Roy Jenkins, or as he later became, Rt Hon Lord Jenkins of Hillhead, led one of the most influential and colourful British political lives of the 20th century. He served as President of the European Commission having at different times been a Member of |Parliament for Labour, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the Liberal Democrats. As Chancellor of the Exchequer and Home Secretary in the Wilson and Callaghan governments, he distinguished himself in both roles. Perhaps the most outstanding figure never to become Prime Minister, he was also a brilliant writer and biographer. Alan Johnson said his “books may be read long after his considerable political achievements are forgotten”.
From a Welsh mining family, there are few better
examples of British social mobility. Friends gave a dinner for him in
1977 before he left for Brussels. “Only one Labour person was present”, says
Johnson, “along with an Astor, a Rothschild, a Bonham Carter and the Chairman
of the Royal Opera House. The only link to the great Labour victory of 1945
(when Jenkins first stood for parliament) was the vintage of the wine (Chateau
Lafite) and the port (Quinta do Noval)…Jenkins was an apple who fell a fair
distance from the tree”.
Early life
Roy Harris Jenkins was born on 11th
November 1920 at Abersychan, Monmouthshire, in southeast Wales. He was an only
child. His father, Arthur, was a mineworkers’ union official, who later became
President of the South Wales Miners’ Federation, MP for Pontypool, then Parliamentary
Private Secretary to Labour leader Clement Attlee. He was briefly a minister in
the 1945 government. Roy’s mother, Hattie Harris, was the daughter of a
steelworks foreman. Lord (Ian) Wrigglesworth later sent Roy a facsimile of his 1920 birthday
Times edition. He was surprised at a small headline celebrating ‘good figures’
on mining deaths - still over 1200 that year.
He attended the local Pentwyn Primary School, then
Abersychan Grammar School, and University College Cardiff. In 1938 he went to
Balliol College, Oxford, taking a first-class degree in Politics, Philosophy
and Economics (PPE) in 1941. Colleagues included Tony Crosland, Ted Heath and
Denis Healey - Jenkins became friends with all three. Officer training followed
and he became a Captain in the Royal Artillery. In 1944 he joined Bletchley
Park as a codebreaker.
Young politician
Jenkins had expected and planned for a political
career. He stood aged just 24 as a Labour candidate for Solihull in 1945 and
lost. After a brief period at the Industrial and Commercial Finance Corporation,
and writing ‘Mr Attlee: An interim
Biography’, in 1948 he was elected to the House of Commons in a by-election
for the London seat of Southwark Central. At 27 he was the ‘Baby of the House’.
Boundary changes caused the seat to be abolished, so in 1950 he moved to
Birmingham and was elected MP for Stechford, where he remained until 1977.
It was the age of the political pamphlet. In Fair Shares for the Rich Jenkins
advocated a capital levy, abolishing large private incomes, more nationalisation and ending public schools. With characteristic self-deprecation
he later described this ‘Robespierrean’ effort of 1951 as “the apogee of my excursion to the left”. He later retreated from
this position, arguing wealth redistribution would happen over a generation. He
wanted a mixed economy, which many on the left were against. And he opposed the
Bevan faction’s foreign policy, wanting Labour’s leadership to take on and
defeat the party’s neutralists and pacifists. He said “Neutrality is essentially a conservative policy, a policy of defeat”.
Better risk a party split than face “..the
destruction, by schism, perhaps for a generation, of the whole progressive
movement in the country”.
In the 1950s Jenkins authored pamphlets and columns
supporting social reforms and an internationalist perspective. In 1959 he was
principal sponsor of the liberalising Obscene Publications Act. He also argued
perceptively that Britain’s chief danger was "living sullenly in the past, of believing 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”. On Britain’s roughly equal economic and military European
neighbours, he said, “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”.
Reading these passages from over 60 years ago it seems
astonishing that this common sense platform had to be re-fought on Brexit. And
now, yet again, on extricating Britain from Brexit’s dire effects.
