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Neil Kinnock
Welsh politician (born 1942) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock PC (born 28 March 1942) is a Welsh politician who was Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 1983 to 1992.[1] He was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1970 to 1995, first for Bedwellty and then for Islwyn. He was Vice-President of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004. Kinnock was positioned on the soft left of the Labour Party.
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Born and raised in South Wales, Kinnock was first elected to the House of Commons in the 1970 general election. He became the Labour Party's shadow education minister after the Conservatives won power in the 1979 general election. After the party under Michael Foot suffered a landslide defeat to Margaret Thatcher in the 1983 election, Kinnock was elected Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition. During his tenure as leader, Kinnock proceeded to fight the party's left wing, especially the Militant tendency, and he opposed NUM leader Arthur Scargill's methods in the 1984–1985 miners' strike. He led the party during most of the Thatcher government, which included its third successive election defeat when Thatcher won the 1987 general election. Although Thatcher had won another landslide, Labour regained sufficient seats for Kinnock to remain Leader of the Opposition following the election.
Kinnock led the Labour Party to a surprise fourth consecutive defeat at the 1992 general election, despite the party being ahead of John Major's Conservative government in most opinion polls, which had predicted either a narrow Labour victory or a hung parliament. Shortly afterwards, he resigned as Leader of the Labour Party; he was succeeded in the ensuing leadership election by John Smith. He left the House of Commons in 1995 to become a European commissioner. He went on to become Vice-President of the European Commission under Romano Prodi from 1999 to 2004, before being elevated to the House of Lords as Baron Kinnock in 2005. Until the summer of 2009, he was also the chairman of the British Council and the president of Cardiff University.[2]
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Early life
Kinnock, an only child, was born in Tredegar, Wales on Saturday, 28 March 1942.[3] His father, Gordon Herbert Kinnock, was a former coal miner who later worked as a labourer, whilst his mother, Mary Kinnock (née Howells), was a district nurse.[4][5][6] Gordon died of a heart attack in November 1971 at the age of 64,[7] with Mary dying the following month at 61.[7]
In 1953, aged eleven, Kinnock began his secondary education at Lewis School, Pengam, an institution he later criticised for its record on corporal punishment. He went on to the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire in Cardiff (now Cardiff University), where he graduated in 1965 with a degree in Industrial Relations and History. The following year, Kinnock obtained a postgraduate diploma in education. From August 1966 to May 1970, he worked as a tutor for a Workers' Educational Association (WEA).[8]
He married Glenys Kinnock in 1967. They have two children – son Stephen Kinnock (born January 1970, now a Labour MP), and daughter Rachel Nerys Helen Kinnock (born 11 December 1971).[9][10] Glenys died on 3 December 2023.
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Member of Parliament
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In June 1969, Kinnock secured the Labour Party nomination for the Bedwellty constituency in South Wales, which was redesignated as Islwyn before the 1983 general election. He was first elected to the House of Commons on 18 June 1970, and became a member of the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party in October 1978. Upon his election as an MP, his father advised him: "Remember Neil, MP stands not just for Member of Parliament, but also for Man of Principle."
In the 1975 referendum on Britain's membership of the European Communities, Kinnock campaigned for Britain to leave the Common Market.[11] Following Labour's defeat at the 1979 general election, James Callaghan appointed Kinnock to the Shadow cabinet as education spokesman. His ambition was noted by parliamentary colleagues, with David Owen's opposition to electoral college reforms attributed to concerns that such changes would favour Kinnocks' eventual succession to the leadership. Kinnock remained as education spokesman following the resignation of Callaghan as Leader of the Labour Party and the election of Michael Foot as his successor in late 1980.
In 1981, while still serving as Labour's education spokesman, Kinnock was alleged to have effectively scuppered Tony Benn's attempt to replace Denis Healey as Labour's Deputy Leader by first supporting the candidacy of the more traditionalist Tribunite John Silkin and then urging Silkin supporters to abstain on the second, run-off, ballot.
Kinnock was known as a left-winger, and gained prominence for his attacks on Margaret Thatcher's handling of the Falklands War in 1982.
