Roy Jenkins

by John Campbell

  I am grateful to Random House for permission to quote from the diaries of Richard Crossman and Tony Benn; to David Higham Associates for permission to quote from the published and unpublished diaries of Barbara Castle; to Peters Fraser & Dunlop for permission to quote from the diary of Paddy Ashdown; and to Bernard Donoughue and Giles Radice for allowing me to quote from their published diaries.

  I am grateful to the following for permission to reproduce cartoons in the text: the Telegraph Media Group and Nicholas Garland himself for Garland cartoons; Express Newspapers for Cummings; Solo Syndication for Illingworth; Susannah Gibbard for Gibbard; Claire Calman for Calman; Janet Slee for David Austin; and the British Cartoon Archive at the University of Kent for Richard Willson. Every effort has been made to trace other copyright holders; if one or two have slipped through the net I can only ask them to be forgiving.

  I am additionally grateful to an enormous number of old friends and former colleagues and associates of Roy Jenkins for interviews and in many cases generous hospitality, sharing with me their memories and judgements: The Marquess and Marchioness of Anglesey; Lord Armstrong of Ilminster; Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon; Michael and Anne Barnes; Mme Marie-Alice de Beaumarchais; Tony Benn; Mrs Alannah Brennan; Dr Michael and Mrs Eleanor Brock; Sir David Butler; Nicholas Byam Shaw; Professor David Cannadine; Sir John Chilcot; Mrs Celia Cotton; the late Susan Crosland; Jan Dalley; Tam Dalyell; Richard Davenport-Hines; Sir Geoffrey de Deney; David Gilmour; Oliver Gilmour; Lord and Lady Goodhart of Youlbury; Dr Andrew Graham; Mrs Patricia Grigg; Lady Harlech; Robert Harris; Sir Max Hastings; Lord Hattersley of Sparkbrook; Lord Healey of Riddlesden; the late Sir Nicholas Henderson; the late Anthony Howard; Sir Michael and Maxine Jenkins; Dr John Jones; Sir Anthony Kenny; Lord Lester of Herne Hill; Lord Liddle of Carlisle; Sir Colin Lucas; Donald and Elsa Macfarlane; Sir Ronald McIntosh; Lord Maclennan of Rogart; Lord Mandelson of Foy; Professor David Marquand; Dr Christopher Mason; Bob Morris; Mrs Sara Morrison; Lord Oakeshott of Seagrove Bay; Brian Oakley; Lord Owen of Plymouth; Sir Hayden and Laura Phillips; Tom Phillips; Lady Antonia Pinter; Lord Radice of Chester-le-Street; Lord Rodgers of Quarry Bank; Tom Rosenthal; Professor Jean Seaton; Lord Steel of Aikwood; Lord Taverne of Pimlico; Lord Thomas of Swynnerton; Sir Crispin Tickell; Lord Tugendhat of Widdington; Sir Stephen Wall; Sara Wheeler; Baroness Williams of Crosby; Mrs Barbara Wren; and Philip Ziegler.

  I am conscious that there are many more people who knew and worked with Roy Jenkins whom I could and perhaps should have spoken to. To them I apologise that I did not get to see them; I can only plead that I would never have finished the book if I had spoken to everyone. I do regret, however, that Tony Blair was unable to find the time to talk to me.

  I must also thank Helen Langley, Head of Modern Political Papers, and her colleagues at the Bodleian Library, Oxford for her help and understanding while the Jenkins papers were still at East Hendred and since their removal to the Bodleian; Alan Mumford for advice about cartoons; and M. Nicolas de la Grandville, chef du protocol at the European Commission for giving me an invaluable tour of the Berlaymont building in Brussels.

  As always I am grateful to my agent of many years, Bruce Hunter of David Higham Associates, for helping set up the project in the beginning; to my current agent, Andrew Gordon, for seeing it through to completion; and to my editor at Jonathan Cape, Dan Franklin, for his patience, enthusiasm and support throughout. I am also grateful to Mandy Greenfield for her editing, Alison Rae for her eagle-eyed proofreading, Clare Bullock for checking the final text for remaining inconsistencies and Caroline Wood for her tireless picture research.

  Finally, once again, my deepest gratitude is to my wife Kirsty, whose love, encouragement and practical support, from research assistance to proofreading, has sustained me through the period of writing the book. I could not have done it without her and the book is dedicated to her.

