Neil Kinnock

Neil Kinnock (1942- ), British politician, leader of the Labour Party (1983-1992) and European Commissioner (1994-2004). Kinnock was born in Tredegar, south Wales, the son of a miner and steelworker. Educated at Lewis Grammar School and University College, Cardiff, where he studied history and industrial relations, he joined the Workers' Educational Association as a tutor and organizer, and was elected to Parliament for Bedwellty in 1970.

On the left wing of the party during the Labour government of Harold Wilson from 1974 to 1976, he voted against an increase in the Civil List, and resigned as parliamentary private secretary to Michael Foot. He refused posts offered by James Callaghan, preferring to cultivate the party's grass roots support. After the Conservative Party's general election victory in 1979 he accepted the position of junior education spokesman in the Shadow Cabinet. He supported Michael Foot, Callaghan's successor, but after the Labour Party's heavy defeat in the 1983 general election Foot resigned, and Kinnock was elected the party's youngest-ever leader with 71 per cent of the vote. In 1983 he also changed his constituency from Bedwellty to Islwyn. His victory over the militant left wing helped restore the party's fortunes. Although defeated again, Labour did better in the 1987 election, and by 1992 were ahead in the polls. After an unexpected Conservative election victory in 1992, Kinnock resigned as leader of the Labour Party.

In 1994 he was appointed a European Commissioner, with particular responsibility for transport. He resigned from Parliament in January 1995. In March 1999 he resigned along with the rest of the European Commission to take collective responsibility for charges of mismanagement and nepotism, though no personal blame was felt to attach to him. He was reappointed to the Commission in July and was made one of two vice-presidents by Romano Prodi, the new President of the European Commission. He was given responsibility for carrying through the institutional reform of the Commission. In January 2000 he published a document 'Reforming the Commission' that proposed a comprehensive overhaul with changes in management of finance and human resources as well as operational methods designed to improve efficiency as well as to promote greater transparency and accountability in the Commission. His plan to introduce performance-related pay for Commission staff in February 2001, and his attempt in August to cut the translation budget of the Commission by keeping most working documents in their original language only, caused controversy but were backed by Prodi. His term as a European Commissioner ended in November 2004, with the succession of a new Commission under José Manuel Durão Barroso. In January 2005 Kinnock officially entered the British House of Lords as Baron Kinnock of Bedwellty.