During the 1983 United Kingdom general election campaign, Kinnock delivered one of his most memorable speeches attacking the Conservative government's policies. Speaking in Bridgend just days before polling, his stark warning about the consequences of a Thatcher victory became emblematic of Labour's campaign message and helped establish Kinnock's reputation as a formidable orator:
If Margaret Thatcher wins on Thursday, I warn you not to be ordinary. I warn you not to be young. I warn you not to fall ill. And I warn you not to grow old.[12]
Despite such passionate campaigning, Labour suffered a devastating defeat, winning only 209 seats and securing just 27.6% of the vote. The party's poor performance led to Michael Foot's resignation as leader, setting the stage for Kinnock's leadership bid later that year.
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Leadership of the Labour Party
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First period (1983–1987)
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Following Labour's landslide defeat at the 1983 general election, Michael Foot resigned as Leader of the Labour Party aged 69, and from the outset; it was expected that the much younger Kinnock would succeed him. He was finally elected as Labour Party leader on 2 October 1983, with 71% of the vote, and Roy Hattersley was elected as his deputy; their prospective partnership was considered to be a "dream ticket".[13]
His first period as party leader between the 1983 and 1987 general elections was dominated by his struggle with the hard-left Militant tendency, then still a dominant force in the party. Kinnock was determined to move the party's political standing to a more centrist position, in order to improve its chances of winning a future general election.[14] Although Kinnock had come from the Tribune left wing of the party, he parted company with a number of his former allies following his appointment to the Shadow Cabinet.
The Labour Party was also threatened by the rise of the Social Democratic Party/Liberal Alliance, which pulled out more centrist adherents. On a broader perspective, the traditional Labour voter was disappearing[citation needed] in the face of de-industrialisation that the Conservative government had accepted since 1979.[citation needed] Kinnock focused on modernising the party, and upgrading its technical skills such as use of the media and keeping track of voters, while at the same time battling the Militants. Under his leadership, the Labour Party abandoned unpopular old positions, especially the nationalisation of certain industries, although this process was not completed until future party leader Tony Blair revamped Clause IV in the party's manifesto in 1995. He stressed economic growth, which had a much broader appeal to the middle class than the idea of redistributing wealth to benefit the poor. He accepted membership in the European Economic Community, whereas the party had pledged immediate withdrawal from it under Michael Foot. He discarded the rhetoric of class warfare.[15]
These actions meant that Kinnock had made plenty of enemies on the left wing of the party by the time he was elected as leader, though a substantial number of former Bennites gave him strong support. He was almost immediately in serious difficulty as a result of Arthur Scargill's decision to lead his union, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) into a national strike (in opposition to pit closures) without a nationwide ballot. The NUM was widely regarded as the labour movement's praetorian guard and the strike convulsed the Labour movement.[who?] Kinnock supported the aim of the strike – which he dubbed the "case for coal" – but, as an MP from a mining area, was bitterly critical of the tactics employed. When heckled at a Labour Party rally for referring to the killing of David Wilkie as "an outrage", Kinnock lost his temper and accused the hecklers of "living like parasites off the struggle of the miners" and implied that Scargill had lied to the striking miners.[16] In 1985, he made his criticisms public in a speech to Labour's conference:[17]
The strike wore on. The violence built up because the single tactic chosen was that of mass picketing, and so we saw policing on a scale and with a system that has never been seen in Britain before. The court actions came, and by the attitude to the court actions, the NUM leadership ensured that they would face crippling damages as a consequence. To the question: "How did this position arise?", the man from the lodge in my constituency said: "It arose because nobody really thought it out."
