View source for Roy Jenkins

{{Short description|British politician (1920–2003)}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific_prefix = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name             = The Lord Jenkins of Hillhead
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|OM|PC|size=100%}}
| image            = Roy Jenkins 1977 (cropped).jpg
| alt              = Jenkins, 56, in a monochrome portrait
| caption          = Jenkins in 1977
| office           = [[Chancellor of the University of Oxford]]
| 1blankname       = [[Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford|Vice{{nbh}}Chancellor]]
| 1namedata        = {{Plainlist|
* [[Patrick Neill, Baron Neill of Bladen|The Lord Neill of Bladen]]
* [[Richard Southwood|Sir Richard Southwood]]
* [[Peter North (legal scholar)|Sir Peter North]]
* [[Colin Lucas|Sir Colin Lucas]]}}
| term_start       = 14 March 1987
| term_end         = 5 January 2003
| predecessor      = [[Harold Macmillan]]
| successor        = [[Chris Patten]]
| order1           = <!-- not used.  EU does not use US-style numbered presidencies. -->
| office1          = [[President of the European Commission]]
| term_start1      = 6 January 1977
| term_end1        = 19 January 1981
| predecessor1     = [[François-Xavier Ortoli]]
| successor1       = [[Gaston Thorn]]
| office2          = [[Home Secretary]]
| prime_minister2  = {{Plainlist|
* [[Harold Wilson]]
* [[James Callaghan]]}}
| term_start2      = 4 March 1974
| term_end2        = 10 September 1976
| predecessor2     = [[Robert Carr]]
| successor2       = [[Merlyn Rees]]
| prime_minister3  = [[Harold Wilson]]
| term_start3      = 23 December 1965
| term_end3        = 30 November 1967
| predecessor3     = [[Frank Soskice]]
| successor3       = [[James Callaghan]]
| office4          = [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]]
| prime_minister4  = [[Harold Wilson]]
| 1blankname4      = [[Chief Secretary to the Treasury|Chief Secretary]]
| 1namedata4       = [[Jack Diamond, Baron Diamond|Jack Diamond]]
| term_start4      = 30 November 1967
| term_end4        = 19 June 1970
| predecessor4     = [[James Callaghan]]
| successor4       = [[Iain Macleod]]
{{collapsed infobox section begin |cont=y |Junior ministerial offices
 |titlestyle = border:1px dashed lightgrey;}}{{Infobox officeholder
| embed           = yes
| office5         = [[Minister of Aviation]]
| prime_minister5 = [[Harold Wilson]]
| term_start5     = 18 October 1964
| term_end5       = 23 December 1965
| predecessor5    = [[Julian Amery]]
| successor5      = [[Fred Mulley]]{{Collapsed infobox section end}}
}}
{{collapsed infobox section begin |cont=y |Party political offices
 |titlestyle = border:1px dashed lightgrey;}}{{Infobox officeholder
| embed        = yes
| office6      = [[Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords]]
| leader6      = [[Paddy Ashdown]]
| term_start6  = 16 July 1988
| term_end6    = 19 December 1997
| predecessor6 = [[Nancy Seear, Baroness Seear|The Baroness Seear]]
| successor6   = [[Bill Rodgers, Baron Rodgers of Quarry Bank|The Lord Rodgers of Quarry Bank]]
| office7      = [[Leader of the Social Democratic Party (UK)|Leader of the Social Democratic Party]]
| president7   = [[Shirley Williams]]
| deputy7      = [[David Owen]]
| term_start7  = 7 July 1982
| term_end7    = 13 June 1983
| predecessor7 = ''[[Social Democratic Party (UK)#Creation of the SDP|Party established]]''
| successor7   = [[David Owen]]
| office8      = [[Deputy Leader of the Labour Party (UK)|Deputy Leader of the Labour Party]]
| leader8      = [[Harold Wilson]]
| term_start8  = 8 July 1970
| term_end8    = 10 April 1972
| predecessor8 = [[George Brown (British Labour politician)|George Brown]]
| successor8   = [[Edward Short, Baron Glenamara|Edward Short]]
{{collapsed infobox section end}}
}}
{{collapsed infobox section begin |cont=y |[[Second Shadow Cabinet of Harold Wilson|Shadow Cabinet]] offices
 |titlestyle = border:1px dashed lightgrey;}}{{Infobox officeholder
| embed         = yes
| office9       = [[Shadow Home Secretary]]
| term_start9   = 25 November 1973
| term_end9     = 4 March 1974
| leader9       = [[Harold Wilson]]
| predecessor9  = [[Shirley Williams]]
| successor9    = [[Jim Prior]]
| office10      = [[Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer]]
| term_start10  = 20 June 1970
| term_end10    = 19 April 1972
| leader10      = [[Harold Wilson]]
| predecessor10 = [[Iain Macleod]]
| successor10   = [[Denis Healey]]
{{collapsed infobox section end}}
}}
{{collapsed infobox section begin |cont=y |last=y |Parliamentary offices
 |titlestyle = border:1px dashed lightgrey;}}{{Infobox officeholder
| embed             = yes
| office11          = Member of the [[House of Lords]]
| status11          = [[Lord Temporal]]
| term_label11      = [[Life peer]]age
| term_start11      = 20 November 1987
| term_end11        = 5 January 2003
| parliament12      = United Kingdom
| constituency_MP12 = [[Glasgow Hillhead]]
| term_start12      = 25 March 1982
| term_end12        = 18 May 1987
| predecessor12     = [[Tam Galbraith]]
| successor12       = [[George Galloway]]
| constituency_MP13 = [[Birmingham Stechford (UK Parliament constituency)|Birmingham Stechford]]
| term_start13      = 23 February 1950
| term_end13        = 5 January 1977<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/people/mr-roy-jenkins/index.html|title=Mr Roy Jenkins (Hansard)}}</ref>
| predecessor13     = ''[[Boundary commissions (United Kingdom)|Constituency established]]''
| successor13       = [[Andrew MacKay (British politician)|Andrew MacKay]]
| constituency_MP14 = [[Southwark Central]]
| term_start14      = 29 April 1948
| term_end14        = 3 February 1950
| predecessor14     = [[John Hanbury Martin|John Martin]]
| successor14       = ''Constituency abolished''{{Collapsed infobox section end}}
}}
| birth_name       = Roy Harris Jenkins
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1920|11|11|df=y}}
| birth_place      = [[Abersychan]], [[Monmouthshire (historic)|Monmouthshire]], Wales
| death_date       = {{death date and age|2003|1|5|1920|11|11|df=y}}
| death_place      = [[East Hendred]], Oxfordshire, England
| party            = {{Plainlist|class=nowraplinks|
* [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] (until 1981)
* [[Social Democratic Party (UK)|SDP]] (1981–1988)
* [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats]] (from 1988)}}
| spouse           = {{marriage|Mary Jennifer Morris|1945}}
| children         = 3
| parents          = [[Arthur Jenkins (British politician)|Arthur Jenkins]] (father)
| alma_mater       = {{Plainlist|
* [[Cardiff University]]
* [[Balliol College, Oxford]]}}
<!--Military service-->
| allegiance       = United Kingdom
| branch           = [[British Army]]
| rank             = [[Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)|Captain]]
| unit             = [[Royal Artillery]]
| battles          = World War II
}}

'''Roy Harris Jenkins, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead''' (11 November 1920&nbsp;– 5 January 2003) was a British statesman and writer who served as [[President of the European Commission]] from 1977 to 1981. At various times a [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] (MP) for the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] and the [[Social Democratic Party (UK)|Social Democratic Party]] (SDP), and a [[Life peer|peer]] for the [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats]], he was [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]] and [[Home Secretary]] under the [[First Wilson ministry|Wilson]] and [[Callaghan government|Callaghan]]  governments.

The son of [[Arthur Jenkins (British politician)|Arthur Jenkins]], a coal-miner and Labour MP, Jenkins was educated at the [[University of Oxford]] and served as an [[intelligence officer]] during the [[Second World War]]. Initially elected as MP for [[Southwark Central]] in 1948, he moved to become MP for [[Birmingham Stechford (UK Parliament constituency)|Birmingham Stechford]] in 1950. On the election of [[Harold Wilson]] after the [[1964 United Kingdom general election|1964 election]], Jenkins was appointed [[Minister of Aviation]]. A year later, he was promoted to the [[Cabinet of the United Kingdom|Cabinet]] to become [[Home Secretary]]. In this role, Jenkins embarked on a major reform programme; he sought to build what he described as "a civilised society", overseeing measures such as the effective abolition in Britain of both [[Capital punishment in the United Kingdom|capital punishment]] and [[theatre censorship]], the partial [[decriminalisation of homosexuality]], relaxing of [[divorce law]], suspension of [[birching]] and the liberalisation of [[Abortion Act 1967|abortion law]].

