Roy Jenkins: Difference between revisions

| 1blankname = [[Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford|Vice{{nbh}}Chancellor]]

| 1namedata = {{Plainlist|

* [[Richard Southwood|Sir Richard Southwood]]

* [[Peter North (legal scholar)|Sir Peter North]]

| term_end = 5 January 2003

| predecessor = [[Harold Macmillan|The Earl of Stockton]]

| order1 = <!-- not used. EU does not use US-style numbered presidencies. -->

| office1 = [[President of the European Commission]]

| predecessor2 = [[Robert Carr]]

| successor2 = [[Merlyn Rees]]

| term_start3 = 23 December 1965

| term_end3 = 30 November 1967

| successor3 = James Callaghan

| office4 = [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]]

| 1blankname4 = [[Chief Secretary to the Treasury|Chief Secretary]]

| 1namedata4 = [[Jack Diamond, Baron Diamond|Jack Diamond]]

|titlestyle = border:1px dashed lightgrey;}}{{Infobox officeholder |embed=yes

| office5 = [[Minister of Aviation]]

| term_start5 = 18 October 1964

| term_end5 = 23 December 1965

| term_end6 = 19 December 1997

| predecessor6 = [[Nancy Seear, Baroness Seear|The Baroness Seear]]

| office7 = [[Leader of the Social Democratic Party (UK)|Leader of the Social Democratic Party]]

| president7 = [[Shirley Williams]]

| successor7 = David Owen

| office8 = [[Deputy Leader of the Labour Party (UK)|Deputy Leader of the Labour Party]]

| term_start8 = 8 July 1970

| term_end8 = 10 April 1972

| term_start9 = 25 November 1973

| term_end9 = 4 March 1974

| predecessor9 = Shirley Williams

| successor9 = [[Jim Prior]]

| term_start10 = 20 June 1970

| term_end10 = 19 April 1972

| predecessor10 = Iain Macleod

| successor10 = [[Denis Healey]]

{{collapsed infobox section begin |cont=y |last=y |Parliamentary offices

|titlestyle = border:1px dashed lightgrey;}}{{Infobox officeholder |embed=yes

| term_label11 = [[Life peer]]age

| term_start11 = 1 December 1987

| term_end11 = 5 January 2003

| parliament12 = United Kingdom

| term_start12 = 25 March 1982

| term_end12 = 18 May 1987

| predecessor13 = ''[[Boundary commissions (United Kingdom)|Constituency established]]''

| successor13 = [[Andrew MacKay]]

| term_start14 = 29 April 1948

| term_end14 = 3 February 1950

<!--Military service-->

| allegiance = United Kingdom

| rank = [[Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)|Captain]]

| unit = [[Royal Artillery]]

}}

 

 

 

 

 

 

==Early life (1920–1945)==

 

 

 

 

==Early political career (1945–1965)==

 

In 1947, he edited a collection of [[Clement Attlee]]'s speeches, published under the title ''Purpose and Policy''.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 105.</ref> Attlee then granted Jenkins access to his private papers so that he could write his biography, which appeared in 1948 (''Mr Attlee: An Interim Biography'').<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 105–106.</ref> The reviews were generally favourable, including [[George Orwell]]'s in ''[[Tribune (magazine)|Tribune]]''.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 106.</ref>

 

 