In 2004, Kinnock said of Scargill, "Oh I detest him. I did then, I do now, and it's mutual. He hates me as well. And I'd much prefer to have his savage hatred than even the merest hint of friendship from that man."[18] Kinnock blamed Scargill for some of the mine closures.[19]
The strike's defeat early in the year,[20] and the bad publicity associated with the entryism practised by the Trotskyist Militant group were the immediate context for the 1985 Labour Party conference.[21] Earlier in the year, left-wing councils had protested at Government restriction of their budgets by refusing to set budgets, resulting in a budget crisis in the Militant-dominated Liverpool City Council. Kinnock attacked Militant and their conduct in a speech delivered at the conference:
I'll tell you what happens with impossible promises. You start with far-fetched resolutions. They are then pickled into a rigid dogma, a code, and you go through the years sticking to that, outdated, misplaced, irrelevant to the real needs, and you end in 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 ... I am telling you, no matter how entertaining, how fulfilling to short-term egos – you can't play politics with people's jobs and with people's services or with their homes.[22]
One Liverpool MP, Eric Heffer, a member of the NEC left the conference stage in disgust at Kinnock's comments.[23] In June 1986, the Labour Party finally expelled the deputy leader of Liverpool council, the high-profile Militant supporter Derek Hatton, who was found guilty of "manipulating the rules of the district Labour party".[24] By 1986, the party's position appeared to strengthen further with excellent local election results and a thorough rebranding of the party under the direction of Kinnock's director of communications Peter Mandelson, as well as seizing the Fulham seat in West London from the Conservatives at an April by-election.[25] Labour, now sporting a continental social democratic style emblem of a rose (replacing the party's first logo, the Liberty logo), appeared to be able to run the governing Conservatives close, but Margaret Thatcher did not let Labour's makeover go unchallenged.
The Conservatives's 1986 conference was well-managed, and effectively relaunched the Conservatives as a party of radical free-market economic liberalism. Labour suffered from a persistent image of extremism, especially as Kinnock's campaign to root out Militant dragged on as figures on the hard left of the party tried to stop its progress. Opinion polls showed that voters favoured retaining the United Kingdom's nuclear weapons, (Labour's policy, supported by Kinnock, was of unilateral nuclear disarmament), and believed that the Conservatives would be better than Labour at defending the country.[26]
1987 general election
In early 1987, Labour lost a by-election in Greenwich to the SDP's Rosie Barnes. As a result, Labour faced the 1987 general election in some danger of finishing third in the popular vote, with the Conservatives once again expected to secure a comfortable victory. In secret, Labour's aim was to secure second place in order to remain as Official Opposition.[27]
Mandelson and his team had revolutionised Labour's communications – a transformation symbolised by a party election broadcast popularly known as "Kinnock: The Movie".[28] Directed by Hugh Hudson, the broadcast featured Kinnock's 1985 conference speech and scenes of him and his wife Glenys walking on the Great Orme in Llandudno, imagery designed to emphasise his appeal as a family man whilst connecting with a broader Welsh identiy beyond the mining communities of his upbringing, and a speech to that year's Welsh Labour Party conference asking why he was the "first Kinnock in a thousand generations" to go to university.
On polling day, Labour easily took second place, but with only a 31% share of the vote to the SDP-Liberal Alliance's 22%.[29] Labour was still more than ten percentage points behind the Conservatives, who retained a three-figure majority in the House of Commons. However, the Conservative government's majority had come down from 144 seats in 1983 to 102.[30] Significantly, Labour had gained twenty seats at the election.[31]
Labour won extra seats in Scotland, Wales and Northern England, but lost ground particularly in Southern England and London, where the Conservatives still dominated. The Conservatives also regained the Fulham seat which it had lost to Labour at a by-election just over a year earlier.
Second period (1987–1992)
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A few months after the general election, Kinnock gained brief attention in the United States in August 1987 when it was discovered that then-US Senator Joe Biden of Delaware (and future 46th President) plagiarised one of Kinnock's speeches during his 1988 presidential campaign in a speech at a Democratic Party debate in Iowa.[32] This led to Biden's withdrawal of his presidential campaign.[33] The two men met after the incident, forming a lasting friendship.[34]
The second period of Kinnock's leadership was dominated by his drive to reform the party's policies to gain office. This began with an exercise dubbed the policy review, the most high-profile aspect of which was a series of consultations with the public known as "Labour Listens" in the autumn of 1987.[35]
Following Labour Listens, the party went on, in 1988, to produce a new statement of aims and values—meant to supplement and supplant the formulation of Clause IV of the party's constitution (though, crucially, this was not actually replaced until 1995 under the leadership of Tony Blair) and was closely modelled on Anthony Crosland's social-democratic thinking—emphasising equality rather than public ownership. At the same time, the Labour Party's commitment to unilateral nuclear disarmament was dropped, and reforms of Party Conference and the National Executive meant that local parties lost much of their ability to influence policy.