Following the [[Devaluation|devaluation crisis]] in November 1967, Jenkins replaced [[James Callaghan]] as [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]]. Throughout his time at the Treasury, Jenkins oversaw a tight fiscal policy in an attempt to control inflation, and oversaw a particularly tough [[Budget of the United Kingdom|Budget]] in 1968 which saw major tax rises. As a result of this, the Government's current account entered a [[Balanced budget|surplus]] in 1969. After Labour unexpectedly lost the [[1970 United Kingdom general election|1970 election]], Jenkins was elected as [[Deputy Leader of the Labour Party (UK)|Deputy Leader of the Labour Party]] in 1970. He resigned from the position in 1972 after the Labour Party decided to oppose [[Accession of the United Kingdom to the European Communities|Britain's entry to the European Communities]], which he strongly supported.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19700709&id=1JFAAAAAIBAJ&pg=2956,1521602|title=Jenkins Labour deputy leader|work=[[The Glasgow Herald]]|date=9 July 1970|access-date=24 August 2012}}</ref> When Labour returned to power following the [[February 1974 United Kingdom general election|1974 election]], Wilson appointed Jenkins as Home Secretary for the second time. Two years later, when Wilson resigned as prime minister, Jenkins stood in the [[1976 Labour Party leadership election|leadership election]] to succeed him, finishing third behind [[Michael Foot]] and the winner [[James Callaghan]]. He subsequently chose to resign from Parliament and leave British politics, to accept appointment as the first-ever (and so far, only) British [[President of the European Commission]], a role he took up in January 1977.

After completing his term at the Commission in 1981, Jenkins announced a surprise return to British politics; dismayed with the Labour Party's move further left under the leadership of Michael Foot, he became one of the "[[Gang of Four (SDP)|Gang of Four]]", senior Labour figures who broke away from the party and founded the SDP.<ref name="Cawood2013">{{cite book|first=Ian J.|last= Cawood|title=Britain in the Twentieth Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NdeAAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA437|date=21 August 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-40681-2|page=437}}</ref> In 1982, Jenkins won [[1982 Glasgow Hillhead by-election|a by-election]] to return to Parliament as MP for Glasgow Hillhead, taking the seat from the Conservatives in a famous result. He became leader of the SDP ahead of the [[1983 United Kingdom general election|1983 election]], during which he formed [[SDP–Liberal Alliance|an electoral alliance]] with the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]]. Following his disappointment with the performance of the SDP in the election, he resigned as leader. He subsequently lost his seat in Parliament at the [[1987 United Kingdom general election|1987 election]] to Labour's [[George Galloway]], and accepted a [[life peer]]age shortly afterwards; he sat in the [[House of Lords]] as a [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrat]].

Jenkins was later elected to succeed former prime minister [[Harold Macmillan]] as [[Chancellor of the University of Oxford]] following the latter's death; he would hold this position until his own death sixteen years later. In the late 1990s, he served as a close adviser to Prime Minister [[Tony Blair]] and chaired a [[Jenkins Commission (UK)|major commission on electoral reform]]. In addition to his political career, he was also a noted historian, biographer, and writer. [[David Marquand]] described Jenkins's autobiography, {{citeref|Jenkins|1991|''A Life at the Centre''|style=plain}} (1991), as one which "will be read with pleasure long after most examples of the genre have been forgotten".<ref name="G 8-1-03 RJ obit">{{cite news|last1=Marquand|first1=David|title=Lord Jenkins of Hillhead|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/jan/06/guardianobituaries.obituaries|access-date=26 September 2014|newspaper=The Guardian|date=8 January 2003}}</ref>

==Early life (1920–1945)==
Born in [[Abersychan]], [[Monmouthshire (historic)|Monmouthshire]], in southeastern [[Wales]], as an only child, Roy Jenkins was the son of a [[National Union of Mineworkers (Great Britain)|National Union of Mineworkers]] official, [[Arthur Jenkins (British politician)|Arthur Jenkins]]. His father was imprisoned during the [[1926 General Strike]] for his alleged involvement in disturbances.<ref>John Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'' (London: Jonathan Cape, 2014), p. 9.</ref> Arthur Jenkins later became President of the [[South Wales Miners' Federation]] and Member of Parliament for [[Pontypool (UK Parliament constituency)|Pontypool]], [[Parliamentary Private Secretary]] to [[Clement Attlee]], and briefly a minister in the [[Labour Government 1945-1951|1945 Labour government]]. Roy Jenkins' mother, Hattie Harris, was the daughter of a steelworks foreman.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 9-11.</ref>

Jenkins was educated at Pentwyn Primary School, [[Abersychan Comprehensive School|Abersychan County Grammar School]], [[University College, Cardiff]], and at [[Balliol College, Oxford]], where he was twice defeated for the Presidency of the [[Oxford Union]], but took a [[First-Class Honours|first-class]] degree in [[Politics, Philosophy and Economics]] (PPE).<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 17, 25, 60.</ref> His university colleagues included [[Tony Crosland]], [[Denis Healey]] and [[Edward Heath]], and he became friends with all three, although he was never particularly close to Healey.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

In [[John Campbell (biographer)|John Campbell]]'s biography, ''A Well-Rounded Life'', a romantic relationship between Jenkins and Crosland was detailed.<ref>{{Cite news |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/10687788/Roy-Jenkins-male-lover-Tony-Crosland-tried-to-halt-his-marriage.html |title=Roy Jenkins' male lover Tony Crosland tried to halt his marriage |last=Perry |first=Keith |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=10 March 2014 |access-date=5 November 2017 |location= London }}</ref><ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 33.</ref> Other figures whom he met at Oxford who would become notable in public life included [[Madron Seligman]], [[Nicholas Henderson]] and [[Mark Bonham Carter]].<ref name=saunders>{{cite journal |last1=Saunders |first1=Robert |date=March 2015 |title=Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life |url=https://reviews.history.ac.uk/review/1741 |journal=[[Reviews in History]] |doi=10.14296/RiH/2014/1741 |access-date=20 October 2020|doi-access=free }}</ref>

During the [[Second World War]], Jenkins received his officer training at [[History of Alton Towers|Alton Towers]] and was posted to the 55th West Somerset Yeomanry at [[West Lavington, Wiltshire]].<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 67, 71.</ref> Through the influence of his father, in April 1944, Jenkins was sent to [[Bletchley Park]] to work as a [[codebreaker]]; while there he befriended the historian [[Asa Briggs]].<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 78, 81.</ref><ref>PBS Nova, "Decoding Nazi Secrets", 27 November 2015 (interview of Jenkins); BBC Obituary: Roy Jenkins, Sunday, 5 January 2003.</ref><ref name=saunders />

==Early political career (1945–1965)==
[[File:Roy Jenkins in 1950.jpg|thumb|Jenkins in 1950]]

Having failed to win [[Solihull (UK Parliament constituency)|Solihull]] in [[1945 United Kingdom general election|1945]], after which he spent a brief period working for the [[Industrial and Commercial Finance Corporation]],<ref name=saunders /> he was elected to the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] in [[1948 Southwark Central by-election|a 1948 by-election]] as the Member of Parliament for [[Southwark Central]], becoming the "[[Baby of the House]]". His constituency was abolished in [[Boundary commissions (United Kingdom)|boundary changes]] for the [[1950 United Kingdom general election|1950 general election]], when he stood instead in the new [[Birmingham Stechford (UK Parliament constituency)|Birmingham Stechford]] constituency. He won the seat, and represented the constituency until 1977.

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>

In 1950, he advocated a large [[capital levy]], abolition of [[Public school (United Kingdom)|public schools]] and introduction of a measure of [[industrial democracy]] to nationalised industries as key policy objectives for the Labour government.<ref name=saunders /> In 1951 ''Tribune'' published his pamphlet ''Fair Shares for the Rich''.<ref name="Campbell126">Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 126.</ref><ref name="Jenkins85">Jenkins, ''A Life at the Centre'', p. 85.</ref> Here, Jenkins advocated the abolition of large private incomes by taxing them, graduating from 50 per cent for incomes between £20,000 and £30,000 to 95 per cent for incomes over £100,000.<ref name="Campbell126"/> He also proposed further nationalisations and said: "Future nationalisations will be more concerned with equality than with planning, and this means that we can leave the monolithic public corporation behind us and look for more intimate forms of ownership and control".<ref>Roy Jenkins, ''Fair Shares for the Rich'' (Tribune, 1951), p. 16.</ref> He later described this "almost [[Robespierrean]]" pamphlet as "the apogee of my excursion to the left".<ref name="Jenkins85"/>

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>

Between 1951 and 1956, he wrote a weekly column for the Indian newspaper ''The Current''. Here he advocated progressive reforms such as equal pay, the decriminalisation of homosexuality, the liberalisation of the obscenity laws and the abolition of capital punishment.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 153, p. 182.</ref> ''Mr Balfour's Poodle'', a short account of the House of Lords crisis of 1911 that culminated in the [[Parliament Act 1911]], was published in 1954. Favourable reviewers included [[A. J. P. Taylor]], [[Harold Nicolson]], [[Leonard Woolf]] and [[Violet Bonham Carter]].<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 148.</ref> After a suggestion by [[Mark Bonham Carter]], Jenkins then wrote a biography of the Victorian radical, Sir [[Charles Dilke]], which was published in October 1958.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 149, p. 151.</ref> Between 1955 and 1958 Jenkins served on the Board of Governors of the [[British Film Institute]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Campbell |title=Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life |pages=75}}</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>

Jenkins praised [[Anthony Crosland]]'s 1956 work ''[[The Future of Socialism]]'' as "the most important book on socialist theory" since [[Evan Durbin]]'s ''The Politics of Democratic Socialism'' (1940).<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 181.</ref> With much of the economy now nationalised, Jenkins argued, socialists should concentrate on eliminating the remaining pockets of poverty and on the removal of class barriers, as well as promoting libertarian social reforms.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 181–182.</ref> Jenkins was principal sponsor, in 1959, of the bill which became the liberalising [[Obscene Publications Act]], responsible for establishing the "liable to deprave and corrupt" criterion as a basis for a prosecution of suspect material and for specifying literary merit as a possible defence.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 182–186.</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:

