The banner was unfurled on the night before the big meeting, by MEP Stephen Hughes and long-time trade unionist Rodney Bickerstaffe, General Secretary of the trade union UNISON from 1995 to 2001.
His father, who was born in West Cornforth, County Durham, played for Spennymoor United before the Second World War, and met his mother in a local pub after Spennymoor had played West Bromwich Albion in an FA Cup game in 1937.