John Golding (British politician)

John Golding (9 March 1931 – 20 January 1999) was a Labour Party politician and Trade Union leader in the United Kingdom.

He was educated at Chester City Grammar School, Keele University and the London School of Economics. After some time working in the Civil Service he took up a research job with the Post Office Engineering Union.

Golding was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Newcastle-under-Lyme at a by-election in 1969. He served in the governments of Harold Wilson and Jim Callaghan, as PPS to Eric Varley as Minister of Technology, a Labour whip in opposition, and Minister for Employment. He was an outspoken opponent of Labour left-wingers such as Tony Benn and Eric Heffer, whom he regarded as idle dreamers out of touch with the working-class.

Golding was a key figure in opposing the entryist Militant group, and especially in mobilising moderate trades union leaders to exercise their block votes to achieve this end. After he died, his writings were published under the title Hammer of the Left: My Part in Defeating the Labour Left by John Golding and Paul Farrelly (see below).

In 1986 he left Parliament (by applying for the Chiltern Hundreds) to take up the post of General Secretary of the National Communications Union. He held this post until 1988. He had served as a member of the council of the Trades Union Congress.

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