<blockquote>Let us be on the side of those who want people to be free to live their own lives, to make their own mistakes, and to decide, in an adult way and provided they do not infringe the rights of others, the code by which they wish to live; and on the side of experiment and brightness, of better buildings and better food, of better music ([[jazz]] as well as [[Bach]]) and better books, of fuller lives and greater freedom. In the long run these things will be more important than the most perfect of economic policies.<ref>Jenkins, ''The Labour Case'', p. 146.</ref></blockquote>

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>

In May 1960, Jenkins joined the [[Campaign for Democratic Socialism]], a Gaitskellite pressure group designed to fight against left-wing domination of the Labour Party.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 212.</ref> In July 1960 Jenkins resigned from his frontbench role in order to be able to campaign freely for British membership of the Common Market.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 212–213.</ref> At the 1960 Labour Party conference in [[Scarborough, North Yorkshire|Scarborough]], Jenkins advocated rewriting [[Clause IV]] of the party's constitution but he was booed.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 210–211.</ref> In November he wrote in ''The Spectator'' that "unless the Labour Party is determined to abdicate its role as a mass party and become nothing more than a narrow sectarian society, its paramount task is to represent the whole of the Leftward-thinking half of the country—and to offer the prospect of attracting enough marginal support to give that half some share of power".<ref>Roy Jenkins, 'And Fight Again', ''The Spectator'' (11 November 1960), p. 8.</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>

Since 1959, Jenkins had been working on a biography of the Liberal Prime Minister, [[H. H. Asquith]]. For Jenkins, Asquith ranked with Attlee as the embodiment of the moderate, liberal intelligence in politics that he most admired. Through Asquith's grandson, Mark Bonham Carter, Jenkins had access to Asquith's letters to his mistress, [[Venetia Stanley (1887–1948)|Venetia Stanley]].<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 236.</ref> [[Kenneth Rose]], [[Michael Foot]], [[Asa Briggs]] and [[John Grigg]] all favourably reviewed the book when it was published in October 1964.<ref name="Campbell, p. 239">Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 239.</ref> However, Violet Bonham Carter wrote a defence of her father in ''The Times'' against the few criticisms of Asquith in the book,<ref>Violet Bonham Carter, 'Asquith Revealed By Events', ''The Times'' (2 November 1964), p. 11.</ref> and [[Robert Rhodes James]] wrote in ''The Spectator'' that "Asquith was surely a tougher, stronger, more acute man...than Mr. Jenkins would have us believe. The fascinating enigma of his complete decline is never really analysed, nor even understood. ... We required a [[Graham Sutherland|Sutherland]]: but we have got an [[Annigoni]]".<ref>Robert Rhodes James, 'Last of the Romans?', ''The Spectator'' (6 November 1964), p. 23.</ref> John Campbell claims that "for half a century it has remained unchallenged as the best biography and is rightly regarded as a classic".<ref name="Campbell, p. 239"/>

Like Healey and Crosland, he had been a close friend of [[Hugh Gaitskell]] and for them Gaitskell's death and the elevation of [[Harold Wilson]] as Labour Party leader was a setback. For Jenkins, Gaitskell would remain his political hero.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 230.</ref> After the [[1964 United Kingdom general election|1964 general election]] Jenkins was appointed [[Minister of Aviation]] and was sworn of the Privy Council. While at Aviation he oversaw the high-profile cancellations of the [[BAC TSR-2]] and [[Concorde]] projects (although the latter was later reversed after strong opposition from the French Government). In January 1965 [[Patrick Gordon Walker]] resigned as Foreign Secretary and in the ensuing reshuffle Wilson offered Jenkins the [[Department for Education and Science]]; however, he declined it, preferring to stay at Aviation.<ref name=autobiography>{{cite book|title=A Life at the Centre|first=Roy |last=Jenkins|year=2006 |isbn=978-1-84275-177-0|publisher=Politico's}}</ref><ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 249.</ref>

==Home Secretary (1965–1967)==
In the summer of 1965, Jenkins eagerly accepted an offer to replace [[Frank Soskice]] as Home Secretary. However Wilson, dismayed by a sudden bout of press speculation about the potential move, delayed Jenkins' appointment until December. Once Jenkins took office – the youngest Home Secretary since [[Churchill]] – he immediately set about reforming the operation and organisation of the [[Home Office]]. The Principal Private Secretary, Head of the Press and Publicity Department and Permanent Under-Secretary were all replaced. He also redesigned his office, famously replacing the board on which condemned prisoners were listed with a fridge.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 261.</ref>

Following 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"/>

Immigration was a divisive and provocative issue during the late 1960s and on 23 May 1966 Jenkins delivered a speech on race relations, which is widely considered to be one of his best.<ref name="20th Cen' Speeches">{{cite book|title=The Penguin Book of Twentieth-Century Speeches|date=25 November 1999|publisher=Penguin Adult |editor-first=Brian|editor-last=MacArthur|isbn=978-0-14-028500-0}}</ref> Addressing a London meeting of the National Committee for Commonwealth Immigrants he notably defined Integration:
{{blockquote|...&nbsp;not as a flattening process of assimilation but as equal opportunity, accompanied by cultural diversity, in an atmosphere of mutual tolerance.}}
Before going on to ask:
{{blockquote|Where in the world is there a university which could preserve its fame, or a cultural centre which could keep its eminence, or a metropolis which could hold its drawing power, if it were to turn inwards and serve only its own hinterland and its own racial group?}}
And concluding that:
{{blockquote|To live apart, for a person, a city, a country, is to lead a life of declining intellectual stimulation.<ref name="20th Cen' Speeches"/>}}

By the end of 1966, Jenkins was the Cabinet's rising star; the ''Guardian'' called him the best Home Secretary of the century "and quite possibly the best since Peel", the ''Sunday Times'' called him Wilson's most likeliest successor and the ''New Statesman'' labelled him "Labour's Crown Prince".<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 285.</ref>

In a speech to the London Labour Conference in May 1967, Jenkins said his vision was of "a more civilised, more free and less hidebound society" and he further claimed that "to enlarge the area of individual choice, socially, politically and economically, not just for a few but for the whole community, is very much what democratic socialism is about".<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 293.</ref> He gave strong personal support to [[David Steel]]'s [[Private Member's Bill]] for the legalisation of abortion, which became the [[Abortion Act 1967]], telling the Commons that "the existing law on abortion is uncertain and...harsh and archaic", adding that "the law is consistently flouted by those who have the means to do so. It is, therefore, very much a question of one law for the rich and one law for the poor".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1966/jul/22/medical-termination-of-pregnancy-bill#S5CV0732P0_19660722_HOC_92|title=MEDICAL TERMINATION OF PREGNANCY BILL (Hansard, 22 July 1966)|website=api.parliament.uk}}</ref> When the Bill looked likely to be dropped due to insufficient time, Jenkins helped ensure that it received enough parliamentary time to pass and he voted for it in every division.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 295–296.</ref>

Jenkins also supported [[Leo Abse]]'s bill for the decriminalisation of homosexuality, which became the [[Sexual Offences Act 1967]].<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 297.</ref> Jenkins told the Commons: "It would be a mistake to think...that by what we are doing tonight we are giving a vote of confidence or congratulation to homosexuality. Those who suffer from this disability carry a great weight of loneliness, guilt and shame. The crucial question...is, should we add to those disadvantages the full rigour of the criminal law? By its overwhelming decisions, the House has given a fairly clear answer, and I hope that the Bill will now make rapid progress towards the Statute Book. It will be an important and civilising Measure".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1967/jul/03/clause-8-restrictions-on-prosecution#S5CV0749P0_19670703_HOC_822|title=Clause 8.—(RESTRICTIONS ON PROSECUTION.) (Hansard, 3 July 1967)|website=api.parliament.uk}}</ref>

Jenkins also abolished the use of flogging in prisons.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 260–261.</ref> In July 1967 Jenkins recommended to the Home Affairs Select Committee a bill to end the [[Lord Chamberlain]]'s power to censor the theatre. This was passed as the [[Theatres Act 1968]] under Jenkins' successor as Home Secretary, James Callaghan.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 300–301.</ref> Jenkins also announced that he would introduce legislation banning racial discrimination in employment, which was embodied in the [[Race Relations Act 1968]] passed under Callaghan.<ref name="Campbell273">Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 273.</ref> In October 1967 Jenkins planned to introduce legislation that would enable him to keep out the 20,000 Kenyan Asians who held British passports (this was passed four months later under Callaghan as the [[Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968]], which was based on Jenkins' draft).<ref name="Campbell273"/>

Jenkins is often seen as responsible for the most wide-ranging social reforms of the late 1960s, with popular historian [[Andrew Marr]] claiming "the greatest changes of the Labour years" were thanks to Jenkins.<ref name="Marr">{{cite book| title=A History of Modern Britain| first=Andrew |last=Marr| year=2007 | publisher=Macmillan | isbn=978-1-4050-0538-8 }}</ref> These reforms would not have happened when they did, earlier than in most other European countries, if Jenkins had not supported them.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 298.</ref> In a speech in Abingdon in July 1969, Jenkins said that the "[[permissive society]]" had been allowed to become a dirty phrase: "A better phrase is the 'civilized society', based on the belief that different individuals will wish to make different decisions about their patterns of behaviour and that, provided these do not restrict the freedom of others, they should be allowed to do so within a framework of understanding and tolerance".<ref>'Chancellor sees no cause for gloom', ''The Times'' (21 July 1969), p. 3.</ref> Jenkins' words were immediately reported in the press as "The permissive society is the civilised society", which he later wrote "was not all that far from my meaning".<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 299.</ref>

