Paul William Fleming (born 1988) is a British trade union leader. Born in

Birmingham, West Midlands Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, Fleming was the first member of his family to attend university, studying

philosophy, politics and economics Philosophy, politics and economics, or politics, philosophy and economics (PPE), is an interdisciplinary undergraduate or postgraduate academic degree, degree which combines study from three disciplines. The first institution to offer degrees in P ...

Mansfield College, Oxford Mansfield College, Oxford is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. The college was founded in Birmingham in 1838 as a college for Nonconformist students. It moved to Oxford in 1886 and was renamed Mansfield Coll ...

. He then worked as Acting Press Secretary for the

New Jersey Democratic Party The New Jersey Democratic State Committee (NJDSC) is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in the U.S. state of New Jersey. LeRoy J. Jones Jr. is the chair and Peg Schaffer is the vice chair. Its main rival is the New Jersey Republican State Co ...

, before becoming the youngest ever organiser for the

Community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

trade union. In 2014, Fleming was elected to the

London Borough of Southwark The London Borough of Southwark ( ) in South London forms part of Inner London and is connected by bridges across the River Thames to the City of London and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council ...

council, for the Labour Party, serving two terms. He started working for Equity in 2011, and by the end of the decade was the union's Central London Theatres organiser. In July 2020, Fleming was elected as General Secretary of Equity, winning 69% of the vote on a 16% turnout. On his election, he was described as "the first LGBTQ+ General Secretary of a major UK trade union". During his tenure as General Secretary membership of Equity rose to the record level of 50,000 members. In May 2025, Fleming stood for a second term and was opposed by stuntman Riky Ash. He was re-elected, winning 81% of the vote on a 12.5% turnout.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fleming, Paul W 1988 births 21st-century English LGBTQ people Living people Alumni of Mansfield College, Oxford Councillors in the London Borough of Southwark General secretaries of Equity (British trade union) Labour Party (UK) councillors English LGBTQ politicians Members of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress Trade unionists from Birmingham, West Midlands