Tube union leader Bob Crow dies of heart attack

London Evening Standard/London

The Left-winger, regarded by many as Britain’s most effective trade union leader, was taken to Whipps Cross hospital in Leytonstone at about 7am.

Medical staff spent an hour trying to save him but he had suffered critical damage as a result of an aneurysm and could not be revived.

His death at the age of 52 shocked and saddened friends and opponents alike.

He leaves a partner and four children.

Crow’s union represents Tube and rail workers and seafarers.

Mayor Boris Johnson said: “Bob Crow was a fighter and a man of character. Whatever our political differences, and there were many, this is tragic news. Bob fought tirelessly for his beliefs and his members.”

Ken Livingstone said: “His members are one of the few groups of working class people who have still got well paid jobs, and a lot of that is down to him.”

The Rail, Maritime and Transport union headquarters in central London was closed for the day and stunned staff were sent home.

A statement on the RMT union’s website said: “It is with the deepest regret that RMT has to confirm that our general secretary Bob Crow sadly passed away in the early hours of yesterday morning. The union’s offices will be closed for the rest of the day and the union will make further announcements in due course.”

Among Crow’s controversial successes, he negotiated Tube workers a bonus for working normally during the 2012 Olympics.

When photographed sunbathing in Brazil with his partner Nicola Hoarau before a Tube strike, he retorted: “What do you want me to do? Sit under a tree and read Karl Marx every day?”

Answering criticism of his decision to stay living in a council house in Woodford Green despite his £145,000 salary, he said: “I was born in a council house, as far as I’m concerned I will die in one.”

Born in Shadwell, East London, Crow left his secondary modern at 16 and became an apprentice track worker for London Underground. He soon took up union activity, becoming a local representative for the National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) at 20. By then he was already highly regarded by NUR boss Jimmy Knapp.

He even joined a strike a day after returning from his honeymoon in 1982. “I don’t shirk from taking industrial action,” he once said.

A card carrying member of the Communist Party for much of his life, Crow also joined Arthur Scargill’s Socialist Labour Party but belonged to no party in recent years. He was a bitter critic of Tony Blair and the modern Labour Party, believing they had abandoned the working classes.

A lifelong follower of Millwall FC, he confessed that if he had not been a union official he would have liked to have been a footballer or a weather expert.

Crow maintained he wanted to do the “very best” for his members, wherever they worked and whichever political party they belonged to, saying: “I will be the captain, steering the ship, but the members will make all the decisions.”

Close friend and ally Manuel Cortes, general secretary of the TSSA union, said: “Bob Crow was admired by his members and feared by his employers which is exactly how he liked it.”

Labour leader Ed Miliband said Crow was a major figure who was loved and deeply respected by his members. “He did what he was elected to do, was not afraid of controversy and was always out supporting his members,” he said.

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin called him “a passionate voice for safety” and always “very straight” in his dealings with the government.