Leaders: Neil Kinnock 1983-92

Neil Kinnock (1942- )

In his nine years as leader of the Labour Party, Neil Kinnock rescued it from the verge of destruction and dragged it, sometimes brutally but always with courage and determination, far down the road back to electability. However, he never received the prize for which he strove. By the time the party returned to power, he had left British politics to become a European Commissioner. Tony Blair, in his speech to Labour's first party conference after the 1997 general election, said of Kinnock: 'the mantle of Prime Minister was never his. But I know that without him, it would never have been mine.' Unlike some acts of polite genuflection, those words spoke the truth.

Kinnock was born on 28 March 1942 in Tredegar, South Wales - the same birthplace as Aneurin Bevan. His father was Gordon Kinnock, who worked for 24 years as a miner in Markham colliery and subsequently at Ebbw Vale steel works. Neil's mother, Mary, was a nurse. As a boy, Neil was a beneficiary of the Attlee government's programme of postwar social reform. At the age of four he started attending a newly-opened local nursery school. This not only helped his education; it allowed Mary to return to work as Tredegar's full-time district nurse. Her influence as a socialist and a committed chapel-goer left a strong mark on Kinnock's views on politics and community.

Despite a streak of classroom indolence - he later claimed his best subject was 'fooling about' - his intelligence and voracious appetite for books enabled him to pass the 11-plus in 1953, and sufficiently well to go the prestigious Lewis School for Boys in Pengham, Cardiff, more than 20km away. At 15, while still at school, he joined the Ebbw Vale Labour Party, but politics was only one of his extra-curricular passions. Others included rugby, cricket, snooker and singing (he had an unusual ability to sight read a score).

In 1961 Kinnock embarked on a three-year BA course in Industrial Relations and History at University College, Cardiff. As at school, he plunged into extra-curricular activities, sometimes at the expense of his studies. He became a forceful debater at the Students' Union, winning first place for Cardiff in the perorations section of a Welsh inter-university Eisteddfod competition. His political passions were socialism, nuclear disarmament and the destruction of apartheid. In the end he had to re-sit his final year in order to gain his degree.

In his second year at university, Kinnock met Glenys Parry, the daughter of a militant official of the National Union of Railworkers. They married on 25 March 1967 at Holyhead, Anglesey (Glenys's home town). She wore a silver wedding ring, in order to avoid the danger of wearing a ring made from South African gold. By this time Kinnock was a tutor with the Workers' Educational Association, a post that could easily be combined with active work for the Bedwellty Labour Party. In 1969, when the sitting MP announced his retirement, Kinnock sought the nomination, with the support of his union, the Transport and General. At a tense selection meeting he tied with his main rival, 75 votes each. The meeting asked both men to speak again. Kinnock's oratory swung one vote: this time he won 76-74. In June 1970, as Labour lost power nationally, Kinnock entered Parliament with a majority of 22,279. Following boundary changes, the seat's name changed to Islwyn in 1983; Kinnock was re-elected by large majorities at six successive general elections before leaving Parliament in 1994.

After he had been an MP for just 18 months his parents died within nine days of each other; they were only in their early sixties. A few days later, the Kinnock's second child, Rachel, was born; a sister for Stephen, who had been born in 1970. At Westminster, Kinnock began to make his mark within the Tribune Group, actively supporting the coal miners' strike in 1972, and joining the unsuccessful campaign to withdraw Britain from the Common Market. When Labour returned to power in 1974, Kinnock agreed reluctantly to serve as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Michael Foot, the new Employment Secretary. He told Foot privately that he would do the job for only a year; and in February 1975 he duly resigned. In 1976 Kinnock was a prominent member of Foot's campaign to succeed Harold Wilson as party leader. When Foot was defeated by James Callaghan, the new Prime Minister asked Kinnock to become a junior minister at the Department of Industry. Kinnock declined the offer, and remained on the back benches. He used his position to gain public attention, as a writer - he contributed regularly to the Guardian and Tribune - and broadcaster. His ready wit and easy manner made him a popular choice for radio and television producers. He was also a rebel, voting frequently against the Callaghan government's economic policies, especially the public spending cuts it imposed in 1977. In 1978 he won election to Labour's National Executive, as a member of the main left-wing slate. Kinnock was also a committed opponent of devolution, and helped to persuade Welsh voters to vote down plans for a Welsh Assembly by 4 to 1 in the 1979 referendum.

