It some ways, it would be all too easy to caricature Len McCluskey, General Secretary of Unite, as the archetypal trade union ‘Baron’. Born and raised in Liverpool, he gained notoriety for his bitter standoff with British Airways. More recently, he has made headlines for pushing the more left-leaning of the two Miliband brothers to the helm of the Labour party, and for his union’s controversial role in the Falkirk scandal, over which questions still loom for the Labour party.

It is not hard to see, then, how it is that he is often portrayed in the media as a throwback to the old-fashioned, fist-thumping politics of a bygone era. But, in the same words he uses to describe media coverage of the Falkirk scandal, why let the truth get in the way of a good story?

This was the McCluskey I was largely preparing for in his talk and subsequent interview for Varsity. But instead of the defiant, tribalist ‘Red Len’ I was expecting, we were instead treated to a much more measured, reflective, sometimes almost lyrical, often light-hearted speech - tellingly, on the subject of ‘hope’. Why such a disparity? When I ask whether there is a media agenda against him, he lights up - "that’s a great question!"- clearly exasperated by his treatment and tells me, in a soft Scouse accent, about the dismay with which he views the media’s position on both him and the union movement.

"From time to time the media need an ogre; I’m the current public enemy number one. And they’ll try to use that to destroy the message of people coming together, resisting and trying to defend the way of life that we’ve been used to for the past 65 years since the end of the war and the creation of the welfare state."

Given the feisty way he is often portrayed, supposedly in a rather tempestuous relationship with the Labour party and Ed Miliband, it is notable how wary he is of coming out and saying anything that might be construed as undermining the Labour leader:

"We know for a fact that the Conservatives have this Australian attack dog Lynton Crosby, and we know that he has targeted me as an individual and Unite, as a kind of baseball bat to hit Ed Miliband over the head with. And we’re conscious of that; that means I have to be a bit more careful of what I say and how it can be distorted. And, you know, it’s very difficult sometimes."

"I mean, had I opposed Ed Miliband’s proposals, I would’ve been attacked and the media would’ve been accusing Miliband, encouraging him to take me on and defeat me. The fact that I welcomed them, I’m being attacked because I must have an agenda: ‘you’re going to have more power’."

His condemnation of the press is hardly surprising then: "sometimes there’s not a lot you can do with the media. The British media - and the standard of it - is very poor from a diverse point of view, from an objective point of view." But despite this, he seems as resolute as ever to pursue the socialist cause.

Some might see the leverage policy he announced in his speech yesterday against private NHS "vultures" as exactly the kind of politics that isolate trade unions from the centre ground, but in his talk he stresses the policy is not about "turning up outside directors’ houses and demonstrating. It is about putting pressure on employers and others to face up to their corporate and social responsibilities." After the speech, he frames it as a necessary means of defending the NHS:

"I don’t want my kids or grandkids saying to me ‘what did you do when they were taking away the National Health Service? Did you just stand round and watch?’ I want to be able to say ‘no, we stood up, millions of us, to fight back’."

McCluskey is undoubtedly angry. He starts his speech by reminding his audience that it was Cambridge graduates 25 years ago who helped "drive our economy off a cliff". He describes the lack of affordable housing as "national scandal", repeatedly denounces the current government’s policies as "outrageous", and, in reference to the Conservative anthem ‘Land of Hope and Glory’, asks despairingly – "What hope is there in a land of food banks? What glory when the family of a soldier who has died for their country could be forced from their home by the bedroom tax?"

And there are, unmistakeably at times, hints of a less appeasing side to McCluskey. He immediately qualifies the claim that he is "not against rich people per se", says proudly that he is “always opposed to the status quo”, and over the union’s questionable behaviour in Falkirk, is in a fiery mood: "there was no scandal, nobody did anything wrong." But, by and large, McCluskey strikes a positive chord, remaining optimistic. He has reservations about Miliband’s approach – "I just wish he’d be a bit more bold about things" – but still backs him: "he’s a decent man, he’s wanting to create a better society…my relationship is OK with him." He thinks Miliband can win the next election too, provided he offer a radical alternative ("It has to be his radical alternative, not mine") that "effectively gives people hope", though isn’t so sure Labour will gain an outright majority.

It's clear, though, that he will be doing everything in his power in the time before the next election to make sure that it is his man, rather than Cameron and Clegg – the "soggy Lib Dem sieve" – who takes the reins of power. And with a Labour government building homes and creating jobs, McCluskey would be a relatively happy man.

"When working people are confident, anything can happen."