For some conservatives, such as [[Peter Hitchens]], Jenkins' reforms remain objectionable. In his book ''[[The Abolition of Britain]]'', Hitchens accuses him of being a "cultural revolutionary" who takes a large part of the responsibility for the decline of "traditional values" in Britain. During the 1980s [[Margaret Thatcher]] and [[Norman Tebbit]] would blame Jenkins for family breakdowns, the decline of respect for authority and the decline of social responsibility. Jenkins replied by pointing out that Thatcher, with her large parliamentary majorities, never attempted to reverse his reforms.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 299–300.</ref>

==Chancellor of the Exchequer (1967–1970)==
From 1967 to 1970 Jenkins served as [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]], replacing [[James Callaghan]] following the [[devaluation]] crisis of November 1967. Jenkins' ultimate goal as Chancellor was economic growth, which depended on restoring stability to sterling at its new value after devaluation. This could only be achieved by ensuring a surplus in the [[balance of payments]], which had been in a deficit for the previous five years. Therefore, Jenkins pursued [[deflation]], including cuts in public expenditure and increases in taxation, in order to ensure that resources went into exports rather than domestic consumption.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 311.</ref> Jenkins warned the House of Commons in January 1968 that there was "two years of hard slog ahead".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1968/jan/17/public-expenditure#column_1804|title=PUBLIC EXPENDITURE (Hansard, 17 January 1968)|website=api.parliament.uk}}</ref>

He quickly gained a reputation as a particularly tough Chancellor with his 1968 budget increasing taxes by £923&nbsp;million, more than twice the increase of any previous budget to date.<ref>Edmund Dell, ''The Chancellors: A History of the Chancellors of the Exchequer, 1945–90'' (London: HarperCollins, 1996), p. 357.</ref> Jenkins had warned the Cabinet that a second devaluation would occur in three months if his budget did not restore confidence in sterling.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 318.</ref> He restored prescription charges (which had been abolished when Labour returned to office in 1964) and postponed the raising of the school leaving age to 16 to 1973 instead of 1971. Housing and road building plans were also heavily cut, and he also accelerated Britain's withdrawal [[East of Suez]].<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 313–314.</ref><ref>Dell, ''The Chancellors'', p. 354.</ref> Jenkins ruled out increasing the income tax and so raised the taxes on: drinks and cigarettes (except on beer), purchase tax, petrol duty, road tax, a 50 per cent rise in [[Selective Employment Tax]] and a one-off Special Charge on personal incomes. He also paid for an increase in family allowances by cutting child tax allowances.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 319.</ref>

Despite [[Edward Heath]] claiming it was a "hard, cold budget, without any glimmer of warmth" Jenkins' first budget broadly received a warm reception, with [[Harold Wilson]] remarking that "it was widely acclaimed as a speech of surpassing quality and elegance" and [[Barbara Castle]] that it "took everyone's breath away".<ref name=autobiography/> [[Richard Crossman]] said it was "genuinely based on socialist principles, fair in the fullest sense by really helping people at the bottom of the scale and by really taxing the wealthy".<ref>Richard Crossman, ''The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister, Volume II: Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons, 1966–69'' (Hamish Hamilton, 1976), p. 723.</ref> In his budget broadcast on 19 March, Jenkins said that Britain had been living in a "fool's paradise" for years and that it was "importing too much, exporting too little and paying ourselves too much", with a lower standard of living than France or West Germany.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 323.</ref>

Jenkins' supporters in the Parliamentary Labour Party became known as the "Jenkinsites". These were usually younger, middle-class and university-educated ex-Gaitskellites such as [[Bill Rodgers, Baron Rodgers of Quarry Bank|Bill Rodgers]], [[David Owen]], [[Roy Hattersley]], [[Dick Taverne]], [[John Mackintosh (Scottish politician)|John Mackintosh]] and [[David Marquand]].<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 330–331.</ref> In May–July 1968, some of his supporters, led by [[Patrick Gordon Walker]] and [[Christopher Mayhew]], plotted to replace Wilson with Jenkins as Labour leader but he declined to challenge Wilson.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 332–335.</ref> A year later his supporters again attempted to persuade Jenkins to challenge Wilson for the party leadership but he again declined.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 334.</ref> He later wrote in his memoirs that the 1968 plot was "for me...the equivalent of the same season of 1953 for [[Rab Butler]]. Having faltered for want of single-minded ruthlessness when there was no alternative to himself, he then settled down to a career punctuated by increasingly wide misses of the premiership. People who effectively seize the prime ministership – Lloyd George, Macmillan, Mrs Thatcher – do not let such moments slip".<ref>Jenkins, ''A Life at the Centre'', p. 260.</ref>

In April 1968, with Britain's reserves declining by approximately £500 million every quarter, Jenkins went to Washington to obtain a $1,400 million loan from the [[International Monetary Fund]].<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 336.</ref> Following a further sterling crisis in November 1968, Jenkins was forced to raise taxes by a further £250&nbsp;million.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 339.</ref> After this the currency markets slowly began to settle and his 1969 budget represented more of the same with a £340&nbsp;million increase in taxation to further limit consumption.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 340.</ref><ref>Dell, ''The Chancellors'', p. 359.</ref>

By May 1969, Britain's current account position was in surplus, thanks to a growth in exports, a drop in overall consumption and, in part, the [[Inland Revenue]] correcting a previous underestimation in export figures. In July Jenkins was also able to announce that the size of Britain's foreign currency reserves had been increased by almost $1&nbsp;billion since the beginning of the year. It was at this time that he presided over Britain's only excess of government revenue over expenditure in the period 1936–7 to 1987–8.<ref name=autobiography/><ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 341–342.</ref> Thanks in part to these successes, there was a high expectation that the 1970 budget would be a more generous one. Jenkins, however, was cautious about the stability of Britain's recovery and decided to present a more muted and fiscally neutral budget. It is often argued that this, combined with a series of bad trade figures, contributed to the Conservative victory at the [[1970 United Kingdom general election|1970 general election]]. Historians and economists have often praised Jenkins for presiding over the transformation in Britain's fiscal and current account positions towards the end of the 1960s. [[Andrew Marr]], for example, described him as one of the 20th century's "most successful chancellors".<ref name=Marr/> [[Alec Cairncross]] considered Jenkins "the ablest of the four Chancellors I served".<ref>Alec Cairncross, ''Living with the Century'' (Lynx, 2008), p. 251.</ref>

Public expenditure as a proportion of GDP rose from 44 per cent in 1964 to around 50 per cent in 1970.<ref>Dell, ''The Chancellors'', p. 357.</ref> Despite Jenkins' warnings about inflation, wage settlements in 1969–70 increased on average by 13 per cent and contributed to the high inflation of the early 1970s and consequently negated most of Jenkins' efforts to obtain a balance of payments surplus.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 346.</ref><ref>Dell, ''The Chancellors'', p. 367.</ref>

==Shadow Cabinet (1970–1974)==
After Labour unexpectedly lost power in 1970, Jenkins was appointed [[Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer]] by [[Harold Wilson]]. Jenkins was also subsequently [[1970 Labour Party deputy leadership election|elected to the deputy leadership]] of the Labour Party in July 1970, defeating future Labour Leader [[Michael Foot]] and former Leader of the Commons [[Fred Peart]] at the first ballot.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 361.</ref> At this time he appeared the natural successor to [[Harold Wilson]], and it appeared to many only a matter of time before he inherited the leadership of the party, and the opportunity to become prime minister.<ref name="G 8-1-03 RJ obit" /><ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 361–362.</ref>

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>

At the 1971 Labour Party conference in Brighton, the NEC's motion to reject the "Tory terms" of entry into the EEC was carried by a large majority. Jenkins told a fringe meeting that this would have no effect on his continued support for Britain's entry.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 377.</ref> Benn said Jenkins was "the figure dominating this Conference; there is no question about it".<ref>Benn, ''Office Without Power'', p. 377.</ref> On 28 October 1971, he led 69 Labour MPs through the [[division lobby]] in support of the Heath government's motion to take Britain into the EEC. In so doing, they were defying a three-line whip and a five-to-one vote at the Labour Party annual conference.<ref name="G 8-1-03 RJ obit" /> Jenkins later wrote: "I was convinced that it was one of the decisive votes of the century, and had no intention of spending the rest of my life answering the question of what did I do in the great division by saying 'I abstained'. I saw it in the context of the [[Reform Act 1832|first Reform Bill]], the repeal of the [[Corn Laws]], Gladstone's [[Irish Home Rule movement|Home Rule]] Bills, the Lloyd George [[People's Budget|Budget]] and the [[Parliament Act 1911|Parliament Bill]], the [[Munich Agreement]] and the [[Norway Debate|May 1940 votes]]".<ref>Jenkins, ''A Life at the Centre'', p. 329.</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>

Jenkins' lavish lifestyle&nbsp;— Wilson once described him as "more a socialite than a socialist"&nbsp;— had already alienated much of the Labour Party from him.