  John Campbell

  December 2013

  Sources and Bibliography

  David Butler papers (Nuffield College, Oxford)

  James Callaghan papers (Bodleian Library, Oxford)

  Barbara Castle papers (Bodleian Library, Oxford)

  Anthony Crosland papers (London School of Economics)

  Hugh Dalton papers (London School of Economics)

  Hugh Gaitskell papers (University College London)

  Lord Hailsham papers (Churchill College, Cambridge)

  Robert Harris diary (thanks to Robert Harris)

  Alastair Hetherington diary (London School of Economics)

  Arthur Jenkins diary (East Hendred, now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford)

  Roy Jenkins papers (East Hendred, now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford)

  Neil Kinnock papers (Churchill College, Cambridge)

  Alec McGivan papers (University of Essex, Colchester)

  Robert Maclennan papers (University of Essex, Colchester)

  Edwin Plowden papers (Churchill College, Cambridge)

  Enoch Powell papers (Churchill College, Cambridge)

  William Rodgers papers (University of Essex, Colchester)

  Neville Sandelson papers (London School of Economics)

  Peter Shore papers (London School of Economics)

  Harold Wilson papers (Bodleian Library, Oxford)

  Labour Party archive (The People’s History Museum, Manchester)

  Labour Party Annual Conference Reports, 1945–1976

  The National Archives (Kew)

  Parliamentary Debates, House of Commons, 1948–1987

  Parliamentary Debates, House of Lords, 1987–2002

  The Report of the Independent Commission on the Voting System, 1998 (Cm 4090–1)

  Social Democratic Party archive (University of Essex, Colchester)

  Interviews conducted for the British Diplomatic Oral History Programme (Churchill College, Cambridge)

  Interviews conducted for Brook Productions’ TV series The Seventies and The Thatcher Factor (London School of Economics)

  Books by Roy Jenkins

  Mr Attlee: An Interim Biography (Heinemann 1948)

  Fair Shares for the Rich (Tribune 1951)

  Pursuit of Progress: A critical analysis of the achievement and prospect of the Labour Party (Heinemann 1953)

  Mr Balfour’s Poodle: An Account of the Struggle between the House of Lords and the Government of Mr Asquith (Heinemann 1954)

  Sir Charles Dilke: A Victorian Tragedy (Collins 1958)

  The Labour Case (Penguin 1959)

  Asquith (Collins 1964)

  Essays and Speeches, ed. Anthony Lester (Collins 1967)

  Afternoon on the Potomac? A British View of America’s Changing Position in the World (Yale 1972)

  What Matters Now (Collins/Fontana 1972)

  Nine Men of Power (Hamish Hamilton 1974)

  Partnership of Principle: Writing and Speeches on the Making of the Alliance, ed. Clive Lindley (Secker & Warburg 1985)

  Truman (Collins 1986)

  Baldwin (Collins 1987)

  Gallery of Twentieth Century Portraits (David & Charles 1988)

  European Diary, 1977–1981 (Collins 1989)

  A Life at the Centre [ALATC] (Macmillan 1991)

  Portraits and Miniatures (Macmillan 1993)

  Gladstone (Macmillan 1995)

  The Chancellors (Macmillan 1998)

  Churchill (Macmillan 2001)

  Twelve Cities (Macmillan 2002)

  Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Times Books, New York 2003; Macmillan 2004)

  Other books

  Leo Abse: Private Member (Macdonald 1973)

  Andrew Adonis & Keith Thomas: Roy Jenkins: A Retrospective (Oxford 2004)

  Noel Annan: Our Age: Portrait of a Generation (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1990)

  —The Dons: Mentors, Eccentrics and Geniuses (HarperCollins 1999)

  Paddy Ashdown: The Ashdown Diaries, Volume I: 1988–1997 (Penguin 2000)

  —The Ashdown Diaries, Volume 2: 1997–1999 (Penguin 2001)

  Mark Bainbridge, ed., The 1975 Referendum
on Europe, Vol.1: Reflections of the Participants (Imprint Academic 2007)

  Kenneth Baker: The Turbulent Years: My Life in Politics (Faber 1993)

  Douglas Bence & Clive Branson: Roy Jenkins: A Question of Principle (Moat Hall 1982)

  Tony Benn: Years of Hope: Diaries, Papers and Letters, 1940–1962 (Hutchinson 1994)

  —Out of the Wilderness: Diaries, 1963–67 (Hutchinson 1987)

  —Office Without Power, Diaries, 1968–72 (Hutchinson 1988)

  —Against the Tide: Diaries, 1973–76 (Hutchinson 1989)

  —Conflicts of Interest: Diaries, 1977–80 (Hutchinson 1990)

  —The End of an Era: Diaries, 1980–90 (Hutchinson 1992)

  —Free at Last!: Diaries, 1991–2001 (Hutchinson 2002)

  —More Time for Politics: Diaries, 2001–2007 (Hutchinson 2007)

  Tony Blair: A Journey (Hutchinson 2010)

  Violet Bonham Carter: Daring to Hope: The Diaries and Letters of Violet Bonham Carter, 1946–69, ed. Mark Pottle (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2000)

