NORTH-EAST members of the country's second biggest trade union have welcomed the general secretary's decision to stand down.

Sir Ken Jackson accepted at the weekend that he had lost his job running Amicus after being defeated by left-winger Derek Simpson in a postal ballot.

Sir Ken had contested his defeat by more than 410 votes, saying Press coverage of allegations that his supporters tried to influence the ballot could have affected the result.

But the 65-year-old, Prime Minister Tony Blair's closest ally in the union movement, has now decided not to press ahead with his complaints. He will stand down on December 31.

On Saturday, before Sir Ken's decision was announced, a regional conference of 35 delegates of the union's AEEU section approved two resolutions calling on him to abide by the ballot result.

Ted Hall, chairman of the Houghton-le-Spring branch, who tabled one of the resolutions, said: "Whether we voted for Ken Jackson or Derek Simpson, we have to accept the result and maintain a democratic union.

"If Ken Jackson and the executive had persisted in pressing for another ballot it would have hurt the union and its members. It would have split the union from top to bottom."

He added: "Obviously it was a shock to Ken Jackson's system, and the executive's. They didn't expect him to be defeated. But democracy has spoken."

Roger Lyons, joint general secretary of Amicus, said Sir Ken had done the right thing: "This was the only way forward. Derek Simpson was the clear winner of the ballot."