RMT regional organiser Steve Shaw has told of coming face to face with childhood friends at far-right counterprotests as he thanked the union for “making me the person I am.”

Speaking at the union’s young members’ conference in Wigan, he described the protest against plans to house asylum-seekers at Kilhey Court in nearby Standish last September.

Organised by the “very racist” former councillor Maureen O’Bern, who is due to stand against Labour frontbencher Lisa Nandy in the general election, he said: “Half of them were friends of mine growing up on the same estate, and they are on that side and I’m on this side — and I think if I could roll the clock back 30 years, I could have been on that side. And that was interesting for me because it hit home.

“I've got to thank the trade union education for making me the person I am because the people who I grew up with are not the same people as I am.

“Trade union education on opposing the far right: I don't think we do enough of it. I think branches have to engage more in it.

“We are working-class people coming together from all different cultures and nationalities — and that’s the only way we are going to defeat the fascism that still exists in this country.”

Earlier he told delegates of how the RMT needed to look at affordable subscription rates to get more zero-hours contract workers joining the union.

“You’ve got a lot of nationalities and cultures in there, and I’ve got to say when you start, a lot of these cultures clash,” he admitted, adding that joining picket lines brought these members together.