Frank Haxell

Frank Leslie Haxell (25 June 1912 – 26 May 1988) was a British communist activist and trade union leader. He was found guilty of rigging a union election.

Career Born in Islington, Haxell apprenticed as an electrician. While still a teenager in 1929, he joined the Electrical Trades Union (ETU). In 1935 he became a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). A militant union activist, Haxell supported an unauthorised strike in Chorley, Lancashire in 1939. As punishment for his action, he was banned from holding office in the ETU for five years.

In 1948, Haxell was elected the ETU's assistant general secretary.

Under Haxell's leadership, the ETU was accused of election vote-rigging and other corrupt practices. Les Cannon was a key figure in the effort to unmask corruption inside the union. Cannon had been a CPGB member who dropped out after the 1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary. In the late 1950s, the communist-controlled union was a target of public criticism and of British press and TV investigations. The court appointed Byrne the new general secretary with immediate effect. In the aftermath, Haxell was expelled from the union. He was also forced to resign from the CPGB "for bringing it into disrepute by condoning 'illegal and undemocratic methods'." He returned to working as an electrician, and was later permitted to rejoin the union, but not to hold office in it.

Frank Haxell died in London on 26 May 1988. He was 75.