Back in opposition after Margaret Thatcher's victory in the 1979 election, Kinnock agreed to join Callaghan's shadow cabinet as education spokesman. A forceful speech on education to that October's party conference brought him his greatest media attention yet; he began to be talked of as a potential future party leader. In January 1980 he defied the whips by voting in the Commons against the modernisation of Britain's nuclear weapons system. Callaghan threatened that another act of rebellion would lead to Kinnock's dismissal from the shadow cabinet. Kinnock did not defy the party line again. In October 1980 Callaghan announced his retirement as Labour leader. Kinnock, with Clive Jenkins, the trade union leader, persuaded the 67-year-old Foot to stand once again. Foot defeated Denis Healey, who then agreed to serve as foot's deputy. Kinnock continued as shadow education secretary. The following three years were arguably the most hellish in Labour's history. In 1981 more than two dozen Labour MPs defected to the new Social Democratic Party. In 1983 Labour slumped to its worst election defeat since 1935. Foot's leadership was marked by ferocious in-fighting, of which the most spectacular example was Tony Benn's challenge to Healey for the deputy leadership in 1981. Kinnock was the most prominent left-wing MP to break with Benn, urging fellow left-wing MPs to abstain rather than back Benn's challenge in the October 1981 vote. Thirty-six MPs heeded Kinnock's call - enough to deny Benn victory in a desperately close contest. As the infighting continued, Kinnock became an increasingly committed opponent of Labour's hard left.

Immediately after the June 1983 election, Foot announced his intention to resign. There was never any doubt that Kinnock would succeed him. On 2 October he was declared the winner, obtaining 71 per cent of the electoral college vote, and comfortably defeating Roy Hattersley, his main rival, in all three sections of the college. In his acceptance speech he declared his intention to act as brutally as necessary to drag Labour back to electability: 'Remember how you felt on that dreadful morning of 10th June. Just remember how you felt then, and think to yourselves: June 9th, 1983, never ever again will we experience that.'

Kinnock's first policy action as leader was to scrap Labour's plan to withdraw from the European Community. Thus began a sequence of policy changes in which Kinnock led from the front and carried the party with him. During his eight years as leader, he also persuaded Labour to abandon support for unilateral nuclear disarmament, embrace the market system instead of state socialism, and - under the cover of endorsing Europe's social chapter - call for an end to trade union 'closed shops.' These changes went beyond a series of specific policy moves. They amounted to a comprehensive assault on left-wing ideology. He was the first Labour leader to do this effectively. Hugh Gaitskell had tried after Labour's 1959 defeat, but failed. Harold Wilson and Callaghan preferred to outmanoeuvre the left rather than take it on in open combat. Kinnock, with a detailed, insider's knowledge of the party, and a toughness of character that was a revelation to many of them, stood his ground, fought the fight and won. The decisive moment in Kinnock's leadership came at the 1985 party conference in Bournemouth. His strategy for modernising Labour and expanding its appeal seemed stalled. Militant infiltrators has taken over Liverpool's Labour Party and, as a result, secured control of its City Council. At the same time a coal miners' strike was taking place, led by the left wing Miners' Union President, Arthur Scargill. On successive days, Kinnock denounced them both. His denunciation of Militant's behaviour in Liverpool became arguably the best remembered thing Kinnock ever said from a public platform ('… the grotesque chaos of a Labour council - a LABOUR council - hiring taxis to scuttle round a city handing out redundancy notices to its own workers…'). However, his impromptu speech the following day on the miners' strike was even more courageous for, even under Scargill, the miner's tapped deeper than Militant ever could into ordinary party members' reservoirs of sympathy. Kinnock attacked the miners' leadership and the party's habit of passing resolutions that sound good in 'the comfortable, warm circles of the Labour Party Conference' but which repel ordinary voters. He also attacked the principle of passing retrospective legislation to help the strikers, which was what Scargill had demanded from the 'next Labour Government.' When the vote was called, Scargill's card-vote supporters just outnumbered Kinnock's; but the miners had failed to secure the two-thirds majority they sought, so the result amounted to a political victory for the party leader.