  Sarah Bradford, America’s Queen: The Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (Viking 2000)

  Ian Bradley, Breaking the Mould: The Birth and Prospects of the Social Democratic Party (Martin Robertson 1981)

  Samuel Brittan: Steering the Economy: The Role of the Treasury (Penguin 1971)

  Brian Brivati: Hugh Gaitskell (Richard Cohen 1996)

  Roger Broad: Labour’s European Dilemmas: From Bevin to Blair (Palgrave 2001)

  Craig Brown: The Lost Diaries (Fourth Estate 2010)

  David Butler & Gareth Butler: British Political Facts, 1900–1994 (Macmillan 1994)

  David Butler & Dennis Kavanagh: The British General Election of February 1974 (Macmillan 1974)

  —The British General Election of October 1974 (Macmillan 1975)

  —The British General Election of 1983 (Macmillan 1984)

  —The British General Election of 1987 (Macmillan 1988)

  David Butler & Anthony King: The British General Election of 1964 (Macmillan 1965)

  —The British General Election of 1966 (Macmillan 1967)

  David Butler & Uwe Kitzinger: The 1975 Referendum (Macmillan 1976)

  David Butler & Michael Pinto-Duchinsky: The British General Election of 1970 (Macmillan 1971)

  Alec Cairncross: Living with the Century (Lynx 1998)

  James Callaghan: Time and Chance (Collins 1987)

  John Campbell: Roy Jenkins: A Biography (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1983)

  —Nye Bevan and the Mirage of British Socialism (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1987)

  —Edward Heath (Jonathan Cape 1993)

  —Margaret Thatcher: The Grocer’s Daughter (Jonathan Cape 2000)

  —Margaret Thatcher: The Iron Lady (Jonathan Cape 2003)

  Barbara Castle: The Castle Diaries, 1964–70 (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1984)

  —The Castle Diaries, 1974–76 (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1980)

  —Fighting All The Way (Macmillan 1993)

  Alan Clark: Diaries: Into Politics (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2000)

  Richard Cockett: David Astor and the Observer (André Deutsch 1991)

  John Cole: As It Seemed To Me (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1995)

  R. Coopey, S. Fielding & N. Tiratsoo, The Wilson Governments, 1964–70 (Pinter 1993)

  Colin R. Coote, The Other Club (Sidgwick & Jackson 1971)

  Ivor Crewe & Anthony King: The SDP: The Birth, Life and Death of the Social Democratic Party (Oxford 1995)

  C.A.R. Crosland: The Future of Socialism (Jonathan Cape 1956)

  Susan Crosland: Tony Crosland (Jonathan Cape 1982)

  Richard Crossman: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister, Volume One, 1964–66 (Hamish Hamilton & Jonathan Cape 1975)

  —The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister, Volume Two, 1966–68 (Hamish Hamilton & Jonathan Cape 1976)

  —The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister, Volume Three, 1968–70 (Hamish Hamilton & Jonathan Cape 1977)

  —The Backbench Diaries of Richard Crossman, ed. Janet Morgan (Hamish Hamilton & Jonathan Cape 1981)

  Hugh Dalton: The Political Diary of Hugh Dalton, 1918–40, 1945–60, ed. Ben Pimlott (Jonathan Cape 1986)

  —The Second World War Diary of Hugh Dalton, 1940–45, ed. Ben Pimlott (Jonathan Cape 1986)

  Nicholas Davenport: Memoirs of a City Radical (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1974)

  William Davis: Three Years Hard Labour: The Road to Devaluation (André Deutsch 1968)

  Robin Day: . . . But With Respect: Memorable Television Interviews with Statesmen and Parliamentarians (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1993)

  Edmund Dell: The Chancellors: A History of the Chancellors of the Exchequer, 1945–1990 (HarperCollins 1996)

  —A Strange Eventful History: Democratic Socialism in Britain (HarperCollins 2000)

  Roy Denman: The Mandarin’s Tale (Politico’s 2002)

  Frances Donaldson: A Twentieth Century Life (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1992)

  Bernard Donoughue: Downing Street Diary: With Harold Wilson in No. 10 (Jonathan Cape 2005)

  —Downing Street Diary: with James Callaghan in No. 10 (Jonathan Cape 2008)

  Harold Evans, Good Times, Bad Times (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1983)

  Marcia Falkender: Downing Street in Perspective (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1983)

  Ann Fleming: The Letters of Ann Fleming, ed. Mark Amory (Collins Harvill 1985)

  Michael Foot, Aneurin Bevan, 1945–1960 (Davis Poynter 1973)

  Hugh Gaitskell: The Diary of Hugh Gaitskell, 1945–56, ed. Philip M. Williams (Jonathan Cape 1983)

