Early Life
Woolas was born in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, on 11 December 1959. He went to Nelson Grammar School on Oxford Road in Nelson, Lancashire, which became Walton (Lane) High School when the local education authority (LEA) went comprehensive in 1972. The school is now Pendle Vale College since 2006 when the former buildings were demolished and re-developed for housing. After O levels, he went to Nelson and Colne College. He received a BA in Philosophy from the Victoria University of Manchester.
Woolas joined the Labour Party at the age of 16 and became involved in student politics through the Anti-Nazi League. Before becoming an MP, he was president of the National Union of Students from 1984 to 1986, a television producer for the BBC on Newsnight from 1988 to 1990 (where he became firm friends with fellow Manchester United supporter Michael Crick), producer at ITN's Channel 4 News from 1990 to 1991 and head of communications at the GMB trade union from 1991 to 1997.
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