Roy Jenkins

Roy Jenkins was born in Abersychan, near Pontypool, in 1920, the only son of a trade unionist who became a Labour MP. He took a first in Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Balliol College, Oxford, and worked as a codebreaker at Bletchley Park during the war. He entered Parliament for Southwark Central in 1948 and represented Birmingham Stechford from 1950 to 1977. Under Harold Wilson he was Minister of Aviation, Home Secretary and, after the 1967 devaluation, Chancellor of the Exchequer. He became Labour's deputy leader in 1970 but resigned in 1972 over the party's policy of a referendum on the European Community. He led the Yes campaign in 1975 and became the only British President of the European Commission. In 1981 he co-founded the Social Democratic Party with the other members of the Gang of Four, won Glasgow Hillhead in 1982 and later led the Liberal Democrat peers. He was also Chancellor of Oxford University and a prolific biographer.

Admirers credit Jenkins with the most far-reaching social reforms of the postwar Labour governments, with restoring the public finances as Chancellor and with keeping Britain in Europe in 1975. Liberals and social democrats regard him as a founder of the modern centre ground, and Tony Blair sought his advice before 1997. Social conservatives blamed his Home Office reforms for creating a permissive society, and many in Labour never forgave him for founding the SDP, which they believed split the anti-Conservative vote. His critics on civil liberties point to the Prevention of Terrorism Act passed under him in 1974.