In 1988, Kinnock was challenged by Tony Benn for the party leadership. Later some[who?] identified this as a particularly low period in Kinnock's leadership — as he appeared mired in internal battles after five years of leadership with the Conservatives still dominating the scene, and being ahead in the opinion polls. In the end, though, Kinnock won a decisive victory over Benn and would soon enjoy a substantial rise in support.[36]
The policy review — reporting in 1989 —coincided with Labour's move ahead in the polls as the poll tax row was destroying Conservative support, and Labour won big victories in local council elections as well as several parliamentary by-elections during 1989 and 1990. Labour overtook the Conservatives at the 1989 European elections, winning 40% of the vote; the first time Labour had finished in first place at a national election in fifteen years.
In December 1989, Kinnock abandoned the Labour policy on closed shops—a decision seen by some[who?] as a move away from traditional socialist policies to a more European-wide agenda, and also a move to rid the party of its image of being run by trade unions.[37][38]
Michael Heseltine challenged Thatcher's leadership and she resigned on 28 November 1990 to be succeeded by then-Chancellor of the Exchequer, John Major. Kinnock greeted Thatcher's resignation by describing it as "very good news" and demanded an immediate general election.[39]
Public reaction to Major's elevation was highly positive. A new Prime Minister and the fact that Kinnock was now the longest-serving current leader of a major party reduced the impact of calls for "Time for a Change". Neil Kinnock's showing in the opinion polls dipped; before Thatcher's resignation, Labour had been up to 10 points ahead of the Conservatives in the opinion polls (an Ipsos MORI poll in April 1990 had actually shown Labour as being more than 20 points ahead of the Conservatives), but multiple opinion polls were actually showing the Conservatives with a higher amount of support than Labour, in spite of the deepening recession.[40]
By now Militant had finally been routed in the party, and their two MPs were expelled at the end of 1991, in addition to a number of supporters. The majority in the group were now disenchanted with entryism, and chose to function outside Labour's ranks, forming the Socialist Party.[citation needed]
1992 general election
In the three years leading up to the 1992 general election, Labour had consistently topped the opinion polls, with 1991 seeing the Conservatives (rejuvenated by the arrival of a new leader with John Major the previous November) snatch the lead from Labour more than once before Labour regained it. The rise in Conservative support came in spite of the economic recession and sharp rise in unemployment which affected Britain in 1991.[41] Since Major's election as Leader of the Conservative Party (and becoming Prime Minister), Kinnock had spent the end of 1990[42] and most of 1991 putting pressure on Major to call a general election that year, but Major had held out and by the autumn he had insisted that there would be no general election in 1991.[43]
Labour had gained four seats from the Conservatives in by-elections since the 1987 general election, having initially suffered disappointing results in some by-elections, namely a loss of the Govan constituency in Glasgow to the Scottish National Party in November 1988. However, by the end of 1991, the Conservative majority still stood at 88 seats and Labour needed to win more than ninety new seats to gain an overall majority, although there was still the hope of forming a minority or coalition government if Labour failed to win a majority. In the run-up to the election, held on 9 April 1992, most opinion polls had suggested that the election would result in either a hung parliament or a small Labour majority.[44]
At the 1992 general election, Labour made progress – reducing the Conservatives' majority to just 21 seats. It came as a shock to some[who?] when the Conservatives won a majority, but the 'triumphalism' perceived by some observers of a Labour Party rally in Sheffield (together with Kinnock's performance on the podium) may have helped put floating voters off.[45] Although internal polls[45] suggested no impact, while public polls suggested a decline in support had already occurred,[46] most of those directly involved in the campaign believe that the rally only came to widespread attention after the electoral defeat itself,[47] with Kinnock himself changing his mind to a rejection of its negative impact over time.[48][49] In an essay exploring why Kinnock never became Prime Minister, Steve Richards notes that the impact of the rally on the 1992 election "acquired a mythological status as fatal event" after Labour's defeat. He further argues that this explanation is "a red herring" and that the same result would have happened without the rally.[50]