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>

Following [[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>

Jenkins wrote a series of biographical essays that appeared in ''The Times'' during 1971–74 and which were published as ''Nine Men of Power'' in 1974. Jenkins chose Gaitskell, [[Ernest Bevin]], [[Stafford Cripps]], [[Adlai Stevenson II]], [[Robert F. Kennedy]], [[Joseph McCarthy]], [[Lord Halifax]], [[Léon Blum]] and [[John Maynard Keynes]].<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 364–365.</ref> In 1971 Jenkins delivered three lectures on foreign policy at [[Yale University]], published a year later as ''Afternoon on the Potomac?''<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 368.</ref>

==Home Secretary (1974–1976)==
When Labour returned to power in early 1974, Jenkins was appointed Home Secretary for the second time. Earlier, he had been promised the treasury; however, Wilson later decided to appoint [[Denis Healey]] as Chancellor instead. Upon hearing from [[Bernard Donoughue]] that Wilson had reneged on his promise, Jenkins reacted angrily. Despite being on a public staircase, he is reported to have shouted "You tell [[Harold Wilson]] he must bloody well come to see me&nbsp;...and if he doesn't watch out, I won't join his bloody government&nbsp;... This is typical of the bloody awful way Harold Wilson does things!"<ref>Bernard Donoughue, ''Downing Street Diary: With Harold Wilson in No 10'' (London: Jonathan Cape, 2005), p. 53.</ref><ref name="Sandbrook">{{cite book|title=State of Emergency – The Way We Were: Britain 1970–1974|first=Dominic|last= Sandbrook|year=2010|isbn=978-1-84614-031-0|publisher=[[Allen Lane]]}}, p. 644.</ref> The Jenkinsites were dismayed by Jenkins' refusal to insist upon the Chancellorship and began to look elsewhere for leadership, thus ending the Jenkinsites as a united group.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 415–418.</ref>

Jenkins served from 1974 to 1976. Whereas during his first period as Home Secretary in the 1960s the atmosphere had been optimistic and confident, the climate of the 1970s was much more fractious and disillusioned.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 420.</ref> After two Northern Irish sisters, [[Marian Price]] and [[Dolours Price]], were imprisoned for 20 years for the [[1973 Old Bailey bombing]], they went on hunger strike in order to be transferred to a prison in Northern Ireland.<ref name="Campbell, p. 423">Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 423.</ref> In a television broadcast in June 1974, Jenkins announced that he would refuse to give in to their demands, although in March 1975 he discreetly transferred them to a Northern Irish prison.<ref name="Campbell, p. 423"/>

He undermined his previous liberal credentials to some extent by pushing through the controversial [[Prevention of Terrorism Act (Northern Ireland)|Prevention of Terrorism Act]] in the aftermath of the [[Birmingham pub bombings]] of November 1974, which, among other things, extended the length of time suspects could be held in custody and instituted exclusion orders.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 425.</ref> Jenkins also resisted calls for the death penalty to be restored for terrorist murderers.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 426–427.</ref> On 4 December he told the Cabinet committee on Northern Ireland that "everything he heard made him more convinced that Northern Ireland had nothing to do with the rest of the UK".<ref>Donoughue, ''Downing Street Diary'', p. 254.</ref> When reviewing [[Garret FitzGerald]]'s memoirs in 1991, Jenkins proclaimed: "My natural prejudices, such as they are, are much more green than orange. I am a poor unionist, believing intuitively that even [[Ian Paisley|Paisley]] and [[Charles Haughey|Haughey]] are better at dealing with each other than the English are with either".<ref>Roy Jenkins, ''Portraits and Miniatures: Selected Writings'' (London: Macmillan, 1993), pp. 310–311.</ref>

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>

Jenkins opposed Michael Foot's attempts to grant pickets the right to stop lorries during strikes and he was dismayed by Anthony Crosland's decision to grant an amnesty to the 11 Labour councillors at [[Clay Cross#Housing Finance Act dispute|Clay Cross]] who had been surcharged for refusing to increase council rents in accordance with the Conservatives' Housing Finance Act 1972.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 432.</ref> After two trade unionists, [[Ricky Tomlinson]] and [[Des Warren]] (known as the "[[Shrewsbury Two]]"), were imprisoned for intimidation and affray for their part in a strike, Jenkins refused to accede to demands from the labour movement that they should be released. This demonstrated Jenkins' increasing estrangement from much of the labour movement and for a time he was heckled in public by people chanting "Free the Two".<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 433.</ref> Jenkins also unsuccessfully tried to persuade the Cabinet to adopt electoral reform in the form of [[proportional representation]] and to have the [[Official Secrets Act 1911]] liberalised to facilitate more [[open government]].<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 434–435, p. 467.</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>

After the referendum, Wilson demoted Benn to Energy Secretary and attempted to balance the downgrading of Benn with the dismissal of the right-wing minister [[Reg Prentice]] from the Department of Education, despite already promising Jenkins that he had no intention of sacking Prentice. Jenkins threatened to resign if Prentice was sacked, telling Wilson that he was "a squalid little man who was using squalid little arguments in order to explain why he was performing so much below the level of events".<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 450.</ref> Wilson quickly backed down.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 451.</ref> In September Jenkins delivered a speech in Prentice's constituency of [[Newham]] to demonstrate solidarity with him after he was threatened with deselection by left-wingers in the constituency party. Jenkins was heckled by both far-left and far-right demonstrators and he was hit in the chest by a flour bomb thrown by a member of the [[National Front (UK)|National Front]].<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 452.</ref> Jenkins warned that if Prentice was deselected "it is not just the local party that is undermining its own foundations by ignoring the beliefs and feelings of ordinary people, the whole legitimate Labour Party, left as well as right, is crippled if extremists have their way". He added that if "tolerance is shattered formidable consequences will follow. Labour MPs will either have to become creatures of cowardice, concealing their views, trimming their sails, accepting orders, stilling their consciences, or they will all have to be men far far to the left of those whose votes they seek. Either would make a mockery of parliamentary democracy".<ref>Michael Hatfield and David Leigh, 'Mr Jenkins attacked from right and left at Prentice rally', ''The Times'' (12 September 1975), p. 1.</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"/>

When Wilson suddenly resigned as prime minister in March 1976, Jenkins was one of six candidates for the [[1976 Labour Party leadership election|leadership of the Labour Party]] but came third in the first ballot, behind Callaghan and Michael Foot. Realising that his vote was lower than expected, and sensing that the parliamentary party was in no mood to overlook his actions five years before, he immediately withdrew from the contest.<ref name="G 8-1-03 RJ obit" /> On issues such as the EEC, trade union reform and economic policy he had proclaimed views opposite to those held by the majority of Labour Party activists, and his libertarian social views were at variance with the majority of Labour voters.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 458.</ref> A famous story alleged that when one of Jenkins' supporters canvassed a group of miners' MPs in the Commons' tea-room, he was told: "Nay, lad, we're all Labour here".<ref>Stephen Haseler, ''The Tragedy of Labour'' (Wiley-Blackwell, 1980), p. 119.</ref>

Jenkins had wanted to become Foreign Secretary,<ref>{{cite dictionary|first=Dick |last=Leonard |title=Roy Jenkins (Lord Jenkins of Hillhead)|editor-first= Greg |editor-last=Rosen |year=2001|dictionary= Dictionary of Labour Biography|location= London|publisher= Politicos| pages=314–8, 318}}</ref> but Foot warned Callaghan that the party would not accept the pro-European Jenkins as Foreign Secretary. Callaghan instead offered Jenkins the Treasury in six months' time (when it would be possible to move [[Denis Healey]] to the Foreign Office). Jenkins turned the offer down.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 462–463.</ref> Jenkins then accepted an appointment as [[President of the European Commission]] (succeeding [[François-Xavier Ortoli]]) after Callaghan appointed [[Anthony Crosland]] to the Foreign Office.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 462–466.</ref>

==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 an interview with ''The Times'' in January 1977, Jenkins said that: "My wish is to build an effective united Europe. ... I want to move towards a more effectively organized Europe politically and economically and as far as I am concerned I want to go faster, not slower".<ref>'Roy Jenkins: Scaling the peaks', ''The Times'' (5 January 1977), p. 8.</ref> The main development overseen by the [[Jenkins European Commission|Jenkins Commission]] was the development of the [[Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union]] from 1977, which began in 1979 as the [[European Monetary System]], a forerunner of the Single Currency or [[Euro]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.euro-know.org/europages/dictionary/j.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130902172241/http://www.euro-know.org/europages/dictionary/j.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=2 September 2013 |title=A Concise Encyclopedia of the European Union -J |publisher=Euro-know.org |access-date=25 July 2016}}</ref> His biographer calls Jenkins "the godfather of the euro" and claims that among his successors only [[Jacques Delors]] has made more impact.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 502, p. 538.</ref>

In a 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>

President Jenkins was the first president to attend a [[G8]] summit on behalf of the Community.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.deljpn.ec.europa.eu/union/showpage_en_union.external.g8.php|title=EU and the G8|access-date=25 September 2007|publisher=[[European Commission]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070226165606/http://www.deljpn.ec.europa.eu/union/showpage_en_union.external.g8.php|archive-date=26 February 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref> He received an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Laws) from the [[University of Bath]] in 1978.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.bath.ac.uk/ceremonies/hongrads/|title=Honorary Graduates 1989 to present|publisher=[[University of Bath]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100717061336/http://www.bath.ac.uk/ceremonies/hongrads/|archive-date=17 July 2010|url-status=dead}}</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>