  J.K. Galbraith: The Affluent Society (Hamish Hamilton 1958)

  Paul Gannon, Colossus: Bletchley Park’s Greatest Secret (Atlantic Books, 2006)

  Ian Gilmour, Dancing with Dogma: Britain under Thatcherism (Simon & Schuster 1992)

  Lord Goodman, Tell Them I’m On My Way (Chapman 1993)

  Patrick Gordon Walker: Political Diaries, 1932–1971, ed. Robert Pearce (Historians’ Press 1991)

  William Hague: William Pitt the Younger (HarperCollins 2004)

  Lord Hailsham: A Sparrow’s Flight (Collins 1978)

  Kenneth Harris: Attlee (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1982)

  Stephen Haseler: The Gaitskellites: Revisionism in the British Labour Party, 1951–1964 (Macmillan 1969)

  —The Tragedy of Labour (Blackwell 1980)

  Max Hastings: Finest Years: Churchill as Warlord: 1940–45 (Harper Press 2009)

  Michael Hatfield: The House the Left Built: Inside Labour Policy Making, 1970–1975 (Gollancz 1978)

  Roy Hattersley, Who Goes Home? Scenes from Political Life (Little, Brown 1995)

  Denis Healey: The Time of My Life (Michael Joseph 1989)

  Simon Heffer: Like the Roman: The Life of Enoch Powell (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1998)

  Nicholas Henderson: Mandarin: The Diary of an Ambassador (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1994)

  —Old Friends and Modern Instances (Profile 2000)

  Peter Hennessy: Whitehall (Secker & Warburg 1989)

  Andrew Holden: Makers and Manners: Politics and Morality in Postwar Britain (Politico’s 2004)

  Alistair Horne: Macmillan, 1957–1986 (Macmillan 1989)

  Anthony Howard: RAB: The Life of R.A. Butler (Jonathan Cape 1987)

  David Howell: British Social Democracy: A Study in Development and Decay (Croom Helm 1976)

  Denis Howell: Made in Birmingham (Queen Anne Press 1990)

  Greg Hurst: Charles Kennedy: A Tragic Flaw (Politico’s 2006)

  Douglas Jay: Change and Fortune (Hutchinson 1980)

  Kevin Jeffreys: Anthony Crosland (Richard Cohen 1999)

  Peter Jenkins: The Battle of Downing Street (Knight 1970)

  —Mrs Thatcher’s Revolution: The Ending of the Socialist Era (Jonathan Cape 1987)

  Philip M. Kaiser: Journeying Far and Wide: A Political and Diplomatic Memoir (Scribner’s 1992)

  Gerald Kaufman: How to be a Minister (Sidgwick & Jackson 1980)

  Peter Kellner & Christopher Hitchens: Callaghan: The Road to Number Ten (Cassell 1976)
/>   Cecil King: The Cecil King Diary, 1965–70 (Jonathan Cape 1972)

  —The Cecil King Diary, 1970–74 (Jonathan Cape 1975)

  John Kinross: Fifty Years in the City: Financing Small Business (John Murray 1982)

  Uwe Kitzinger: Diplomacy and Persuasion: How Britain Joined the Common Market (Thames & Hudson 1973)

  Sue Lawley’s Desert Island Discussions (Hodder & Stoughton 1990)

  Neal Lawson & Neil Sherlock: The Progressive Century: The Future of the Centre Left in Britain (Palgrave 2001)

  David Lipsey: In the Corridors of Power (Biteback 2012)

  Donald MacDougall: Don and Mandarin: Memoirs of an Economist (John Murray 1987)

  Ronald McIntosh: Challenge to Democracy: Politics, Trade Union Power and Economic Failure in the 1970s (Politico’s 2006)

  Peter Mandelson: The Third Man (Harper Press 2010)

  Sir Robert Mark: In the Office of Constable (Collins 1978)

  David Marquand: The Unprincipled Society: New Demands and Old Politics (Jonathan Cape 1987)

  —The Progressive Dilemma (Orion 1999)

  Christopher Mayhew: Time to Explain (Hutchinson 1987)

  Ian Mikardo: Back-Bencher (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1988)

  Kenneth O. Morgan: Callaghan: A Life (Oxford 1997)

  —Michael Foot: A Life (HarperCollins 2007)

  June Morris: The Life and Times of Thomas Balogh: A Macaw among Mandarins (Sussex Academic Press 2007)

  John Mortimer: In Character (Allen Lane 1983)

  —The Summer of a Dormouse (Viking 2000)

  Philip Norton, ed.: Eminent Parliamentarians: The Speaker’s Lectures (Biteback 2012)

  David Owen: Face the Future (Jonathan Cape 1981)

  —Personally Speaking to Kenneth Harris (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1987)