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LONDON, Jan 5: Roy Jenkins, a former Labour Party minister who helped shape modern British politics and a former president of the European Commission, died at home aged 82, the government said on Sunday.
Prime Minister Tony Blair led tributes to Lord Jenkins, describing him as “one of the most remarkable people ever to grace British politics.
“His influence...was as great as many who held the office of Prime Minister,” Blair said in a statement.
In a career spanning more than 50 years, Jenkins held some of the most senior positions in government, but never became prime minister, once saying he lacked the “obsessive ruthlessness” needed.
Jenkins founded the breakaway Social Democratic Party (SDP) after defecting from Labour in 1981.
“Probably no person outside the rank of prime minister has done more for British politics in our time,” a spokesman for former Liberal Democrat party leader Paddy Ashdown said.
Jenkins served twice as a Labour Party home secretary in the 1960s and 1970s, introducing historic social reforms on homosexuality and abortion, and had a spell as finance minister.
PASSIONATE EUROPEAN: A passionate pro-European, he was the only Briton to have led the European Commission in Brussels as president from 1977 to 1981.
“Roy Jenkins was an outstanding British statesman and a great European. His life and work greatly enriched the politics of his country and continent,” European Commission President Romano Prodi said.
“He will be remembered with great esteem and affection in the Commission and throughout the European Union for his historic role in the birth of the euro and his consistent support for European ideas.
“I mourn his passing and express my deepest condolences to his widow, Dame Jennifer Jenkins, and to all his family.”
His defection from Labour to found the centrist SDP was a turning point in British politics.
While Jenkins and his fellow rebels ultimately failed to break the mould of Britain’s two-party system, the split paved the way for a long period of Conservative dominance during which Labour lost the battle for middle class support and lurched to the left.
When Labour returned to power under Blair, the party had been transformed and it was Jenkins, by then a Liberal Democrat, who emerged as one of the prime minister’s key advisers.—Reuters