He did not vote in the [[1979 United Kingdom general election|1979 election]].<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 507.</ref> After the Conservatives won the election [[Margaret Thatcher]] contemplated appointing Jenkins Chancellor of the Exchequer on the strength of his success at cutting public expenditure when he was Chancellor. However, his friend [[Woodrow Wyatt]] claimed that Jenkins "had other and fresh fish to fry".<ref>Woodrow Wyatt, ''Confessions of an Optimist'' (London: Collins, 1987), p. 177.</ref><ref>Sarah Curtis (ed.), ''The Journals of Woodrow Wyatt: Volume Two'' (London: Pan, 2000), p. 64.</ref><ref>John Campbell, ''Margaret Thatcher, Volume Two: The Iron Lady'' (London: Jonathan Cape, 2003), p. 10.</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:

<blockquote>You also make sure that the state knows its place...in relation to the citizen. You are in favour of the right of dissent and the liberty of private conduct. You are against unnecessary centralization and bureaucracy. You want to devolve decision-making wherever 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. ... These are some of the objectives which I believe could be assisted by a strengthening of the radical centre.<ref>"Mr Roy Jenkins sees a British political system 'stranded by the receding tide'", ''The Times'' (23 November 1979), p. 5.</ref></blockquote>

''[[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>

Jenkins' last year as President of the European Commission was dominated by [[Margaret Thatcher]]'s fight for a [[UK rebate|rebate]] on Britain's contribution to the EEC budget.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 526.</ref> He believed that the quarrel was unnecessary and regretted that it soured Britain's relationship with the Community for years.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 534.</ref> In November 1980 Jenkins delivered the Winston Churchill memorial lecture in Luxembourg, where he proposed a solution to the British budgetary question. The proportion of the Community's budget spent on agriculture should be reduced by extending Community spending into new areas where Britain would receive more benefit, such as regional spending. The size of the Community's budget would, in his scheme, be tripled by transferring from the nation states to the Community competence over social and industrial policy.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 535.</ref>

==Social Democratic Party (1981–1987)==
Following his Dimbleby Lecture, Jenkins increasingly favoured the formation of a new social democratic party.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 541–546.</ref> He publicly aired these views in a speech to the Parliamentary Press Gallery in June 1980, where he repeated his criticisms of the two-party system and attacked Labour's move to the left. At the previous month's Wembley conference, Labour had adopted a programme which included non-cooperation with the EEC and "a near neutralist and unilateralist" defence policy that would, Jenkins argued, render meaningless Britain's NATO membership.<ref name="Times1980">'Mr Jenkins will complete his term in Europe', ''The Times'' (10 June 1980), p. 2.</ref> Labour's proposals for further nationalisation and anti-private enterprise policies, Jenkins claimed, were more extreme than in any other democratic country and it was not "by any stretch of the imagination a social democratic programme". He added that a new party could reshape politics and lead to the "rapid revival of liberal social democratic Britain".<ref name="Times1980"/>

The Labour Party conference at Blackpool in September 1980 adopted a unilateralist defence policy, withdrawal from the EEC and further nationalisation, along with Tony Benn's demands for the mandatory reselection of MPs and an electoral college to elect the party leader.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 551.</ref> In November Labour MPs [[1980 Labour Party leadership election (UK)|elected]] the left-winger Michael Foot over the right-wing Denis Healey<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 552.</ref> and in January 1981 Labour's Wembley conference decided that the electoral college that would elect the leader would give the trade unions 40 per cent of the vote, with MPs and constituency parties 30 per cent each.<ref name="Campbell, p. 557">Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 557.</ref> Jenkins then joined [[David Owen]], [[Bill Rodgers, Baron Rodgers of Quarry Bank|Bill Rodgers]] and [[Shirley Williams]] (known as the "[[Social Democratic Party (UK)#Creation of the SDP|Gang of Four]]") in issuing the [[Limehouse Declaration]]. This called for the "realignment of British politics".<ref name="Campbell, p. 557"/> They then formed the [[Social Democratic Party (UK)|Social Democratic Party]] (SDP) on 26 March.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 559.</ref>

Jenkins delivered a series of speeches setting out the SDP's alternative to Thatcherism and Bennism and argued that the solution to Britain's economic troubles lay in the revenue from [[North Sea oil]], which should be invested in public services.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 564–565.</ref> He attempted to re-enter Parliament at the [[1981 Warrington by-election|Warrington by-election]] in July 1981 and campaigned on a six-point programme which he put forward as a Keynesian alternative to Thatcherism and Labour's "siege economy", but Labour retained the seat with a small majority.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 578–580.</ref>

Despite it being a defeat, the by-election demonstrated that the SDP was a serious force. Jenkins said after the count that it was the first parliamentary election that he had lost in many years, but was "by far the greatest victory in which I have ever participated".<ref>Julian Haviland and Philip Webster, 'Roy Jenkins slashes Labour majority: Tory loses his deposit', ''The Times'' (17 July 1981), p. 1.</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 rising 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>

In March 1982, he fought the [[1982 Glasgow Hillhead by-election|Glasgow Hillhead by-election]], in what had previously been a Conservative-held seat. Polls at the beginning of the campaign put Jenkins in third place but after a series of ten well-attended public meetings which Jenkins addressed, the tide began to turn in Jenkins' favour, and he was elected with a majority of just over 2,000 on a swing of 19 per cent.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 594.</ref> The evening after his victory in Hillhead Jenkins told a celebration dinner of 200 party members held at the [[North British Hotel]] in Edinburgh "that the SDP had a great opportunity to become the majority party".<ref name="GH27March1982">{{cite news |last1=Clark |first1=William |title=Roy Jenkins gets a hero's welcome |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=19820327&printsec=frontpage&hl=en |access-date=6 April 2021 |work=The Glasgow Herald |date=27 March 1982 |page=1}}</ref> Jenkins' first intervention in the House of Commons following his election, on 31 March, was seen as a disappointment.<ref name="Campbell598">Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 598.</ref> The Conservative MP [[Alan Clark]] wrote in his diary:

<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 halfway 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>

Whereas earlier in his career, Jenkins had excelled in the traditional set-piece debates in which he spoke from the dispatch box, the focus of parliamentary reporting had now moved to the point-scoring of Prime Minister's Questions, which he struggled with. Seated in the traditional place for third parties in the Commons (the second or third row below the gangway), and without a dispatch box and the gravitas it could have conferred, Jenkins was situated near (and shared the same microphone with) Labour's "awkward squad" that included [[Dennis Skinner]] and [[Bob Cryer]], who regularly heckled abuse ("Roy, your flies are undone").<ref name="Campbell598"/>

Seven days after Jenkins' by-election victory, Argentina invaded the Falklands and the [[Falklands War]] transformed British politics, increased substantially the public's support for the Conservatives and ended any chance that Jenkins' election would reinvigorate the SDP's support.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 599, p. 609.</ref> In the SDP leadership election, Jenkins was elected with 56.44 per cent of the vote, with David Owen coming second.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 608.</ref> The SDP's momentum was also seen to have stalled as a result of its poor performance in the [[1983 Darlington by-election]], shortly before that year's general election, a contest which was seen as one where the party could do well. Despite much campaigning in the Labour-held seat, the SDP candidate finished a poor third.<ref name="SRichardspp70-71">{{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 |pages=70–71}}</ref>

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 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>

Following the general election, Owen succeeded him unopposed.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 626.</ref> Jenkins was disappointed with Owen's move to the right, and his acceptance and backing of some of Thatcher's policies. At heart, Jenkins remained an unrepentant [[Keynesian]].<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 638, n.</ref> In his July 1984 [[R. H. Tawney|Tawney Lecture]], Jenkins said that the "whole spirit and outlook" of the SDP "must be profoundly opposed to Thatcherism. It could not go along with the fatalism of the Government's acceptance of massive unemployment".<ref>Philip Webster, "Jenkins and Owen 'role reversal'", ''The Times'' (13 July 1984), p. 2.</ref> He also delivered a series of speeches in the Commons attacking the Thatcherite policies of the Chancellor, [[Nigel Lawson]]. Jenkins called for more government intervention to support industry and for North Sea oil revenues to be channelled into rebuilding Britain's infrastructure and into educating a skilled workforce.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 638–640.</ref> He also attacked the Thatcher government for failing to join the [[European Exchange Rate Mechanism]].<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 640.</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 surveillance.<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, he won ''The Spectator'''s Parliamentarian of the Year award.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 638.</ref> He continued to serve as SDP Member of Parliament for [[Glasgow Hillhead]] until his defeat at the [[1987 United Kingdom general election|1987 general election]] by the Labour candidate [[George Galloway]], after boundary changes in 1983 had changed the character of the constituency.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 660–661.</ref> After his defeat was announced, ''[[The Glasgow Herald]]'' reported that he indicated he would not stand for parliament again.<ref name="GHheadline16June1987">{{cite news |last1=Parkhouse |first1=Geoffrey |title=Scotland swims against the Tory tide |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=19870612&printsec=frontpage&hl=en |access-date=26 April 2021 |work=The Glasgow Herald |date=12 June 1987 |page=1}}</ref> In 1986, his biography of [[Harry S. Truman]] was published and the following year his biography of [[Stanley Baldwin]] was published.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 630.</ref>

==Peerage, achievements, books and death (1987–2003)==
[[File:Roy Jenkins, Chancellor of Oxford.jpg|thumb|upright|Jenkins robed as [[Chancellor of Oxford University]]]]
From 1987, Jenkins remained in politics as a member of the [[House of Lords]] as a [[life peer]] with the title '''Baron Jenkins of Hillhead''', of [[Pontypool]] in the County of [[Gwent (county)|Gwent]].<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=51132|date=25 November 1987|page=14513}}</ref> Also in 1987, Jenkins [[1987 University of Oxford Chancellor election|was elected Chancellor of the University of Oxford]].<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 652.</ref> He was leader of the [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats]] in the Lords from 1988 until 1997.

