Prior to being elected at the 1997 general election, Woolas was president of the National Union of Students (NUS), a producer for BBC programme "Newsnight" and a trade unionist at the GMB trade union. In November 2010, he was found to have breached the Representation of the People Act 1983 in the course of the 2010 general election. As a result, his victory of 103 votes at the election was declared void, he lost his seat in the House of Commons and he was barred from standing again at the subsequent by-election. He was also suspended from the Labour Party until January 2011, when his suspension was lifted.