USDAW general secretary Paddy Lillis has defended his legacy and vowed to continue supporting Labour after he retires in July.

The 67-year-old said that he was only stepping back after reversing the devastating 77,000 decline in the retail union’s membership during the Covid-19 pandemic and because of his confidence in Sir Keir Starmer’s government.

Mr Lillis, who began union work as a shop steward 43 years ago and has been on the Usdaw staff for 36 years, said that he had planned to retire two years ago, but ”it’s still strange — a bit surreal.”

”I think it’s the old saying — you want to leave the organisation better than you found it,” he said.

No less enthusiastic for the union movement than when fax machines were introduced as new technology in the 1980s, the grandfather-of-11 said he would support the party ”from the sidelines.”

In an interview with the Morning Star during Usdaw’s annual conference in Blackpool, he defended his approach of being a ”critical friend” to Labour.

”You get it from time to time from some of our critics: ’You’re soft; Tesco pay your wages’ — it’s all garbage, basically,” he said.

”One of the toughest decisions I had to take was to seek a High Court injunction against the biggest private trade union partnership in Europe.”

Last year, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favour of Usdaw’s case that Tesco cannot use fire-and-rehire tactics to circumvent retained pay agreements.

”The lawyers told me I wouldn’t win,” he said. ”You’re talking about millions in legal costs and again I had the chance to step back from it. I didn’t. I said: ’No, we are going to take it through.’

“So when we’ve got to step up, we’ll step up, but I’ve taken the basis that there’s no problem insurmountable when you are prepared to listen and to talk.”

Mr Lillis, whose home constituency of Runcorn & Helsby swung from Labour to Reform last week, said: “I’m committed to the party … going out on the press and doing them in all the time just plays into the right-wing narrative and plays into the Tories and Farages.”

He urged Labour to be “on the front foot, going out there and explaining that migrants are not the people causing the problem, and [to] ensure we focus on the right issues.

“Health service, social care and education and, for us as trade unionists of course, the Employment Bill and making work pay… That’s all they have to do. It sounds very simple, doesn’t it?

“The message to the taxpayer is if you want a proper health service, social care, education, employment rights, then you’ve got to pay for it.

“Then they’ve got a look at who is paying for it and taking it off those with the broadest shoulders and getting them to pay more.

“I do support a wealth tax. Those who can afford to pay, if they are good citizens, they should be helping to support a country to get it back on its feet.”

Today, the conference heard calls for Mr Lillis to receive a peerage or knighthood.