Progressive reformer
After Labour’s 1959 election defeat, Jenkins argued
for libertarian reforms. The party should abandon further nationalisation
(which he rightly saw as unpopular), question its link with the trade unions and
consider a closer association with the Liberals. He’d earlier set out a list of
progressive reforms - abolishing the death penalty, decriminalising homosexuality,
abolishing theatre censorship, liberalising licensing and betting laws, divorce
reform, legalising abortion, decriminalising suicide and more liberal
immigration laws. He argued people should be able to live their own lives, free of popular
prejudice and state interference.
Jenkins was firmly on Labour’s moderate wing and distressed by the sudden death of his friend and hero, party leader, Hugh
Gaitskell - despite differences over Europe. 1960-62 his thrust was for the UK to
join the European Economic Community - he was Chairman of the Labour Common
Market Committee. The party was split on the issue of membership. He also spoke
against Labour’s Clause IV, as the standard bearer for the party’s Social
Democrats.
Alongside his political activities Jenkins maintained
an appetite for writing. He was working on a biography of former Liberal Prime
Minister Herbert Asquith. As a friend of his subject’s grandson, Mark Bonham
Carter, Jenkins had access to Asquith’s letters to his mistress Venetia
Stanley. The book came out in 1964. Widely praised, it’s regarded as a classic.
In office
As an MP for 16 years, Jenkins finally entered government
when Labour won the 1964 election. PM Harold Wilson appointed him Aviation
Minister. This may sound a junior job but given the scope of Britain’s
interests in aviation it wasn’t so then. With technical problems and cost
overruns, he cancelled TSR-2. A January1965 reshuffle saw him offered Education
and Science but he chose to stay at Aviation. That summer he accepted the Home
Office but was not to take it up until December. He was then the youngest Home
Secretary since Churchill.
He set about reforming the department’s organisation
and operation. Some senior staff departed. Jenkins also redesigned his private
office, famously replacing the board listing condemned prisoners. He later
reduced the number of police forces from 117 to 49, and brought in two-way
radios for the police. His Criminal Justice Act 1967 had stringent shotgun controls,
outlawed last minute alibis and introduced majority verdicts, suspended
sentences and release under licence.
Roy Jenkins is rightly seen as the key figure in the
raft of 60s social reforms. He gave strong support to David Steel’s Private
Member’s Bill to legalise abortion, and MP Leo Abse’s bill to decriminalise
homosexuality. He abolished flogging in prisons and announced legislation to
ban racial discrimination in employment. He said the ‘permissive society’
should be better termed the ‘civilised society’. If people chose different
paths for their lives or behaviour, “provided
these do not restrict the freedom of others, they should be allowed to do so
within a framework of understanding and tolerance”.
Chancellor of the Exchequer
Jenkins was Home Secretary for less than two years - he replaced James Callaghan as Chancellor of the Exchequer after the pound’s
devaluation in November 1967. This was pre floating exchange rates and pursuing
economic growth depended on restoring sterling’s stability post
devaluation. It translated into a deflation programme that we might now call
austerity. Jenkins gained a reputation as a tough Chancellor, raising taxes and
cutting public spending. He warned Parliament in January 1968 of “two years of
hard slog ahead”.
The budget got a surprisingly warm reception. His
efforts to save the pound, set out in his autobiography, make nervous reading. Britain’s
reserves were falling and the IMF helped out with a substantial loan. A further
sterling crisis in November 1968 prompted extra tax rises, with yet more in the
1969 budget. But the currency markets were gradually settling, and by May,
Britain’s current account was in surplus with foreign currency reserves rising
quickly. Jenkins had presided over the transformation of the UK’s fiscal and
financial position in this 18 month period. Many expected a more generous
budget in 1970 but, cautious about the stability of the recovery, he went for a decidedly neutral approach. However Labour lost the June election.
Historians have been kind to Jenkins as Chancellor. Tough but fair, he was one of the century’s best performers in the Treasury. Andrew Marr called him a “most successful Chancellor”. Leading economist Alec Cairncross, then head of the government’s economic service, thought him the “the ablest of the four Chancellors I served”.
