Last modified on Mon 11 Jan 2021 07.48 EST A Balliol graduate who, to his eternal regret, just missed an Oxford rowing blue, Leif Mills was an unlikely figure to have been elected president of the TUC and to have regaled its general council for a decade with Greek and Latin tags and witty interjections. With a briar in his hand, Mills, who has died aged 84, played up to his image as a pipe smoker and beer drinker. As chairman of the Covent Garden Market Authority (1998-2005), he had a brewer’s tap installed in the offices and would regularly join market porters for an early-morning pint.