Jenkins contributed an essay on 'Equality' to the 1952 collection ''New Fabian Essays''.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 128.</ref> In 1953 appeared ''Pursuit of Progress'', a work intended to counter [[Bevanism]]. Retreating from what he had demanded in ''Fair Shares for the Rich'', Jenkins now argued that the redistribution of wealth would occur over a generation<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 137.</ref> and abandoned the goal of public school abolition.<ref name=saunders /> However, he still proposed further nationalisations: "It is quite impossible to advocate both the abolition of great inequalities of wealth and the acceptance of a one-quarter public sector and three-quarters private sector arrangement. A [[mixed economy]] there will undoubtedly be, certainly for many decades and perhaps permanently, but it will need to be mixed in very different proportions from this".<ref>Roy Jenkins, ''Pursuit of Progress'' (London: Heinemann, 1953), p. 96.</ref> He also opposed the Bevanites' neutralist foreign policy platform: "Neutrality is essentially a conservative policy, a policy of defeat, of announcing to the world that we have nothing to say to which the world will listen. ... Neutrality could never be acceptable to anyone who believes that he has a universal faith to preach".<ref>Jenkins, ''Pursuit of Progress'', pp. 44–45.</ref> Jenkins argued that the Labour leadership needed to take on and defeat the neutralists and pacifists in the party; it would be better to risk a split in the party than face "the destruction, by schism, perhaps for a generation, of the whole progressive movement in the country".<ref>Jenkins, ''Pursuit of Progress'', p. 37.</ref>

 

 

During the 1956 [[Suez Crisis]], Jenkins denounced [[Anthony Eden]]'s "squalid imperialist adventure" at a Labour rally in Birmingham Town Hall.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 187.</ref> Three years later he claimed that "Suez was a totally unsuccessful attempt to achieve unreasonable and undesirable objectives by methods which were at once reckless and immoral; and the consequences, as was well deserved, were humiliating and disastrous".<ref>Roy Jenkins, ''The Labour Case'' (London: Penguin, 1959), p. 14.</ref>

In July 1959, [[Penguin Books|Penguin]] published Jenkins' ''The Labour Case'', timed to anticipate the [[1959 United Kingdom general election|upcoming election]].<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 197.</ref> Jenkins argued that Britain's chief danger was that of "living sullenly in the past, of believing that the world has a duty to keep us in the station to which we are accustomed, and showing bitter resentment if it does not do so". He added: "Our neighbours in Europe are roughly our economic and military equals. We would do better to live gracefully with them than to waste our substance by trying unsuccessfully to keep up with the power giants of the modern world".<ref>Jenkins, ''The Labour Case'', p. 11.</ref> Jenkins claimed that the Attlee government concentrated "too much towards the austerity of fair shares, and too little towards the incentives of free consumers' choice".<ref>Jenkins, ''The Labour Case'', p. 74.</ref> Although he still believed in the elimination of poverty and more equality, Jenkins now argued that these aims could be achieved by economic growth. In the final chapter ('Is Britain Civilised?') Jenkins set out a list of necessary progressive social reforms: the abolition of the death penalty, decriminalisation of homosexuality, abolition of the Lord Chamberlain's powers of theatre censorship, liberalisation of the licensing and betting laws, liberalisation of the divorce laws, legalisation of abortion, decriminalisation of suicide and more liberal immigration laws. Jenkins concluded:

 

 

In the aftermath of Labour's 1959 defeat, Jenkins appeared on ''Panorama'' and argued that Labour should abandon further nationalisation, question its connection with the trade unions and not dismiss a closer association with the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]].<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 204.</ref><ref name="Jenkins130">Jenkins, ''A Life at the Centre'', p. 130.</ref> In November he delivered a [[Fabian Society]] lecture in which he blamed Labour's defeat on the unpopularity of nationalisation and he repeated this in an article for ''The Spectator''.<ref name="Jenkins130"/><ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 205–206.</ref> His ''Spectator'' article also called for Britain to accept its diminished place in the world, to grant [[Decolonisation|colonial freedom]], to spend more on public services and to promote the right of individuals to live their own lives free from the constraints of popular prejudices and state interference.<ref name="Jenkins130"/><ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 206.</ref> Jenkins later called it a "good radical programme, although...not a socialist one".<ref>Jenkins, ''A Life at the Centre'', pp. 130–131.</ref>

During 1960–62, his main campaign was British membership of the Common Market, where he became Labour's leading advocate of entry. When [[Harold Macmillan]] initiated the first British application to join the Common Market in 1961, Jenkins became deputy chairman of the all-party Common Market Campaign and then chairman of the Labour Common Market Committee.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 214.</ref> At the 1961 Labour Party conference Jenkins spoke in favour of Britain's entry.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 214–215.</ref>

