Blair leads tributes to Jenkins

Roy Jenkins was home secretary twice

Prime Minister Tony Blair has led tributes to former Labour Chancellor and Home Secretary Lord Jenkins of Hillhead who has died aged 82.

Mr Blair said Lord Jenkins was "one of the most remarkable people ever to grace British politics".

I will miss him deeply

Tony Blair

He spoke after hearing that his political ally and close friend had collapsed at home in Oxfordshire on Sunday morning.

The prime minister's predecessors Sir Edward Heath and Lord Callaghan were also among those who praised Lord Jenkins' political stature, his biographical work and friendship.

After serving twice as home secretary in a Labour Government, Lord Jenkins was one of the "Gang of Four" who formed the breakaway Social Democratic Party in 1981.

A statement issued by Lord Jenkins' family on Sunday said that Dame Jennifer Jenkins, Charles, Cynthia and Edward were "very sad to announce" that their husband and father had collapsed and died at home.

Supportive friend

Mr Blair praised his friend as a "man of reason", saying: "I will miss him deeply."

Lord Jenkins' influence on British politics was "as great as many who held the office of prime minister," he said.

Lord Jenkins co-founded the SDP

"He was a friend and support to me and someone I was proud to know as a politician and as a human being".

Former Labour Prime Minister Lord Callaghan said: "He was one of the outstanding statesmen of his era."

And Sir Edward Heath, former Tory prime minister, said: "Roy Jenkins was one of the most distinguished politicians of his generation in Britain and then in Europe".

Lord Owen, a co-founder of the SDP, said: "He was by any standards a major political figure and historical figure in the context of the last century."

'A great man'

Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith said: "He was a big political figure and his passing is a sad moment."

Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy said: "Roy Jenkins was a great man and a great personal friend."

Lord Jenkins' 50-year political career began after serving in the Royal Artillery.

In 1965, he became home secretary under Harold Wilson.

He oversaw radical social reforms on divorce, abortion, homosexuality and penal reform, earning himself the title "the architect of the permissive society" in the press.

After further stints at the Treasury and the Home Office, he campaigned in a referendum to keep Britain in the Common Market and was rewarded with the presidency of the European Commission in 1976.

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In 1981 he joined Shirley Williams, Dr Owen and Bill Rodgers to break with the Labour Party and set up the SDP.

He was regarded by some in Labour as a traitor, accused of pushing the party further into the wilderness when the Conservatives were dominant in British politics.

Lord Healey, a former Labour Chancellor who studied with him at Oxford University, said: "Without Roy, Thatcher would really never have happened."

Lord Jenkins led the new party for a year and fought the 1983 election alongside the Liberals as the Alliance, winning a quarter of the votes.

But he lost his seat in 1987 and was elevated to the House of Lords.

He saw Mr Blair as the natural heir to his brand of politics, but was ultimately disappointed with what he saw as a lack of progress on voting reform and British membership of the euro.

Lord Jenkins had also recently written an acclaimed work on the life of Winston Churchill.