In 1988, he fought and won an amendment to the [[Education Reform Act 1988]], guaranteeing academic freedom of speech in further and higher education establishments. This affords and protects the right of students and academics to "question and test received wisdom" and has been incorporated into the statutes or articles and instruments of governance of all universities and colleges in Britain.<ref>{{cite web|last=Hayes|first=Dennis|title=Tongues truly tied|work=Times Higher Education|url=http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/165532.article|publisher=The Times|access-date=10 January 2013|archive-date=4 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004234801/http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/165532.article|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 657.</ref>

In 1991, his memoirs, ''A Life at the Centre'', was published by [[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]], who paid Jenkins a £130,000 advance.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 676.</ref> He was magnanimous to most of those colleagues with whom he had clashed in the past, except for David Owen, whom he blamed for destroying the idealism and cohesion of the SDP.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 676–677.</ref> In the last chapter ('Establishment Whig or Persistent Radical?') he reaffirmed his radicalism, placing himself "somewhat to the left of James Callaghan, maybe Denis Healey and certainly of David Owen".<ref name="Jenkins617">Jenkins, ''A Life at the Centre'', p. 617.</ref> He also proclaimed his political credo:

<blockquote>My broad position remains firmly libertarian, sceptical of official cover-ups and uncompromisingly internationalist, believing sovereignty to be an almost total illusion in the modern world, although both expecting and welcoming the continuance of strong differences in national traditions and behaviour. I distrust the deification of the enterprise culture. I think there are more limitations to the wisdom of the market than were dreamt of in Mrs Thatcher's philosophy. I believe that levels of taxation on the prosperous, having been too high for many years (including my own period at the Treasury), are now too low for the provision of decent public services. And I think the privatisation of near monopolies is about as irrelevant as (and sometimes worse than) were the Labour Party's proposals for further nationalisation in the 1970s and early 1980s.<ref name="Jenkins617"/></blockquote>

''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>

In 1993, he was appointed to the [[Order of Merit]].<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=53510|date=10 December 1993|page=19644}}</ref> Also that year, his ''Portraits and Miniatures'' was published. The main body of the book is a set of 6 biographical essays ([[Rab Butler]], [[Aneurin Bevan]], [[Iain Macleod]], [[Dean Acheson]], [[Konrad Adenauer]], [[Charles de Gaulle]]), along with lectures, articles and book reviews.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 690.</ref>
[[File:Roy Jenkins Grave.jpg|thumb|right|Jenkins' grave in Cat Street cemetery, [[East Hendred]], Oxfordshire]]
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>

Jenkins hailed [[Tony Blair]]'s [[1994 Labour Party leadership election|election]] as Labour Party leader in July 1994 as "the most exciting Labour choice since the election of [[Hugh Gaitskell]]". He argued that Blair should stick "to a constructive line on Europe, in favour of sensible constitutional innovation...and in favour of friendly relations with the Liberal Democrats". He added that he hoped Blair would not move Labour further to the right: "Good work has been done in freeing it from nationalisation and other policies. But the market cannot solve everything and it would be a pity to embrace the stale dogmas of Thatcherism just when their limitations are becoming obvious".<ref>Roy Jenkins, 'Labour's most exciting leader since Gaitskell', ''The Times'' (23 July 1994), p. 14.</ref>

Jenkins and Blair had been in touch since the latter's time as Shadow Home Secretary, when he admired Jenkins' reforming tenure at the Home Office.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 700.</ref> Jenkins told [[Paddy Ashdown]] in October 1995: "I think Tony treats me as a sort of father figure in politics. He comes to me a lot for advice, particularly about how to construct a Government".<ref>Paddy Ashdown, ''The Ashdown Diaries: Volume One, 1988–1997'' (London: Allen Lane, 2000), p. 346.</ref> Jenkins tried to persuade Blair that the division in the centre-left vote between the Labour and Liberal parties had enabled the Conservatives to dominate the 20th century, whereas if the two left-wing parties entered into an electoral pact and adopted proportional representation, they could dominate the 21st century.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 700–701.</ref> Jenkins was an influence on the thinking of [[New Labour]] and both [[Peter Mandelson]] and [[Roger Liddle]] in their 1996 work ''The Blair Revolution'' and [[Philip Gould]] in his ''Unfinished Revolution'' recognised Jenkins' influence.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 703.</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>

British membership of the [[European single currency]], Jenkins believed, was the supreme test of Blair's statesmanship.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 720, p. 725.</ref> However, he was disappointed with Blair's timidity in taking on the Eurosceptic tabloid press. He told Blair in October 1997: "You have to choose between leading Europe or having [[Rupert Murdoch|Murdoch]] on your side. You can have one but not both".<ref>Paddy Ashdown, ''The Ashdown Diaries: Volume Two, 1997–1999'' (London: Allen Lane, 2001), p. 104.</ref> Jenkins was also critical of New Labour's authoritarianism, such as the watering down of the [[Freedom of Information Act 2000]] and their intention to [[Hunting Act 2004|ban fox hunting]].<ref name="Campbell719">Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 719.</ref> By the end of his life Jenkins believed that Blair had wasted his enormous parliamentary majority and would not be recorded in history as a great prime minister; he ranked him between Harold Wilson and Stanley Baldwin.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 726.</ref>

After [[Gordon Brown]] attacked Oxford University for indulging in "old school tie" prejudices because it rejected a state-educated pupil, [[Laura Spence]], Jenkins told the House of Lords in June 2000 that "Brown's diatribe was born of prejudice out of ignorance. Nearly every fact he adduced was false".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/2000/jun/14/higher-education#S5LV0613P0_20000614_HOL_83|title=Higher Education (Hansard, 14 June 2000)|website=api.parliament.uk}}</ref> Jenkins voted for the [[Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 2000|equalisation of the homosexual age of consent]] and for repealing [[Section 28]].<ref name="Campbell719"/>

Jenkins wrote 19 books, including a biography of [[Gladstone]] (1995), which won the [[1995 Whitbread Awards|1995 Whitbread Award]] for Biography, and a much-acclaimed biography of [[Winston Churchill]] (2001). His then-designated official biographer, [[Andrew Adonis]], was to have finished the Churchill biography had Jenkins not survived the heart surgery he underwent towards the end of its writing. Historian [[Paul Johnson (writer)|Paul Johnson]] called it the best one-volume biography on its subject.<ref>Johnson, Paul (2003). ''Churchill'', Simon & Schuster, p. 167.</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=https://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=live}}</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>

After his death, Blair paid tribute to "one of the most remarkable people ever to grace British politics", who had "intellect, vision and an integrity that saw him hold firm to his beliefs of moderate social democracy, liberal reform and the cause of Europe throughout his life. He was a friend and support to me".<ref name="Guardian">Michael White and Lucy Ward, '[https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/jan/06/uk.liberaldemocrats Statesman Jenkins dies at 82]', ''The Guardian'' (6 January 2003).</ref> James Callaghan and [[Edward Heath]] also paid tribute and [[Tony Benn]] said that as "a founder of the SDP he was probably the grandfather of New Labour".<ref>'What they said', ''The Times'' (6 January 2003), p. 4.</ref> However, he was strongly criticised by others including [[Denis Healey]], who condemned the SDP split as a "disaster" for the Labour Party which prolonged their time in opposition and allowed the Tories to have an unbroken run of 18 years in government.<ref>{{cite news|location=London|work=[[The Guardian]]|title=Roy Jenkins: Gang leader who paved way for Blair|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/jan/06/uk.labour|first=Michael|last=White|date=6 January 2003|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100423043238/http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2003/jan/06/uk.labour|archive-date=23 April 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Writing in ''The Guardian'', Professor of Government at Oxford University [[Vernon Bogdanor]] provided this assessment of Jenkins:

<blockquote>Roy Jenkins was both radical and contemporary; and this made him the most influential exponent of the progressive creed in politics in postwar Britain. Moreover, the political creed for which he stood belongs as much to the future as to the past. For Jenkins was the prime mover in the creation of a form of social democracy which, being internationalist, is peculiarly suited to the age of globalisation and, being liberal, will prove to have more staying power than the statism of [[Lionel Jospin]] or the corporatist socialism of [[Gerhard Schröder]]. ... Roy Jenkins was the first leading politician to appreciate that a liberalised social democracy must be based on two tenets: what [[Peter Mandelson]] called an aspirational society (individuals must be allowed to regulate their personal lives without interference from the state); and that a post-imperial country like Britain could only be influential in the world as part of a wider grouping (the EU).<ref>Vernon Bogdanor, '[https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/jan/12/labour.uk The great radical reformer]', ''The Guardian'' (12 January 2003).</ref></blockquote>

His alma mater, Cardiff University, honoured the memory of Roy Jenkins by naming one of its halls of residence Roy Jenkins Hall.{{cn|date=April 2026}}