 

 

 

==Home Secretary (1965–1967)==

 

After the [[1966 United Kingdom general election|1966 general election]], in which Labour won a comfortable majority, Jenkins pushed through a series of police reforms which reduced the number of separate forces from 117 to 49.<ref name=autobiography/><ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 267.</ref> ''The Times'' called it "the greatest upheaval in policing since the time of [[Robert Peel|Peel]]".<ref>'Overhaul For The Police', ''The Times'' (19 May 1966), p. 15.</ref> His visit to Chicago in September (to study their policing methods) convinced him of the need to introduce two-way radios to the police; whereas the Metropolitan Police possessed 25 radios in 1965, Jenkins increased this to 2,500, and provided similar numbers of radios to the rest of the country's police forces. Jenkins also provided the police with more car radios, which made the police more mobile but reduced the amount of time they spent patrolling the streets.<ref name="Campbell269">Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 269.</ref> His [[Criminal Justice Act 1967]] introduced more stringent controls on the purchase of shotguns, outlawed last-minute alibis and introduced majority verdicts in [[juries in England and Wales]]. The Act was also designed to lower the prison population by the introduction of release under licence, easier bail, suspended sentences and earlier parole.<ref name="Campbell269"/>

 

==Shadow Cabinet (1970–1974)==

 

This changed completely, however, as Jenkins refused to accept the tide of anti-European feeling that became prevalent in the Labour Party in the early 1970s. After a special conference on the EEC was held by the Labour Party on 17 July 1971, which Jenkins was forbidden to address, he delivered one of the most powerful speeches of his career.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 375.</ref> Jenkins told a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party on 19 July: "At conference the only alternative [to the EEC] we heard was 'socialism in one country'. That is always good for a cheer. Pull up the drawbridge and revolutionize the fortress. That's not a policy either: it's just a slogan, and it is one which becomes not merely unconvincing but hypocritical as well when it is dressed up as our best contribution to international socialism".<ref>'Jenkins attack on Australia staggers party meeting', ''The Times'' (20 July 1971), p. 4.</ref> This reopened the old Bevanite–Gaitskellite divide in the Party; Wilson told Tony Benn the day after Jenkins' speech that he was determined to smash the Campaign for Democratic Socialism.<ref>Tony Benn, ''Office Without Power: Diaries, 1968–1972'' (London: Hutchinson, 1988), p. 358.</ref>

 

 

Jenkins' action gave the European cause a legitimacy that would have otherwise been absent had the issue been considered solely as a party political matter. However, he was now regarded by the left as a "traitor". [[James Margach]] wrote in the ''Sunday Times'': "The unconcealed objective of the Left now is either to humiliate Roy Jenkins and his allies into submission – or drive them from the party".<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 380.</ref> At this stage, however, Jenkins would not fully abandon his position as a political insider, and chose to [[1971 Labour Party deputy leadership election|stand again for deputy leader]], an act his colleague [[David Marquand]] claimed he later came to regret.<ref name="G 8-1-03 RJ obit" /> Jenkins promised not to vote with the government again and he narrowly defeated Michael Foot on a second ballot.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 382–383.</ref>

In accordance with the party whip, Jenkins voted against [[European Communities Bill]] 55 times.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 384.</ref> However, he resigned both the deputy leadership and his shadow cabinet position in April 1972, after the party committed itself to holding a referendum on Britain's membership of the EEC. This led to some former admirers, including [[Roy Hattersley]], choosing to distance themselves from Jenkins. Hattersley later claimed that Jenkins' resignation was "the moment when the old Labour coalition began to collapse and the eventual formation of a new centre party became inevitable".<ref>Roy Hattersley, ''Who Goes Home? Scenes From A Political Life'' (London: Little, Brown, 1995), p. 109.</ref> In his resignation letter to Wilson, Jenkins said that if there were a referendum "the Opposition would form a temporary coalition of those who, whatever their political views, were against the proposed action. By this means we would have forged a more powerful continuing weapon against progressive legislation than anything we have known in this country since the curbing of the absolute powers of the old House of Lords".<ref>'Jenkins letter warns Mr Wilson of danger of referendum principle as weapon against progressive legislation', ''The Times'' (11 April 1972), p. 11.</ref>

