Despite stepping down as Joint-General Secretary, he remained as the Head of Organising for Unite until December 2013 and is still a consultant to the union.

He was created a Labour life peer in November 2020 with the title Baron Woodley,[1] of Wallasey in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral,[2] after initially declining the peerage.

He was considered to be a member of the so-called "Awkward Squad" of trade union leaders opposed to New Labour policies that they perceived to be against the interests of working people.

After his election he said in an interview with The Independent newspaper: He later served as one of the two Joint-General Secretaries of Unite, which was formed after a merger between the TGWU and Amicus.

At the 2009 Labour Party Conference, Woodley tore up a copy of The Sun newspaper as he made a speech.