Editing Roy Jenkins (section)

==Social Democratic Party (1981–1987)==
Following his Dimbleby Lecture, Jenkins increasingly favoured the formation of a new social democratic party.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 541–546.</ref> He publicly aired these views in a speech to the Parliamentary Press Gallery in June 1980, where he repeated his criticisms of the two-party system and attacked Labour's move to the left. At the previous month's Wembley conference, Labour had adopted a programme which included non-cooperation with the EEC and "a near neutralist and unilateralist" defence policy that would, Jenkins argued, render meaningless Britain's NATO membership.<ref name="Times1980">'Mr Jenkins will complete his term in Europe', ''The Times'' (10 June 1980), p. 2.</ref> Labour's proposals for further nationalisation and anti-private enterprise policies, Jenkins claimed, were more extreme than in any other democratic country and it was not "by any stretch of the imagination a social democratic programme". He added that a new party could reshape politics and lead to the "rapid revival of liberal social democratic Britain".<ref name="Times1980"/>

The Labour Party conference at Blackpool in September 1980 adopted a unilateralist defence policy, withdrawal from the EEC and further nationalisation, along with Tony Benn's demands for the mandatory reselection of MPs and an electoral college to elect the party leader.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 551.</ref> In November Labour MPs [[1980 Labour Party leadership election (UK)|elected]] the left-winger Michael Foot over the right-wing Denis Healey<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 552.</ref> and in January 1981 Labour's Wembley conference decided that the electoral college that would elect the leader would give the trade unions 40 per cent of the vote, with MPs and constituency parties 30 per cent each.<ref name="Campbell, p. 557">Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 557.</ref> Jenkins then joined [[David Owen]], [[Bill Rodgers, Baron Rodgers of Quarry Bank|Bill Rodgers]] and [[Shirley Williams]] (known as the "[[Social Democratic Party (UK)#Creation of the SDP|Gang of Four]]") in issuing the [[Limehouse Declaration]]. This called for the "realignment of British politics".<ref name="Campbell, p. 557"/> They then formed the [[Social Democratic Party (UK)|Social Democratic Party]] (SDP) on 26 March.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 559.</ref>

Jenkins delivered a series of speeches setting out the SDP's alternative to Thatcherism and Bennism and argued that the solution to Britain's economic troubles lay in the revenue from [[North Sea oil]], which should be invested in public services.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 564–565.</ref> He attempted to re-enter Parliament at the [[1981 Warrington by-election|Warrington by-election]] in July 1981 and campaigned on a six-point programme which he put forward as a Keynesian alternative to Thatcherism and Labour's "siege economy", but Labour retained the seat with a small majority.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 578–580.</ref>

Despite it being a defeat, the by-election demonstrated that the SDP was a serious force. Jenkins said after the count that it was the first parliamentary election that he had lost in many years, but was "by far the greatest victory in which I have ever participated".<ref>Julian Haviland and Philip Webster, 'Roy Jenkins slashes Labour majority: Tory loses his deposit', ''The Times'' (17 July 1981), p. 1.</ref>

At the SDP's first annual conference in October 1981, Jenkins called for "an end to the futile frontier war between public and private sectors" and proposed an "inflation tax" on excessive pay rises that would restrain spiralling wages and prices. After achieving this, an SDP government would be able to embark on economic expansion to reduce unemployment.<ref>Alan Wood, Bernard Withers, Geoffrey Browning and Richard Evans, 'Jenkins demands inflation tax to break wage-price spiral', ''The Times'' (10 October 1981), p. 2.</ref>