 

 

In May 1972, he collected the [[Charlemagne Prize]], which he had been awarded for promoting European unity.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 385.</ref> In September an ORC opinion poll found that there was considerable public support for an alliance between the 'moderate' wing of the Labour Party and the Liberals; 35 per cent said they would vote for a Labour–Liberal alliance, 27 per cent for the Conservatives and 23.5 per cent for 'Socialist Labour'. ''The Times'' claimed that there were "twelve million Jenkinsites".<ref>'Twelve Million Jenkinsites', ''The Times'' (30 September 1972), p. 15.</ref> During the spring and summer of 1972, Jenkins delivered a series of speeches designed to set out his leadership credentials. These were published in September under the title ''What Matters Now'', which sold well.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 399.</ref> In the book's postscript, Jenkins said that Labour should not be a narrow socialist party advocating unpopular left-wing policies but must aim to "represent the hopes and aspirations of the whole leftward thinking half of the country", adding that a "broad-based, international, radical, generous-minded party could quickly seize the imagination of a disillusioned and uninspired British public".<ref>Roy Jenkins, ''What Matters Now'' (London: Fontana, 1972), p. 122.</ref>

After [[Dick Taverne]]'s victory in the [[1973 Lincoln by-election]], where he stood as "[[Democratic Labour Party (UK, 1972)|Democratic Labour]]" in opposition to the official Labour candidate, Jenkins gave a speech to the Oxford University Labour Club denouncing the idea of a new centre party.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 401.</ref><ref>'Mr Jenkins and Mr Taverne reject centre party proposal', ''The Times'' (10 March 1973), p. 1.</ref> Jenkins was elected to the shadow cabinet in November 1973 as [[Shadow Home Secretary]].<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 407.</ref> During the [[February 1974 United Kingdom general election|February 1974 election]], Jenkins rallied to Labour and his campaign was described by [[David Butler (psephologist)|David Butler]] and [[Dennis Kavanagh]] as sounding "a note of civilised idealism".<ref>David Butler and Dennis Kavanagh, ''The British General Election of February, 1974'' (London: Macmillan, 1974), p. 162.</ref> Jenkins was disappointed that the Liberal candidate in his constituency won 6000 votes; he wrote in his memoirs that "I already regarded myself as such a closet Liberal that I naïvely thought they ought nearly all to have come to me".<ref>Jenkins, ''A Life at the Centre'', p. 367.</ref>

 

 

==Home Secretary (1974–1976)==

The [[Sex Discrimination Act 1975]] (which legislated for gender equality and set up the [[Equal Opportunities Commission (United Kingdom)|Equal Opportunities Commission]]) and the [[Race Relations Act 1976]] (which extended to private clubs the outlawing of racial discrimination and founded the [[Commission for Racial Equality]]) were two notable achievements during his second time as Home Secretary.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 422, pp. 428–429.</ref>

 

 

