Jay Lee

Who is Jay Lee?

Jay Lee was a British National Party member, who fought a legal battle after being expelled from a trade union.

Lee, a driver for Virgin Trains, stood as a BNP candidate in the 2002 local elections in Bexley and was subsequently expelled from the train drivers' union ASLEF for BNP membership. In May 2003, an Employment Tribunal ruled that Lee had been wrongly expelled from the union, finding ASLEF had breached section 174 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act.

On 24 January 2004, the decision was overturned by an Employment Appeal Tribunal, which referred the case back to a new tribunal. On 7 October 2004, the new tribunal ruled in Lee's favour, awarding him at least £5,000. Lee also sued for libel after he was described as a racist, seeking aggravated damages from two senior trade unionists and two journalists. In January 2006, ASLEF paid £30,000 in an out-of-court settlement to cover Lee's legal costs in the libel case, but Lee did not receive any personal damages.

ASLEF subsequently took the UK Government to the European Court of Human Rights, claiming that UK law was in breach of Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights. On 27 February 2007, the Court unanimously upheld ASLEF's claim that there had been a violation of the Convention and that ASLEF was entitled to expel Lee from the union.