The council was founded in 1860, and remained small during its first decade, largely consisting of a few local unions. In 1871, the
National Association for the Promotion of Social Science held a conference in the town, and a speaker at the event denounced trade unionism. The trades council wrote an address in response to this, and then called a national conference on 2 December, chaired by its president, E. C. Denton. This marked the start of greater prominence for the council, which over the following decade attracted the affiliations of local branches of the national unions. During the 1880s, the council was dominated by supporters of the
Liberal Party, including William Bune,
Owen Connellan,
John Judge, William Marston and Henry Maundrill. In 1887, it unanimously opposed the campaign for the
Eight Hour Bill, describing it as Parliamentary "interference" in trade matters. In the late 1880s, several smaller towns near Leeds established their own trades councils. In 1891, J. Sweeney of the Leeds Trades Council proposed the formation of the Yorkshire Federation of Trades Councils, which came about in 1893. Initially led by
Ben Turner, its founding members were the trades councils of Bradford, Brighouse, Castleford, Doncaster, Huddersfield, Leeds, Mexborough, Morley, Shipley, Spen Valley, Wakefield and York. By 1903, labour candidates were instead being co-ordinated by a Leeds LRC, which worked closely with the trades council. In 1926, the
Trades Union Congress set up the Trades Councils Joint Consultative Committee, with six members elected by trades councils. The secretary of Leeds Trades Council was generally one of the six. The trades council has remained active and is now known as the
Leeds Trades Union Council. ==General Secretaries==