Tony Mulhearn

Anthony Mulhearn (born 24 January 1939) is a British political and trade unions campaigner known for being a prominent member of the Socialist Party and its predecessor, the Militant tendency. A native of Liverpool, Mulhearn was a member of the city council from 1984 to 1987 and also held the key role during this time of President of the District Labour Party. Co-authored with Peter Taaffe a book detailing the struggle of the Liverpool city council called Liverpool: A City that Dared to Fight.

Mulhearn was brought up in the down town Fontenoy Street and Leeds Street area of the city and went to Holy Cross School and Bishop Goss Secondary Modern school before working variously as a baker, tailor, trainee ship steward, apprentice cabinet maker, printer, ship's printer with Canadian Pacific, Ford worker, taxi driver, part-time lecturer and civil servant. Joining the Labour Party in 1963, he fought Crosby as the Labour candidate in the 1979 general election.

His involvement with municipal affairs began in March 1980 when Mulhearn became President of the Liverpool District Labour Party, a body which was responsible for overseeing the activities of Labour councillors on Liverpool city council. In June 1981 he was selected as Labour Party candidate for Liverpool Toxteth, although due to boundary changes the constituency was abolished before the next general election. Mulhearn was elected to Liverpool city council in May 1984 from St Mary's ward.

Mulhearn was a leading member of the controlling group on the city council, and in 1985 played a key role in the budgeting crisis which affected the council. He led the council delegation negotiating with the unions representing council staff when the council, running out of money, decided to issue redundancy notices to its entire workforce in September 1985. Mulhearn insisted that the council would succeed in getting extra funds from the Government, making the notices unnecessary; he also said that Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock had been speaking "from a position of profound ignorance" when he condemned the move. Shortly afterward Mulhearn stood for the Labour candidacy in Knowsley North, attempting to deselect sitting MP Robert Kilroy-Silk.

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