TRADE union militant and former Communist Party general secretary Mike Hicks, who was famously jailed during the Wapping dispute, died on Thursday night at the age of 80.

He collapsed at a meeting of his local Labour Party in Bournemouth while accepting the honour of being named its honorary president for his “enormous contribution” to the party.

“He died doing what he loved,” Bournemouth Labour secretary Sharon Carr-Brown told the Morning Star — “giving a political speech.”