On the day of the general election, The Sun newspaper ran a front page featuring Kinnock with the headline 'If Kinnock wins today, will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights.'[51] In his resignation speech, Kinnock blamed The Sun for Labour losing the election, along with other right-wing media sections who had backed the Conservatives in the run-up to the election.[52] The following day's headline in The Sun was 'It's The Sun Wot Won It', which Rupert Murdoch – years later, at his April 2012 appearance before the Leveson Inquiry – stated was both 'tasteless and wrong' and led to the editor Kelvin MacKenzie receiving a reprimand.[51]
The Labour-supporting Daily Mirror had backed Kinnock for the 1987 general election[53] and did so again in 1992.[54] Less expected was the Financial Times backing Kinnock at the 1992 general election.[55]
Kinnock himself later claimed to have half-expected his defeat at the 1992 general election and proceeded to turn himself into a media personality, hosting a chat show on BBC Wales and twice appearing on the topical panel show Have I Got News for You within a year of the defeat. A number of years later, he returned to appear as a guest host of the programme.
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Post-parliamentary career
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Kinnock announced his resignation as Leader of the Labour Party on 13 April 1992, ending nearly a decade in the role. John Smith, previously Shadow Chancellor, was elected on 18 July as his successor.[56]
Kinnock remained on the Advisory Council of the Institute for Public Policy Research, which he helped set up in the 1980s.
Kinnock was an enthusiastic supporter of Ed Miliband's campaign for the Leadership of the Labour Party in 2010, and was reported as telling activists, when Miliband won, "We've got our party back" – although Miliband, like Kinnock, failed to lead the party back into government, and resigned after the Conservatives were re-elected with a small majority in 2015. Labour received their lowest seat tally under Miliband since the 1987 general election; when Kinnock was leader at that time.[57]
In 2011, he participated in the Welsh family history television programme Coming Home where he discovered hitherto unknown information about his family.[58]
European Union Commissioner
Kinnock was appointed one of the UK's two members of the European Commission, which he served first as Transport Commissioner under President Jacques Santer, in early 1995; marking the end of his 25 years in the House of Commons.[59] This appointment occurred less than a year after the death of his successor John Smith and Tony Blair's subsequent election as party leader.[60]
He was obliged to resign as part of the forced, collective resignation of the Commission in 1999. He was re-appointed to the Commission under new President Romano Prodi. He now became one of the Vice-Presidents of the European Commission, with responsibility for Administrative Reform and the Audit, Linguistics and Logistics Directorates General.[61] His term of office as a Commissioner was due to expire on 30 October 2004, but was delayed owing to the withdrawal of the new Commissioners. During his second Commission term, he oversaw the introduction of new staff regulations for EU officials, which included substantial salary reductions for staff employed after 1 May 2004, reduced pension entitlements for existing employees, and revised employment conditions. These reforms generated significant opposition among EU staff, though the budgetary pressures driving the changes had been mandated by Member States through the Council.
In February 2004, it was announced that with effect from 1 November 2004, Kinnock would become head of the British Council. Coincidentally, at the same time, his son Stephen became head of the British Council branch in Saint Petersburg, Russia. At the end of October, it was announced that he would become a Member of the House of Lords (intending to be a working peer), when he was able to leave his EU responsibilities. In 1977, he had remained in the House of Commons, with Dennis Skinner, while other MPs walked to the Lords to hear the Queen's speech opening the new parliament. He had dismissed going to the Lords in recent interviews. Kinnock explained his change of attitude, despite the continuing presence of ninety hereditary peers and appointment by patronage, by asserting that the Lords was a good base for campaigning.
