believed that there should be one union representing college lecturers, and in 1976 he completed a merger with the Association of Teachers in Colleges and Departments of Education, forming the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education.
[3] Following his retirement in 1978, Driver was active in the pensioners' movement and sided with the Morning Star during the CPGB split of the 1980s.