Although becoming increasingly disillusioned during this time by what he considered the party's drift to the left, he was the leading Labour figure in the [[1975 United Kingdom European Communities membership referendum|EEC referendum]] of June 1975 (and was also president of the 'Yes' campaign). In September 1974 he had followed [[Shirley Williams]] in stating that he "could not stay in a Cabinet which had to carry out withdrawal" from the EEC.<ref>David Wood, 'Mr Jenkins says he too would resign if Britain decided to leave EEC', ''The Times'' (27 September 1974), p. 1.</ref> During the referendum campaign, Tony Benn claimed that 500,000 jobs had been lost due to Britain's membership; Jenkins replied on 27 May that "I find it increasingly difficult to take Mr Benn seriously as an economics minister".<ref>George Clark, 'Mr Wilson joins in criticism of Mr Benn's figures', ''The Times'' (28 May 1975), p. 1.</ref> He added that Britain outside the EEC would enter "an old people's home for fading nations. ... I do not even think it would be a comfortable or agreeable old people's home. I do not much like the look of some of the prospective wardens".<ref>Roger Berthoud, 'Mr Jenkins sees cold world outside Nine', ''The Times'' (28 May 1975), p. 3.</ref> The two men debated Britain's membership together on ''Panorama'', which was chaired by [[David Dimbleby]].<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 447.</ref> According to David Butler and [[Uwe Kitzinger]], "they achieved a decidedly more lucid and intricate level of discussion than is commonly seen on political television".<ref>David Butler and Uwe Kitzinger, ''The 1975 Referendum'' (London: Macmillan, 1976), p. 205.</ref> Jenkins found it congenial to work with the centrists of all parties in the campaign and the 'Yes' campaign won by two to one.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 448.</ref>

 

 

In January 1976, he further distanced himself from the left with a speech in [[Anglesey]], where he repudiated ever-higher public spending: "I do not think you can push public expenditure significantly above 60 per cent [of GNP] and maintain the values of a plural society with adequate freedom of choice. We are here close to one of the frontiers of social democracy".<ref>Michael Hatfield, 'Inflation fight goes on, Mr Jenkins tells left', ''The Times'' (24 January 1976), p. 2.</ref> A former supporter, Roy Hattersley, distanced himself from Jenkins after this speech.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 454.</ref><ref>Susan Crosland, ''Tony Crosland'' (London: Coronet, 1983), p. 315.</ref>

In May 1976, he told the [[Police Federation of England and Wales|Police Federation]] conference to "be prepared first to look at the evidence and to recognize how little the widespread use of prison reduces our crime or deals effectively with many of the individuals concerned".<ref name="Times1976">Peter Evans, 'Plain speaking from Mr Jenkins and the police on measures to reduce worsening crime', ''The Times'' (19 May 1976), p. 5.</ref> He also responded to the Federation's proposals on law and order: "I respect your right to put them to me. You will no doubt respect my right to tell you that I do not think all the points in sum amount to a basis for a rational penal policy".<ref name="Times1976"/>

 

 

 

==President of the European Commission (1977–1981)==

[[File:Koningin Juliana en Roy Jenkins, Bestanddeelnr 929-0833.jpg|thumb|Jenkins (left) as [[President of the European Commission]] with Queen [[Juliana of the Netherlands]] in 1977]]

 

In speech in [[Florence]] in October 1977, Jenkins argued that monetary union would facilitate "a more efficient and developed rationalisation of industry and commerce than is possible under a Customs Union alone". He added that "a major new international currency" would form "a joint and alternative pillar of the world monetary system" which would lead to greater international stability. Monetary union would also combat inflation by controlling the money supply. Jenkins conceded that this would involve the diminution of national sovereignty but he pointed out that "governments which do not discipline themselves already find themselves accepting very sharp surveillance" from the IMF. Monetary union would also promote employment and diminish regional differences. Jenkins ended the speech by quoting [[Jean Monnet]]'s statement that politics was "not only the art of the possible, but...the art of making possible tomorrow what may seem impossible today".<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 493–494.</ref>

 

 

In October 1978, ''Tribune'' reported (falsely) that Jenkins and his wife had not paid their Labour Party subscription for several years. After this was repeated in the national press, Jenkins' drafted his wife's letter to ''The Times'' that refuted the allegation.<ref name="Campbell505">Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 505.</ref><ref>Jennifer Jenkins, 'A Labour Party subscription', ''The Times'' (20 October 1978), p. 17.</ref> Jenkins blamed the story on a "malicious [[Trotskyism|Trot]] in the North Kensington Labour Party".<ref name="Campbell505"/> Jenkins was disillusioned with the Labour Party and he was almost certain that he could not stand again as a Labour candidate; in January 1979 he told [[Shirley Williams]] that the "big mistake we had made was not to go and support Dick Taverne in 1973; everything had got worse since then".<ref>Roy Jenkins, ''European Diary, 1977–1981'' (London: Collins, 1989), p. 387.</ref>

