Ray Collins, Baron Collins of Highbury

Ray Edward Harry Collins, Baron Collins of Highbury ( born December 21, 1954) is an English trade unionist and Labour Party politician, who was appointed on 12 June 2008 to the Secretary General of the party.

Collins was in 1984 head of the trade union headquarters of the Transport and General Workers ' Union and retained the post with brief interruptions until 2008. He has over 30 years a member of the Labour Party and was in the campaign team since 1970 every year. He is representative of the TGWU in the National Policy Forum of the party and member of the National Constitutional Committee.

In December 2007 he was out of the LGBT newspaper Pink News in the list of 50 most influential LGBT people in British politics in 27th place. He was involved in the merger of the TGWU with Amicus, from which arose the Unite, one of the largest unions in the country.

Collins took his hat, as it was reported that the party was on the verge of bankruptcy. In May 2008, the Electoral Commission, the body responsible for party finances Committee of the British Parliament stated that the Labour Party had 17.8 million pounds of debt.

On 20 January 2011 Collins was raised as Baron Collins of Highbury for Life Peer and was on 24 January 2011 Member of the House of Lords, where he belonged to the faction of the Labour Party. In 2011 he was appointed Whip.