political values and ideals fundamentally clashed with its own. The UK government argued that UK law would have allowed Lee's expulsion if ASLEF had restricted itself to a complaint solely about Lee's conduct. However, the Court noted that the Employment Tribunal found that ASLEF's objections were primarily based on his BNP membership, and the Court thought it unreasonable to expect ASLEF to use the pretext of a complaint about conduct, since this was carried out by him in the context of his membership of the BNP. In the absence of any hardship suffered by Lee or any abusive and unreasonable conduct by ASLEF, the Court held that there had been a violation of Article 11 and found in favour of ASLEF. Significance Brendan Barber, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, described the European court's decision as an "important and welcome judgment", saying that it was "common sense" that unions "should not be forced to accept into membership people opposed to the basic principles of trade unionism." He added, "Every union will welcome this clear decision that they can now expel BNP members." The ASLEF General Secretary, Keith Norman, thanked the 18 unions who gave ASLEF financial assistance to allow them to go to the European courts: NUM, CYWU, PFA, UCATT, NATFHE, NAPO, USDAW, EIS, RMT, UNISON, PCS, NUMAST, Community, CWU, CSP, GMB, FBU and NUJ. See also Wilson and the National Union of Journalists v the United Kingdom [2002] IRLR 568 Demir and Baykara v Turkey (2009) 48 EHRR 54 UK labour law Notes References European Court judgment 27 February 2007 Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 E McGaughey, A Casebook on Labour Law (Hart 2018) ch 8, 351 External links European Court of Human Rights full judgment Full text of the European Convention on Human Rights ASLEF website on the case BBC News report: Court verdict BBC News report: Lee's election result Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights British trade unions history European Court of Human Rights cases involving the United Kingdom 2007 in British law United Kingdom labour case law United Kingdom constitutional case law History of the British National Party 2007 in case law Trade union case law European Union labour law United Kingdom trade union case law Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen 2007 in labor relations