Kinnock, Neil (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)

Introduction

Neil Kinnock was leader of the Labour Party from 1983–92 and, while never achieving electoral victory, was instrumental in reforming the party and paving the way for the Blairite era. On resigning the party leadership, Kinnock left the domestic political arena to become a UK commissioner at the European Commission before taking a seat in the House of Lords.

Early Life

Neil Gordon Kinnock was born on 28 March 1942 in Tredegar, South Wales. He studied industrial relations and history at Cardiff University before taking a postgraduate qualification in education.

In 1970 he entered the House of Commons as the member for Bedwellty (which became Islwyn in 1983), gaining a reputation as a leading light on the party’s left wing. In 1975 he voted against Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s spending cuts, designed to counter a currency crisis, and later refused junior office in the government of Jim Callaghan. Kinnock joined the shadow cabinet in 1980 as its education spokesman, winning...