Europe
After 1970’s surprise election result, Jenkins was appointed Shadow Chancellor by Wilson and elected Deputy Labour Leader. He fought the anti-European mood sweeping Labour in the early 70s, feeling Britain had no alternative to Europe. After 18 months of bitter argument he led 69 Labour MPs to rebel against the party to support PM Ted Heath taking Britain into the EEC. He later wrote, “I was convinced it was one of the decisive votes of the century…in the context of the first Reform Bill, the repeal of the Corn Laws…the Munich Agreement and the May 1940 votes”. In 1972 he resigned both his Shadow Cabinet and Deputy Leader posts.
Jenkins focused on the burning EEC issue, winning the
Charlemagne Prize for promoting European Unity. A September 1972 opinion poll
found 35% would vote for a Labour-Liberal Alliance against only 27% for the
Conservatives. Meanwhile Jenkins’ series of speeches advertised his Labour
leadership credentials. In a book What
Matters Now he claimed a “broad-based,
international, radical, generous-minded party could quickly seize the
imagination of a disillusioned and uninspired British public”. He still
thought this could be Labour.
Britain eventually joined the EEC in January 1973. Heath’s Conservatives lost the 1974 election and Jenkins returned to power as Home Secretary, though was furious with PM Wilson, having been promised the Treasury. He was the key Labour figure campaigning across parties to stay in Europe in June 1975’s referendum. The ‘Yes’ side won easily, by two to one.
He pushed through a tough Prevention of Terrorism Act, after the 1974 IRA Birmingham bombings. Among other things this instituted exclusion orders. The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and Race Relations Act 1976 were two notable measures passed in his second stint at the Home Office. He served until 1976 when Wilson resigned. Jenkins stood for the party leadership (his third attempt) but came third behind Callaghan who became PM. Despite the win on Europe he was becoming ever more disillusioned with what he saw as Labour's drift to the left. He chose to resign from Parliament and leave British politics to be President of the European Commission, a post he took up in January 1977.
In Brussels
In Brussels Jenkins supported the development of Economic and Monetary Union, which later led to the Euro. The first President to attend a G8 summit for the Community, he effectively represented the smaller states who had no presence at such meetings. When Margaret Thatcher became PM after 1979’s election, she supposedly considered appointing him Chancellor, given his earlier success in cutting public spending. His last year as Commission President was blighted by a quarrel over Thatcher’s demand for a rebate on Britain’s EEC budget contribution. He saw the row as unnecessary, souring UK-Europe relations.
Giving the 1979 Dimbleby Lecture he re-asserted support
for a mixed economy spreading the benefits through health and education for a
fairer society. And he re-iterated his commitment to libertarianism: “You are in favour of the right of dissent
and the liberty of private conduct. You are against unnecessary centralisation
and bureaucracy. You want to devolve decision-making whenever you sensibly
can…You want the nation to be self-confident and outward-looking, rather than
insular, xenophobic and suspicious. You want the class system to fade without
being replaced either by an aggressive and intolerant proletarianism or by the
dominance of the brash and selfish values of a ‘get rich quick’ society”.
Split from Labour and the SDP
In 1980 Labour adopted a unilateralist defence policy,
withdrawal from the EEC, and further nationalisation. Left winger Michael Foot
was elected party leader. It was the last straw. In a move long mooted, Jenkins
joined former ministers David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams - the
‘Gang of Four’ - in the 'Limehouse Declaration' for a realignment of British
politics. In March 1981 they formed the Social Democratic Party. The SDP immediately
attracted sizable support across the UK political landscape. Several Labour MPs
joined, along with some Conservatives, and large numbers of non-aligned voters.
It was a whirlwind. Within a year the SDP was polling at 50%. Jenkins was back
as an MP, having won a by-election at Glasgow Hillhead. SDP prospects could
hardly have looked better.
Mrs Thatcher was at a low point in the opinion polls.
Unemployment was over three million and with a tanking economy, her
government’s prospects looked poor. But a week after the by-election Argentina
invaded the Falklands. The war that followed boosted Conservative fortunes,
transforming the political landscape. The SDP’s momentum was checked. An Alliance
with the Liberals was formed, doing well in the 1983 election (it won nearly
24% of the vote), despite Jenkins having lost some of his earlier élan. But the new party's high
water mark had passed.