In March 1982, he fought the [[1982 Glasgow Hillhead by-election|Glasgow Hillhead by-election]], in what had previously been a Conservative-held seat. Polls at the beginning of the campaign put Jenkins in third place but after a series of ten well-attended public meetings which Jenkins addressed, the tide began to turn in Jenkins' favour, and he was elected with a majority of just over 2000 on a swing of 19 per cent.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 594.</ref> The evening after his victory in Hillhead Jenkins told a celebration dinner of 200 party members held at the [[North British Hotel]] in Edinburgh "that the SDP had a great opportunity to become the majority party".<ref name="GH27March1982">{{cite news |last1=Clark |first1=William |title=Roy Jenkins gets a hero's welcome |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=19820327&printsec=frontpage&hl=en |access-date=6 April 2021 |work=The Glasgow Herald |date=27 March 1982 |page=1}}</ref> Jenkins' first intervention in the House of Commons following his election, on 31 March, was seen as a disappointment.<ref name="Campbell598">Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 598.</ref> The Conservative MP [[Alan Clark]] wrote in his diary:

<blockquote>Jenkins, with excessive and almost unbearable gravitas, asked three very heavy statesman-like non-party-political questions of the PM. I suppose he is very formidable, but he was so portentous and long-winded that he started to lose the sympathy of the House about halfway through and the barracking resumed. The Lady replied quite brightly and freshly, as if she did not particularly know who he was, or care.<ref>Alan Clark, ''Diaries: Into Politics, 1972–1982'' (London: Phoenix, 2001), p. 310.</ref></blockquote>

Whereas earlier in his career, Jenkins had excelled in the traditional set-piece debates in which he spoke from the dispatch box, the focus of parliamentary reporting had now moved to the point-scoring of Prime Minister's Questions, which he struggled with. Seated in the traditional place for third parties in the Commons (the second or third row below the gangway), and without a dispatch box and the gravitas it could have conferred, Jenkins was situated near (and shared the same microphone with) Labour's "awkward squad" that included [[Dennis Skinner]] and [[Bob Cryer]], who regularly heckled abuse ("Roy, your flies are undone").<ref name="Campbell598"/>

Seven days after Jenkins' by-election victory, Argentina invaded the Falklands and the subsequent [[Falklands War]] transformed British politics, increased substantially the public's support for the Conservatives and ended any chance that Jenkins' election would reinvigorate the SDP's support.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 599, p. 609.</ref> In the SDP leadership election, Jenkins was elected with 56.44% of the vote, with David Owen coming second.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 608.</ref> The SDP's momentum was also seen to have stalled as a result of its poor performance in the [[1983 Darlington by-election]], shortly before that year's general election, a contest which was seen as one where the party could do well. Despite heavily campaigning in the Labour-held seat, the SDP candidate finished a poor third.<ref name="SRichardspp70-71">{{cite book |last1=Richards |first1=Steve |title=The Prime Ministers We Never Had; Success and Failure from Butler to Corbyn |date=2021 |publisher=Atlantic Books |location=London |isbn=978-1-83895-241-9 |pages= 70–71}}</ref>

During the [[1983 United Kingdom general election|1983 election]] campaign, his position as the prime minister-designate for the SDP-Liberal Alliance was questioned by his close colleagues, as his campaign style was now regarded as ineffective; the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] leader [[David Steel]] was considered to have a greater rapport with the electorate.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 618.</ref> During the campaign, Steel called Jenkins to a meeting at his home in [[Ettrickbridge]] and proposed that Jenkins take a lower profile and that Steel take over as leader of the campaign. According to [[Steve Richards]] while Jenkins rejected Steel's view, the meeting meant Jenkins' "confidence was undermined and he staggered to the finishing line with less verve than he had displayed in the early days of the SDP" and showed little sign of his earlier "exuberance".<ref name="SRichardsp71">{{cite book |last1=Richards |first1=Steve |title=The Prime Ministers We Never Had; Success and Failure from Butler to Corbyn |date=2021 |publisher=Atlantic Books |location=London |isbn=978-1-83895-241-9 |page= 71}}</ref> Jenkins held on to his seat in Hillhead, which was the subject of boundary changes. While on the old boundaries the Conservatives had held the seat prior to Jenkins' victory, it was estimated by the [[BBC]] and [[ITN]] that on the new boundaries Labour would have captured the seat with a majority of just over 2,000 votes in [[1979 United Kingdom general election|1979]].<ref name="TimesGuide1983p279">{{cite book |title=The Times Guide to the House of Commons June 1983 |date=1983 |publisher=Times Books |location=London |isbn=0-7230-0255-X |page=279}}</ref> Jenkins was challenged by [[Neil Carmichael, Baron Carmichael of Kelvingrove|Neil Carmichael]], the sitting Labour MP for the [[Glasgow Kelvingrove (UK Parliament constituency)|Glasgow Kelvingrove constituency]] which had been abolished and a ministerial colleague of Jenkins in the Wilson governments. Jenkins defeated Carmichael by 1,164 votes to retain his seat in the House of Commons.<ref name="TimesGuide1983p119">{{cite book |title=The Times Guide to the House of Commons June 1983 |date=1983 |publisher=Times Books Ltd |location=London |isbn=0-7230-0255-X |page=119}}</ref> According to ''The [[Glasgow Herald]]'', Labour supporters at the election count in the [[Kelvin Hall]] booed and jeered when Jenkins' victory was announced, and he and his wife were "dismayed as police pushed back jostling crowds".<ref name="GH10June1983">{{cite news |last1=Clark |first1=William |title=Scotland produces a little for everyone |url= https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=19830610&printsec=frontpage&hl=en |access-date=24 February 2021 |work=The Glasgow Herald |date=10 June 1983 |page=1}}</ref>