The Director-General of the BBC, [[Ian Trethowan]], invited Jenkins to deliver the [[Richard Dimbleby Lecture]] for 1979, which he did on 22 November.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 508.</ref> The title Jenkins gave to his lecture, "Home Thoughts from Abroad", derived from a [[Robert Browning]] poem. He delivered it in the [[Royal Society of Arts]] and it was broadcast live on television.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 510–511.</ref> Jenkins analysed the decline of the two-party system since 1951 and criticised the excessive partisanship of British politics, which he claimed alienated the bulk of voters, who were more centrist.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 511–512.</ref> He advocated proportional representation and the acceptance of "the broad line of division between the public and private sectors", a middle way between [[Thatcherism]] and [[Bennism]].<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 512–513.</ref> Jenkins said that the private sector should be encouraged without too much interference to create as much wealth as possible "but use the wealth so created both to give a return for enterprise and to spread the benefits throughout society in a way that avoids the disfigurements of poverty, gives a full priority to public education and health services, and encourages co-operation and not conflict in industry and throughout society".<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 513–514.</ref> He then reiterated his long-standing commitment to libertarianism:

 

 

''[[The Listener (magazine)|The Listener]]'' reprinted the text along with assessments by [[Enoch Powell]], [[Paul Johnson (writer)|Paul Johnson]], [[Jack Jones (trade unionist)|Jack Jones]], [[J. A. G. Griffith]], [[Bernard Crick]], [[Neil Kinnock]] and [[Jo Grimond]]. They were all critical; Kinnock thought him misguided as Britain had already suffered from centrist rule for thirty years and Grimond complained that Jenkins' clarion call had come 20 years too late.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 515.</ref>

At the SDP's first annual conference in October 1981, Jenkins called for "an end to the futile frontier war between public and private sectors" and proposed an "inflation tax" on excessive pay rises that would restrain spiralling wages and prices. After achieving this, an SDP government would be able to embark on economic expansion to reduce unemployment.<ref>Alan Wood, Bernard Withers, Geoffrey Browning and Richard Evans, 'Jenkins demands inflation tax to break wage-price spiral', ''The Times'' (10 October 1981), p. 2.</ref>

 

 

<blockquote>Jenkins, with excessive and almost unbearable gravitas, asked three very heavy statesman-like non-party-political questions of the PM. I suppose he is very formidable, but he was so portentous and long-winded that he started to lose the sympathy of the House about half way through and the barracking resumed. The Lady replied quite brightly and freshly, as if she did not particularly know who he was, or care.<ref>Alan Clark, ''Diaries: Into Politics, 1972–1982'' (London: Phoenix, 2001), p. 310.</ref></blockquote>

