Ernest Bevin

Bevin left school at 11, worked as a farm boy and a carter, and built the Transport and General Workers' Union through the 1922 amalgamation into the largest union in the world. He entered Parliament only in 1940, at 59, straight into Churchill's war cabinet as Minister of Labour, where his union authority let him mobilise the workforce largely by agreement. As Foreign Secretary he helped found NATO. His career is the strongest case that leadership outside Westminster can transfer.