Following the general election, Owen succeeded him unopposed.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 626.</ref> Jenkins was disappointed with Owen's move to the right, and his acceptance and backing of some of Thatcher's policies. At heart, Jenkins remained an unrepentant [[Keynesian]].<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 638, n.</ref> In his July 1984 [[R. H. Tawney|Tawney Lecture]], Jenkins said that the "whole spirit and outlook" of the SDP "must be profoundly opposed to Thatcherism. It could not go along with the fatalism of the Government's acceptance of massive unemployment".<ref>Philip Webster, "Jenkins and Owen 'role reversal'", ''The Times'' (13 July 1984), p. 2.</ref> He also delivered a series of speeches in the Commons attacking the Thatcherite policies of the Chancellor, [[Nigel Lawson]]. Jenkins called for more government intervention to support industry and for North Sea oil revenues to be channelled into a major programme of rebuilding Britain's infrastructure and into educating a skilled workforce.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 638–640.</ref> He also attacked the Thatcher government for failing to join the [[European Exchange Rate Mechanism]].<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 640.</ref>

In 1985, he wrote to ''The Times'' to advocate the closing down of the political surveillance role of [[MI5]].<ref>Roy Jenkins, 'Stemming tide of State surveillance', ''The Times'' (12 March 1985), p. 12.</ref> During the controversy surrounding [[Peter Wright (MI5 officer)|Peter Wright]]'s ''[[Spycatcher]]'', in which he alleged that Harold Wilson had been a Soviet spy, Jenkins rubbished the allegation and reiterated his call for the end of MI5's powers of political survelliance.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1986/dec/03/security-services-commission#column_964|title=Security Services (Commission) (Hansard, 3 December 1986)|website=api.parliament.uk}}</ref>

In 1986, he won ''The Spectator'''s Parliamentarian of the Year award.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 638.</ref> He continued to serve as SDP Member of Parliament for [[Glasgow Hillhead]] until his defeat at the [[1987 United Kingdom general election|1987 general election]] by the Labour candidate [[George Galloway]], after boundary changes in 1983 had changed the character of the constituency.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 660–661.</ref> After his defeat was announced, ''[[The Glasgow Herald]]'' reported that he indicated he would not stand for parliament again in the future.<ref name="GHheadline16June1987">{{cite news |last1=Parkhouse |first1=Geoffrey |title=Scotland swims against the Tory tide |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=19870612&printsec=frontpage&hl=en |access-date=26 April 2021 |work=The Glasgow Herald |date=12 June 1987 |page=1}}</ref>

In 1986, his biography of [[Harry S. Truman]] was published and the following year his biography of [[Stanley Baldwin]] was published.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 630.</ref>