During the [[1983 United Kingdom general election|1983 election]] campaign, his position as the prime minister-designate for the SDP-Liberal Alliance was questioned by his close colleagues, as his campaign style was now regarded as ineffective; the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] leader [[David Steel]] was considered to have a greater rapport with the electorate.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 618.</ref> During the campaign Steel called to Jenkins to a meeting at his home in [[Ettrickbridge]] and proposed that Jenkins take a lower profile and that Steel take over as leader of the campaign. According to [[Steve Richards]] while Jenkins rejected Steel's view, the meeting meant Jenkins' "confidence was undermined and he staggered to the finishing line with less verve than he had displayed in the early days of the SDP" and showed little sign of his earlier "exuberance".<ref name="SRichardsp71">{{cite book |last1=Richards |first1=Steve |title=The Prime Ministers We Never Had; Success and Failure from Butler to Corbyn |date=2021 |publisher=Atlantic Books |location=London |isbn=978-1-83895-241-9 |page= 71}}</ref> Jenkins held on to his seat in Hillhead, which was the subject of boundary changes. While on the old boundaries the Conservatives had held the seat prior to Jenkins' victory, it was estimated by the [[BBC]] and [[ITN]] that on the new boundaries Labour would have captured the seat with a majority of just over 2,000 votes in [[1979 United Kingdom general election|1979]].<ref name="TimesGuide1983p279">{{cite book |title=The Times Guide to the House of Commons June 1983 |date=1983 |publisher=Times Books |location=London |isbn=0-7230-0255-X |page=279}}</ref> Jenkins was challenged by [[Neil Carmichael, Baron Carmichael of Kelvingrove|Neil Carmichael]], the sitting Labour MP for the [[Glasgow Kelvingrove (UK Parliament constituency)|Glasgow Kelvingrove constituency]] which had been abolished and a ministerial colleague of Jenkins in the Wilson governments. Jenkins defeated Carmichael by 1,164 votes to retain his seat in the House of Commons.<ref name="TimesGuide1983p119">{{cite book |title=The Times Guide to the House of Commons June 1983 |date=1983 |publisher=Times Books Ltd |location=London |isbn=0-7230-0255-X |page=119}}</ref> According to ''The [[Glasgow Herald]]'' Labour supporters at the election count in the [[Kelvin Hall]] booed and jeered when Jenkins' victory was announced, and he and his wife were "dismayed as police pushed back jostling crowds."<ref name="GH10June1983">{{cite news |last1=Clark |first1=William |title=Scotland produces a little for everyone |url= https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=19830610&printsec=frontpage&hl=en |access-date=24 February 2021 |work=The Glasgow Herald |date=10 June 1983 |page=1}}</ref>

 

 

In 1985, he wrote to ''The Times'' to advocate the closing down of the political surveillance role of [[MI5]].<ref>Roy Jenkins, 'Stemming tide of State surveillance', ''The Times'' (12 March 1985), p. 12.</ref> During the controversy surrounding [[Peter Wright (MI5 officer)|Peter Wright]]'s ''[[Spycatcher]]'', in which he alleged that Harold Wilson had been a Soviet spy, Jenkins rubbished the allegation and reiterated his call for the end of MI5's powers of political survelliance.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1986/dec/03/security-services-commission#column_964|title=Security Services (Commission) (Hansard, 3 December 1986)|website=api.parliament.uk}}</ref>

 

 

In 1986, appeared his biography of [[Harry S. Truman]] and the following year his biography of [[Stanley Baldwin]] was published.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 630.</ref>

''A Life at the Centre'' was generally favourably reviewed: in the ''Times Literary Supplement'' [[John Grigg]] said it was a "marvellous account of high politics by a participant writing with honesty, irony and sustained narrative verve". In ''The Spectator'' [[Anthony Quinton]] remarked that Jenkins was "not afraid to praise himself and earns the right to do so by unfudged self-criticism".<ref name="Campbell680">Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 680.</ref> However, there were critical voices: [[John Smith (Labour Party leader)|John Smith]] in ''The Scotsman'' charged that Jenkins never had any loyalty to the Labour Party and was an ambitious careerist intent only on furthering his career.<ref name="Campbell680"/> John Campbell claims that ''A Life at the Centre'' is now generally recognised as one of the best political memoirs.<ref name="Campbell680"/> [[David Cannadine]] ranked it alongside [[Duff Cooper]]'s ''[[Old Men Forget]]'', R. A. Butler's ''The Art of the Possible'' and Denis Healey's ''The Time of My Life'' as one of the four best political memoirs of the post-war period.<ref>David Cannadine, 'Writer and Biographer', in Andrew Adonis and Keith Thomas (eds.), ''Roy Jenkins: A Retrospective'' (Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 295.</ref>

 

