Roy Jenkins

The Right Honourable The Lord Jenkins of Hillhead OM PC
Jenkins in 1977
Chancellor of the University of Oxford
In office 14 March 1987 – 5 January 2003
Vice‑Chancellor	The Lord Neill of Bladen Sir Richard Southwood Sir Peter North Sir Colin Lucas
Preceded by	The Earl of Stockton
Succeeded by	The Lord Patten of Barnes
President of the European Commission
In office 6 January 1977 – 19 January 1981
Preceded by	François-Xavier Ortoli
Succeeded by	Gaston Thorn
Home Secretary
In office 4 March 1974 – 10 September 1976
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson James Callaghan
Preceded by	Robert Carr
Succeeded by	Merlyn Rees
In office 23 December 1965 – 30 November 1967
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Frank Soskice
Succeeded by	James Callaghan
Chancellor of the Exchequer
In office 30 November 1967 – 19 June 1970
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Chief Secretary	Jack Diamond
Preceded by	James Callaghan
Succeeded by	Iain Macleod
Junior ministerial offices Minister of Aviation In office 18 October 1964 – 23 December 1965 Prime Minister Harold Wilson Preceded by Julian Amery Succeeded by Fred Mulley
Party political offices Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords In office 16 July 1988 – 19 December 1997 Leader Paddy Ashdown Preceded by The Baroness Seear Succeeded by The Lord Rodgers of Quarry Bank Leader of the Social Democratic Party In office 7 July 1982 – 13 June 1983 President Shirley Williams Deputy David Owen Preceded by Party established Succeeded by David Owen Deputy Leader of the Labour Party In office 8 July 1970 – 10 April 1972 Leader Harold Wilson Preceded by George Brown Succeeded by Edward Short
Shadow Cabinet offices Shadow Home Secretary In office 25 November 1973 – 4 March 1974 Leader Harold Wilson Preceded by Shirley Williams Succeeded by Jim Prior Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer In office 20 June 1970 – 19 April 1972 Leader Harold Wilson Preceded by Iain Macleod Succeeded by Denis Healey
Parliamentary offices Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal Life peerage 1 December 1987 – 5 January 2003 Member of Parliament for Glasgow Hillhead In office 25 March 1982 – 18 May 1987 Preceded by Tam Galbraith Succeeded by George Galloway Member of Parliament for Birmingham Stechford In office 23 February 1950 – 5 January 1977[1] Preceded by Constituency established Succeeded by Andrew MacKay Member of Parliament for Southwark Central In office 29 April 1948 – 3 February 1950 Preceded by John Martin Succeeded by Constituency abolished
Personal details
Born	Roy Harris Jenkins (1920-11-11)11 November 1920 Abersychan, Monmouthshire, Wales
Died	5 January 2003(2003-01-05) (aged 82) East Hendred, Oxfordshire, England
Political party	Labour (until 1981) SDP (1981–1988) Liberal Democrats (from 1988)
Spouse	Mary Jennifer Morris ​ ​ (m. 1945)​
Children	3
Parent	Arthur Jenkins (father)
Alma mater	Cardiff University Balliol College, Oxford
Military service
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Branch/service	British Army
Rank	Captain
Unit	Royal Artillery
Battles/wars	World War II

Roy Harris Jenkins, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead, OM, PC (11 November 1920 – 5 January 2003) was a British politician and writer who served as the sixth President of the European Commission from 1977 to 1981. At various times a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Labour Party and the Social Democratic Party (SDP), and a peer for the Liberal Democrats, he was Chancellor of the Exchequer and Home Secretary under the Wilson and Callaghan Governments.

The son of 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 in 1950. On the election of Harold Wilson after the 1964 election, Jenkins was appointed Minister of Aviation. A year later, he was promoted to the 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 and theatre censorship, the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality, relaxing of divorce law, suspension of birching and the liberalisation of abortion law.

Following the 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 in 1968 which saw major tax rises. As a result of this, the Government's current account entered a surplus in 1969. After Labour unexpectedly lost the 1970 election, Jenkins was elected as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party in 1970. He resigned from the position in 1972 after the Labour Party decided to oppose Britain's entry to the European Communities, which he strongly supported.^[2] When Labour returned to power following the 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 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 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", senior Labour figures who broke away from the party and founded the SDP.^[3] In 1982, Jenkins won 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 election, during which he formed an electoral alliance with the 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 election to Labour's George Galloway, and accepted a life peerage shortly afterwards; he sat in the House of Lords as a 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 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, A Life at the Centre (1991), as one which "will be read with pleasure long after most examples of the genre have been forgotten".^[4]