Life peerage
On 28 January 2005, he was created a life peer as Baron Kinnock, of Bedwellty in the County of Gwent,[62] and was introduced to the House of Lords on 31 January 2005.[63] On assuming his seat, he stated: "I accepted the kind invitation to enter the House of Lords as a working peer for practical political reasons." When his peerage was first announced, he said: "It will give me the opportunity ... to contribute to the national debate on issues like higher education, research, Europe and foreign policy."
His peerage meant that the Labour and Conservative parties were equal in numbers in the upper house of Parliament (subsequently the number of Labour members overtook the number of Conservative members for multiple years). Kinnock was a long-time critic of the House of Lords, and his acceptance of a peerage led him to be accused of hypocrisy, by Will Self,[64] among others.[65]
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Early political positions
Kinnock's early political career was characterised by firmly left-wing positions typical of the Tribune Group within the Labour Party. Political observers described him as holding left-wing views on most matters and talking in the language of the radical post-Bevan left.[66] By 1974, he was described as a vocal advocate of the standard left-wing position on nuclear weapons, the Common Market, public ownership, incomes policy, and arms embargoes to South Africa, Chile, and El Salvador.[66]
During the 1970s, Kinnock was a fierce critic of the Labour governments of Harold Wilson and James Callaghan. He rejected offers of ministerial positions on ideological grounds, with one Conservative newspaper labelling him a "left wing fanatic" in 1978.[67] In December 1974, he wrote an article on nationalisation in Labour Monthly, delivering a bitter criticism of the capitalist system.[66] In 1978, at the Labour National Executive Committee, he advocated for reflation, increased spending on health, job-swap schemes, better housing, and ending stock relief for businesses.[66]
After the Labour government's defeat in 1979, Kinnock condemned it with the words: "For the third time the Labour Party had saved capitalism, and lost."[66] As late as October 1984, after becoming party leader, he was still describing the market system as short-sighted and speculative, arguing it would never produce the plenty necessary to meet human need.[66]
Anti-apartheid activism
Kinnock was heavily involved in anti-apartheid activism from his university days. At Cardiff University, he organised protests against apartheid in South Africa and campaigned for the release of Nelson Mandela.[68] This activism continued throughout his parliamentary career, and he was later awarded the Order of the Companions of O.R. Tambo by South Africa for his "excellent contribution to constantly speaking the truth during the apartheid period" and for fighting for Mandela's release whilst supporting those in exile.[69]
Welsh identity and devolution
Kinnock is a supporter of Welsh devolution, with proposals for a Welsh Assembly included in the Labour Party's 1992 manifesto when he was leader. However, in the build up to the 1979 Welsh devolution referendum, the Labour government was in favour of devolution for Wales. Kinnock was among only six South Wales MPs who opposed devolution, supporting an amendment to the Wales Act requiring not merely a simple majority, but also support from 40% of the entire electorate. He later clarified that he supports devolution in principle, but found the proposed settlement at the time as failing to address the economic disparities in the UK, particularly following the closure of coal mines in Wales.[70] In 2023, Kinnock supported a paper outlining an expanded devolution settlement by Centre Think Tank called "Devolution Revolution" which he described as offering a clear route map towards workable and fair devolution for the whole of the UK.[71][72]
Kinnock has often referred to himself as a unionist.[citation needed]
Evolution from left to centre
Kinnock's political journey from the left wing to a more centrist position became evident during his leadership of the Labour Party. By October 1988, he was telling Labour Party conference delegates of his intention to work within the market economy, stating that even after years of Labour government implementation, there would still be a market economy.[66] This represented a significant shift from his earlier position that the market system could never produce sufficient plenty to meet human needs.[66]
The transformation accelerated with the Policy Review process after 1987, where Kinnock moved the party away from traditional socialist policies. He was instrumental in abandoning the party's commitment to widespread nationalisation and unilateral nuclear disarmament, instead embracing a social democratic approach modelled on Anthony Crosland's thinking, which emphasised equality rather than public ownership.[citation needed] Kinnock was a member and frequent speaker for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in his early political career.[73] As Labour leader, he initially supported the party's policy of unilateral nuclear disarmament. However, by 1989 he had abandoned this position, later acknowledging that he had been misguided in his early support for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.[74] In 2015, he warned Jeremy Corbyn that the British people would not vote for unilateral disarmament.[75]