A television documentary about Jenkins was made by [[Michael Cockerell]], titled ''Roy Jenkins: A Very Social Democrat'', and broadcast on 26 May 1996. Although an admiring portrait overall, Cockerell was frank about Jenkins' affairs and both Jenkins and his wife believed that Cockerell had betrayed their hospitality.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 684–685.</ref>

 

Before the [[1997 United Kingdom general election|1997 election]], Blair had promised an enquiry into electoral reform. In December 1997, Jenkins was appointed chair of a Government-appointed Independent Commission on the Voting System, which became known as the "[[Jenkins Commission (UK)|Jenkins Commission]]", to consider alternative [[voting system]]s for the UK.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 710.</ref> The Jenkins Commission reported in favour of a new uniquely British mixed-member proportional system called "[[Alternative vote top-up]]" or "limited AMS" in October 1998, although no action was taken on this recommendation. Blair told Ashdown that Jenkins' recommendations would not pass the Cabinet.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 712-714.</ref>

 

 

 

 

Jenkins underwent [[heart surgery]] in the form of a heart valve replacement on 12 October 2000<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1370415/Lord-Jenkins-has-heart-surgery.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1370415/Lord-Jenkins-has-heart-surgery.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Lord Jenkins has heart surgery|first=Adam|last=Helliker|date=14 October 2000|via=www.telegraph.co.uk}}{{cbignore}}</ref> and postponed his 80th birthday celebrations whilst recovering, by having a celebratory party on 7 March 2001. He died on 5 January 2003, after suffering a heart attack at his home at [[East Hendred]], in Oxfordshire.<ref>{{cite news|title=Roy Jenkins dies|date=5 January 2003|work=BBC News Online|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/2629269.stm|publisher=BBC|access-date=14 May 2010|archive-date=28 September 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130928094102/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/2629269.stm|url-status=dead}}</ref> His last words, to his wife, were, "Two eggs, please, lightly poached".<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 745.</ref> At the time of his death, Jenkins was working on a biography of US President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]].<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 740.</ref>

==Marriage and personal life==

[[File:Roy Jenkins, President of the European Commission, at the Catshuis in The Hague.jpeg|thumb|left|Jenkins in 1977]]

 

She was made a [[Order of the British Empire|DBE]] for services to ancient and historical buildings. They had two sons, Charles and Edward, and a daughter, Cynthia.

 

==Works==

 

==References==

 

==Further reading==

* {{cite book|last=Dell|first= Edmund|title=The Chancellors: A History of the Chancellors of the Exchequer, 1945–90|publisher=HarperCollins|year= 1997| pages= 347–72|quote= covers his term as Chancellor.}}

* Jenkins, Roy. ''European Diary, 1977-1981'' (A&C Black, 2011).

{{Commons}}

{{Wikiquote}}

 

{{s-start}}

|-

{{s-bef|before=[[John Hanbury Martin|John Martin]]}}

{{s-non|reason=[[Boundary commissions (United Kingdom)|Constituency abolished]]}}

|-

|-

{{s-bef|before=[[Tam Galbraith]]}}

{{s-aft|after=[[George Galloway]]}}

|-

{{s-bef|before=[[Arthur Skeffington]]}}

{{s-ttl|title=[[Fabian Society|Chair of the Fabian Society]]|years=1957–1958}}

|-

{{s-bef|before=[[George Brown, Baron George-Brown|George Brown]]}}

{{s-bef|before=[[Harold Macmillan|The Earl of Stockton]]}}

{{s-ttl|title=[[Chancellor of the University of Oxford]]|years=1987–2003}}

{{s-end}}

 

[[Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford]]

[[Category:Alumni of Cardiff University]]

[[Category:British abortion-rights activists]]

[[Category:Chairs of the Fabian Society]]

[[Category:British political party founders]]

[[Category:Presidents of the Royal Society of Literature]]

[[Category:LGBT members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom]]

[[Category:LGBT life peers]]

[[Category:British Army personnel of World War II]]

[[Category:Royal Artillery officers]]

[[Category:Life peers created by Elizabeth II]]