Neil Kinnock

The Right Honourable The Lord Kinnock PC
Official portrait, 1995
Vice-President of the European Commission
In office 16 September 1999 – 21 November 2004 Serving with Loyola de Palacio
President	Romano Prodi
European Commissioner for Administrative Reform
In office 16 September 1999 – 21 November 2004
President	Romano Prodi
Preceded by	Erkki Liikanen
Succeeded by	Siim Kallas
European Commissioner for Transport
In office 16 February 1995 – 16 September 1999
President	Jacques Santer Manuel Marín (acting)
Preceded by	Karel Van Miert
Succeeded by	Loyola de Palacio
Leader of the Opposition
In office 2 October 1983 – 18 July 1992
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher John Major
Preceded by	Michael Foot
Succeeded by	John Smith
Leader of the Labour Party
In office 2 October 1983 – 18 July 1992
Deputy	Roy Hattersley
Preceded by	Michael Foot
Succeeded by	John Smith
Shadow Secretary of State for Education and Science
In office 14 July 1979 – 2 October 1983
Leader	James Callaghan Michael Foot
Preceded by	Gordon Oakes
Succeeded by	Giles Radice
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Life peerage 28 January 2005
Member of Parliament for Islwyn Bedwellty (1970–1983)
In office 18 June 1970 – 20 January 1995
Preceded by	Harold Finch
Succeeded by	Don Touhig
Personal details
Born	Neil Gordon Kinnock (1942-03-28) 28 March 1942 (age 82) Tredegar, Wales
Political party	Labour
Spouse	Glenys Parry ​ ​ (m. 1967; died 2023)​
Children	2, including Stephen
Alma mater	Cardiff University
Signature
Neil Kinnock's voice Kinnock presents proposals to the European Commission on modernising its human resources policy Recorded 30 October 2001

Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock, PC (born 28 March 1942) is a Welsh politician who was Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 1983 to 1992.^[1] He was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1970 to 1995, first for Bedwellty and then for Islwyn. He was Vice-President of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004. Kinnock was considered to be on the soft left of the Labour Party.

Born and raised in South Wales, Kinnock was first elected to the House of Commons in the 1970 general election. He became the Labour Party's shadow education minister after the Conservatives won power in the 1979 general election. After the party under Michael Foot suffered a landslide defeat to Margaret Thatcher in the 1983 election, Kinnock was elected Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition. During his tenure as leader, Kinnock proceeded to fight the party's left wing, especially the Militant tendency, and he opposed NUM leader Arthur Scargill's methods in the 1984–1985 miners' strike. He led the party during most of the Thatcher government, which included its third successive election defeat when Thatcher won the 1987 general election. Although Thatcher had won another landslide, Labour regained sufficient seats for Kinnock to remain Leader of the Opposition following the election.

Kinnock led the Labour Party to a surprise fourth consecutive defeat at the 1992 general election, despite the party being ahead of John Major's Conservative government in most opinion polls, which had predicted either a narrow Labour victory or a hung parliament. Shortly afterwards, he resigned as Leader of the Labour Party; he was succeeded in the ensuing leadership election by John Smith. He left the House of Commons in 1995 to become a European Commissioner. He went on to become Vice-President of the European Commission under Romano Prodi from 1999 to 2004, before being elevated to the House of Lords as Baron Kinnock in 2005. Until the summer of 2009, he was also the chairman of the British Council and the president of Cardiff University.^[2]