Kinnock entered the 1987 general election with complete control over his party, but still regarded with some suspicion by the wider public. Some opinion polls suggested that Labour might be pushed into third place, at least in terms of the popular vote, by the Liberal/SDP Alliance. On the advice of Labour's Director of Communications, Peter Mandelson (one of a group of modernisers that Kinnock recruited to energise a creaking party machine), the decision was taken to build the campaign on Kinnock the man. This led to one of the most effective party election broadcasts ever made; indeed, it proved so popular that, uniquely, it was repeated towards the end of the campaign. It was a 10-minute profile made by Hugh Hudson (director of Chariots of Fire) and unashamedly appealing to emotion. It included an extract from a speech made that spring to the Welsh Labour Party Conference, when Kinnock asked 'Why am I the first Kinnock in a thousand generations to be able to get to university?' and concluded with his answer: 'because there was no platform on which they could stand.'

In the event, Labour gained only 20 seats; the Conservatives still enjoyed a majority of 100. But the Liberal/SDP Alliance was pushed firmly into third place. Kinnock was credited with beginning the process of Labour recovery, rather than blamed for leading only a small advance. Following the 1987 election, Kinnock established a series of policy reviews, which took further the process of transforming the party. He was aided, unwittingly, by Tony Benn, who challenged him for the party leadership in 1988 on a platform of reclaiming Labour for traditional socialism. Kinnock won by 8-1, a margin that he claimed as a clear mandate for his process of reform.

By 1990, there seemed every prospect of a Labour victory at the following election. The party enjoyed 20-point-plus leads in the opinion polls. The Conservatives had introduced possibly the most unpopular domestic policy of modern times, the poll tax. Margaret Thatcher's ideological fervour was alienating more and more voters. However, in November that year the Conservatives replaced Thatcher with John Major, who promptly scrapped the poll tax and promised a gentler, less ideological approach to running Britain. Many voters who 'wanted a change' felt that their demands had been met. Nevertheless, Labour retaining a narrow lead in most polls during the run-up to the 1992 election. There still seemed a real chance of a change of government, despite virulent, hurtful and highly personal attacks on Kinnock in some tabloid newspapers, most notably the Sun. The disappointment was the more intense when the Conservatives won their fourth successive victory. Subsequent analysis showed that the polls had contained a clear Labour bias. In truth, Labour was always behind the Tories from the moment Major became Prime Minister. Moreover, there was considerable evidence that Kinnock himself was disliked by many voters, who regarded him as a political lightweight, a 'Welsh windbag,' and/or a man who still secretly believed in left-wing extremism.

On the Monday after the election, Kinnock announced that he would step down as party leader as soon as a new leader was elected. On 18 July 1992 he was succeeded by John Smith. During the following two years, Kinnock kept a low profile. His main foray into public debate took the form of two programmes for BBC Television in which he set out his views on the future of socialism. These included a proposal to rewrite the party's commitment, in Clause IV of its constitution, to public ownership. His prospectus - effectively a completion of the modernising journey he had begun in 1983 - foreshadowed with startling precision the reforms that Blair undertook after he became party leader in 1994.

At the end of 1994 Kinnock resigned as an MP to embark on a new career, as a European Commissioner. The man who had campaigned 20 years earlier for Britain's withdrawal from the Common Market was now one of Europe's top officials. He was appointed commissioner for transport. In 1999 he survived unscathed when the European Parliament exercised its power to sack the commission, following criticisms of malpractice at the commission generally, and of EC President Jacques Santer in particular. The new President of the Commission, Romano Prodi, appointed Kinnock as one of his two deputies, with special responsibility for rooting out nepotism, cronyism, fraud and mismanagement.

Two books of Kinnock's speeches have been published: Making Our Way (Blackwell, 1986) and Thorns and Roses (Hutchinson, 1992). The two main biographies of him, both simply called Kinnock, are by Michael Leapman (Unwin Hyman, 1987) and George Drower (The Publishing Corporation, 1994). In an introduction to Drower's biography, Gerald Kaufman wrote: 'I voted against Neil Kinnock in the 1983 Labour leadership election… [This] was one of the most serious mistakes I have made in nearly a quarter of a century as an MP. Kinnock turned out to be the most decisive, the strongest, the toughest and, in my judgement, the greatest leader the Labour Party has ever had.'