==Marriage and personal life==
[[File:Roy Jenkins, President of the European Commission, at the Catshuis in The Hague.jpeg|thumb|left|Jenkins in 1977]]
On 20 January 1945, Jenkins married Mary Jennifer Morris (18 January 1921 – 2 February 2017), the daughter of Sir (George) Parker Morris (1891-1972) and Dorothy Aylmer Morris ({{nee}} Hale; 1893-1974). They had two sons, Charles and Edward, and a daughter, Cynthia.<ref>{{Cite news |url= https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/feb/08/dame-jennifer-jenkins-obituary |title=Dame Jennifer Jenkins obituary |first=Dennis |last=Barker |date=8 February 2017 |work=The Guardian |location= London}}</ref> They were married for almost 58 years until his death, although he had "several affairs",<ref name=bbcdocumentary>{{cite AV media |title=A Very Social Democrat: A Portrait of Roy Jenkins |first=Michael |last=Cockerell |year=1996 |location= London |type=Documentary |editor-first1=Alison |editor-last1=Cahn |editor-first2=Anne |editor-last2= Tyerman |work=BBC Two}}</ref> including one with Jackie Kennedy's sister [[Lee Radziwill]].<ref>{{cite news |title= Obituary: Roy Jenkins |url= https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/980382.stm |work=BBC News}}</ref> Among his long-term mistresses were Leslie Bonham Carter and Caroline Gilmour, wives of fellow MPs and close friends [[Mark Bonham Carter]] and [[Ian Gilmour]]. However, these extra-marital relationships were conditional on his lovers having a good relationship with his wife: he later stated that he "could not imagine loving anyone who was not very fond of Jennifer".<ref name=saunders /> 

Lady Jenkins was appointed [[Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] (DBE) in 1985 for services to ancient and historical buildings, and was largely known as '''Dame Jennifer Jenkins'''.<ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2017/02/09/dame-jennifer-jenkins-head-national-trust-political-wife-obituary/ Dame Jennifer Jenkins, head of National Trust and political wife – obituary], telegraph.co.uk. Accessed 6 April 2026.</ref>

Early in his life, Jenkins had a relationship with [[Anthony Crosland]].<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/10687788/Roy-Jenkins-male-lover-Tony-Crosland-tried-to-halt-his-marriage.html |location=London |work=The Daily Telegraph |first=Keith |last=Perry |title=Roy Jenkins' male lover Tony Crosland tried to halt his marriage |date=10 March 2014 |url-access= subscription}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/16/double-lives-a-history-of-sex-and-secrecy-at-westminster |title=Double lives – a history of sex and secrecy at Westminster |work=The Guardian |location= London |date=16 May 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/string-affairs-gay-relationship-secret-6921941 |title=A string of affairs and a 'gay relationship': the secret life of Roy Jenkins, the best PM Britain never had |first=James |last= McCarthy |date=6 April 2014 |work=walesonline}}</ref> According to the former Liberal Democrat Leader [[Vince Cable]], Jenkins was bisexual.<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2017/10/19/sir-vince-cable-my-liberal-hero-roy-jenkins-was-a-bisexual-man/ |title=Sir Vince Cable: My Liberal hero Roy Jenkins was a bisexual man |last=Duffy |first=Nick |date=19 October 2017 |work=Pink News |location= London}}</ref>

==In popular culture==
===Theatre===
The play ''Gang of Three'' was originally performed at the King's Head Theatre in London in 2025 and will tour the UK in 2026. The play examines the relationship between Denis Healy, Tony Crosland and Roy Jenkins and was written by [[Khan and Salinsky]].{{citation needed|date=February 2026}}

Jenkins was a main character in [[Steve Waters]]' 2017 play ''[[Limehouse (play)|Limehouse]]'', which premiered at the [[Donmar Warehouse]]; Jenkins was portrayed by [[Roger Allam]].<ref>{{cite web |title=David Tennant, Roger Allam and more at Limehouse opening night |url=https://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/photos-limehouse-opening-david-tennant-roger-allam_43079.html |website=[[WhatsOnStage.com]] |access-date=23 February 2023 |date=9 March 2017}}</ref>

==Works==
* {{cite book|title=Roosevelt|publisher=[[Pan Macmillan]]|isbn =0-330-43206-0|year=2005}}
* {{cite book|title=Churchill: A Biography|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=0-333-78290-9|year=2001}}
* {{cite book|title=The Chancellors|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=0-333-73057-7|year=1998}}
* {{cite book|title=Gladstone|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=0-8129-6641-4|year=1995}}
* {{cite book|title=Portraits and Miniatures|publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing|Bloomsbury]]|isbn= 978-1-4482-0321-5|year=1993}}
* {{cite book|ref={{harvid|Jenkins|1991}}|title=A Life at the Centre|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=0-333-55164-8|year=1991}}
* {{cite book|title=European Diary 1977–81|publisher=Collins|year=1989}}
* {{cite book|title=Gallery of Twentieth Century Portraits and Oxford Papers|publisher=[[David & Charles]]|isbn=0-7153-9299-9|year=1988}}
* {{cite book|title=Truman|publisher=[[HarperCollins]]|isbn=0-06-015580-9|year=1986|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/truman00jenk}}
* {{cite book|title=Baldwin|publisher=Collins|isbn=0-00-217586-X|year=1984}}
* {{cite book|title=Nine Men of Power|publisher=Hamish Hamilton|isbn=978-0241891384|year=1974}}
* {{cite book|title=Essays and Speeches|url=https://archive.org/details/essaysspeeches0000jenk|url-access=registration|publisher=Collins|year=1967}}
* {{cite book|title=Asquith|publisher=Collins|isbn=0-00-211021-0|year=1978 |orig-year=1964 |edition=2nd rev.|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/asquith0000jenk}}
* {{cite book|title=The Labour Case|url=https://archive.org/details/thelabourcase1959|publisher=Penguin |year=1959}}
* {{cite book|title=Sir Charles Dilke: A Victorian Tragedy|publisher=Collins |isbn=0-333-62020-8|year=1965 |orig-year=1958 |edition=2nd rev.}}
* {{cite book|title=Mr. Balfour's Poodle: Peers v. People|publisher=Collins | oclc = 436484|year=1954}}
* {{cite book|title=Pursuit of Progress: a Critical Analysis of the Achievement and Prospect of the Labour Party |publisher=Heinemann |year=1953}}
* {{cite book|title=Mr. Attlee: an Interim Biography|publisher=Heinemann |location=London |year=1948}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book|title=Roy Jenkins: A Retrospective|editor-first=Andrew |editor-last=Adonis |editor-first2= Keith |editor-last2=Thomas|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=0-19-927487-8|year= 2004}}
* {{cite book|title=Friends and Rivals: Crosland, Jenkins and Healey|first=Giles|last= Radice|publisher=Little, Brown|isbn=0-316-85547-2|year=2002}}
* {{cite book|title=Roy Jenkins, a biography|first=John |last=Campbell|publisher=[[Weidenfeld & Nicolson]]|isbn=0-297-78271-1|year=1983}}
* {{cite book|title=Roy Jenkins, a Well-Rounded Life|first=John |last=Campbell |publisher=[[Jonathan Cape]]|year=2014|isbn=978-0-224-08750-6}}
* {{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).
* {{cite book|last1=Lipsey|first1= David |first2=Roy |last2=Jenkins|editor-first= Kevin|editor-last= Jefferys |title=Labour Forces: From Ernie Bevin to Gordon Brown|url=https://archive.org/details/labourforcesfrom00jeff|url-access=limited|year=2002|pages= [https://archive.org/details/labourforcesfrom00jeff/page/n117 103]–18|publisher= Bloomsbury Academic |isbn= 9781860647437 }}
* Ludlow, N. Piers, ed. ''Roy Jenkins and the European commission presidency, 1976–1980: at the heart of Europe'' (Springer, 2016) [https://researchonline.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/66183/ excerpt].
* Nuttall, Jeremy. "Roy Jenkins and the politics of radical moderation." ''History'' 104.362 (2019): 677–709.

==External links==
{{Commons}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* [https://rsliterature.org/fellow/roy-jenkins-the-rt-hon-lord-jenkins-of-hillhead-om/ "Roy Jenkins (The Rt Hon Lord Jenkins of Hillhead)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190428210156/https://rsliterature.org/fellow/roy-jenkins-the-rt-hon-lord-jenkins-of-hillhead-om/ |date=28 April 2019 }}, Fellows Remembered, [[The Royal Society of Literature]]
* {{Hansard-contribs|mr-roy-jenkins|Roy Jenkins}}
* [https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/houseoflords/house-of-lords-reform/from-the-collections/from-the-parliamentary-collections-lords-reform/the-work-of-the-life-peers/royjenkins1920-2003/ Roy Jenkins: Life Peer – UK Parliament Living Heritage]
* {{NPG name}}

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[[Category:Hillhead]]
[[Category:British political party founders]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Royal Society of Literature]]
[[Category:European commissioners (1977–1981)]]
[[Category:LGBTQ members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:LGBTQ life peers]]
[[Category:Ministers in the Wilson governments, 1964–1970]]
[[Category:British LGBTQ military personnel]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:Royal Artillery officers]]
[[Category:20th-century British LGBTQ people]]
[[Category:Life peers created by Elizabeth II]]
[[Category:British bisexual men]]
[[Category:British bisexual politicians]]
[[Category:Governors of the British Film Institute]]