David Owen then succeeded Jenkins unopposed as leader.
Revenues from North Sea Oil kicked in and with monetarist theory tossed aside, the
economy steadily improved. Jenkins was disappointed by Owen’s move to the
right. He felt the SDP’s whole spirit and outlook must be against Thatcherism.
In 1986 he won the Spectator’s
Parliamentarian of the Year award, despite lacking his earlier exuberance. But
in the 1987 election Jenkins lost his seat. He decided not to stand again.
Jenkins and the ‘Gang of Four’ were criticised then
and now for splitting Labour, thus allowing 18 years of Conservative
government. It’s said they should have stayed to fight with others to bring
Labour back to electability. But this is hard to sustain. Research shows clearly
that few 1983 Alliance voters would have gone to Labour. Also, who were
Labour’s ‘others’? In reality few bar Healey were heavyweights. The party departed from the extreme only after successive election defeats and in part due to
the Lib-Dem effect. When reformed Labour won its 1997 Blair landslide it was the SDP in all but name.
House of Lords, and books
In 1987 Jenkins was elected Chancellor of Oxford University and in 1988 President of the Royal Society of Literature. He joined the House of Lords as Baron Jenkins of Hillhead and was Liberal Democrat leader in the Lords until 1993, when he was appointed to the Order of Merit. In 1994, pleased to see Tony Blair as Labour leader, he warned him “not to embrace the stale dogmas of Thatcherism just when their limitations are becoming obvious”. As PM Blair asked him to chair an independent commission on the voting system. It reported in October 1998 but no action was taken as Blair was sure its recommendations would not get through Cabinet.
Jenkins was unusually shy for a politician. He was
also so impractical he couldn’t boil an egg or hang up a picture. But he wrote
19 books, including lauded biographies of Asquith, Gladstone and finally
Churchill. He also penned his widely praised 1991 autobiography “A Life at the Centre”. Books were his
life. Later his own biographer John Campbell had full access to his papers -
diaries, letters and documents - all later handed over to the Bodleian Library.
He worked from the Jenkins home, St Amand’s in East Hendred, Oxfordshire.
Private life
Among the material Campbell uncovered was evidence of
a gay Oxford student relationship with Labour’s Tony Crosland. But he was
polyamorous from the time he met Jennifer. A string of lovers were also family
friends and all got on with his wife. These included Jackie Kennedy’s sister
Lee Radziwill, plus Leslie Bonham Carter and Lady Caroline Gilmour, the wives
of fellow MPs and close friends Mark Bonham Carter and Sir Ian Gilmour. Others
included Ann Fleming, wife of 007 author Ian, Barley Allison, diplomat and ex
SOE, and Helena Tiné, wife of a London based French diplomat. His friend, author Robert
Harris, said that besides Jennifer, Caroline was ‘the one’.
Jenkins always refused to play on what followers saw
as impeccable class roots. He earned a reputation as a gourmand who enjoyed
fine claret. He nearly always set aside time for lunch with someone he saw as
important and convivial. With earnings from his books he wasn’t short of money.
He led a pampered life and as Campbell points out, if he had lots of time to
read and write, “it was because there was literally nothing else he was
required to do except eat, drink and talk”.
Roy Jenkins collapsed at home with a heart attack on 5th
January 2003 and died. PM Tony Blair and Labour Chairman John Reid, with
Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy, attended the funeral in the 12th
century parish church. The choir of Christ Church, Oxford sang the European Ode
to Joy anthem. The bidding, from college dean John Drury, praised the
“humanising, civilising, liberating and enlarging effects of his activities as
statesman, and the vivacious wisdom of his contemplation of history in his
books”. On his gravestone his widow Dame Jennifer chose the simple epitaph
‘Writer and Statesman’.
Sources: By far the best source is John Campbell’s
brilliant biography, Roy Jenkins: A
Well-Rounded Life (London 2014)
Also Jenkins' fine 1991 autobiography, A life at the Centre
I’ve used notes from Alan Johnson’s review of
Campbell, too.
I’m very grateful to all these writers for their
excellent work
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