Economic and taxation policy
Kinnock has consistently advocated for progressive taxation, particularly wealth taxes. In 2025, he called for a 2% annual wealth tax on assets above £10 million, which he argued would raise over £12 billion annually.[76] He has also suggested removing VAT exemptions on private healthcare to provide funding for public services.[77]
However, Kinnock has warned against raising income tax, arguing that this would burden people whose real incomes have stagnated over recent decades.[76] On nationalisation, Kinnock has evolved from his early left-wing positions. In 2022, he described nationalisation as a means for operation rather than a political or economic end, and supported Gordon Brown's call for temporary nationalisation of energy firms unable to offer decreased prices, though he questioned the word "temporary".[78]
Social policy and welfare
In 2025, Kinnock called for the government to scrap the two-child limit, describing rising levels of child poverty as something that would make Charles Dickens furious. He suggested such measures could be funded by a wealth tax on the top 1% of earners, describing his approach as the economics of Robin Hood.[79]
Immigration and demographics
Kinnock supports controlled immigration whilst recognising demographic realities. He argues that all countries must have effective control of their borders but emphasises that the UK's rapidly ageing population means extending welcome to people with relevant skills will be necessary for economic prosperity.[76] He has criticised the inclusion of university students in immigration statistics, describing this practice as incompetent and misleading since most students return to their home countries or work elsewhere after graduation.[76]
On the broader immigration debate, Kinnock has stated that whilst immigration is fundamental to addressing demographic challenges, open borders are impossible in a world unbalanced by climate change and asymmetrical economics, requiring managed migration balanced by the development of domestic skills.[80]
Defence and foreign policy
Kinnock favours defence bonds to finance increased defence expenditure, citing their successful use in financing previous conflicts. He believes that the UK has been engaged in an undeclared technological and propaganda war waged by Russia and, to a considerable extent, China.[76]
Brexit
Kinnock strongly opposed Brexit. In 2018, Kinnock stated that Britain could either take the risks and costs of leaving the EU or have the stability, growth and revenues vital for crucial public services like the NHS and social care, and argued for stopping Brexit to save the NHS or seeking European Economic Area membership.[81]
Contemporary political strategy
Kinnock has been highly critical of Labour's approach to combating Reform UK, describing elements within the party encouraging appeasement as fundamentally wrong. He argues that if people are offered two versions of a particular political brand, they will always choose the genuine one, and believes accomplishment in government is the best way to counter populist politics.[76]
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Personal life
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Kinnock met Glenys Kinnock (née Parry) in the early 1960s whilst studying at University College, Cardiff, where they were known as "the power and the glory" - with Glenys characterised as "the power" - and married on 25 March 1967.[82] His wife was the UK's Minister for Africa and the United Nations from 2009–2010, and a Labour Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1994–2009. Her elevation to the peerage in 2009 made them among the few married couples to hold hereditary or life titles independently. Previously living together in Peterston-super-Ely, a village near the western outskirts of Cardiff, in 2008 they relocated to Tufnell Park, London, to be closer to their daughter and grandchildren.[83] Glenys' death was announced on 3 December 2023.[84]
They have a son, Stephen and a daughter, Rachel.[85] Neil Kinnock, through his son Stephen, is also the father-in-law of Helle Thorning-Schmidt who was Prime Minister of Denmark from 2011 to 2015.
On 26 April 2006, Kinnock was given a six-month driving ban after being found guilty of two speeding offences along the M4 motorway, west of London.[86]
Kinnock is a Cardiff City F.C. fan and regularly attends matches.[87] He is also a follower of rugby union and supports London Welsh RFC at club level, regularly attending Wales games.[88]
He was portrayed by both Chris Barrie and Steve Coogan in the satirical TV programme Spitting Image, and by Euan Cuthbertson in the Scottish film In Search of La Che.[89]
In 2014, Lord Kinnock was painted by artist Edward Sutcliffe. The portrait was exhibited at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition that year.[90]
Kinnock has been described as an agnostic[91] and an atheist.[92][93] He is a Patron of Humanists UK.[94]
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