Roy Jenkins - Peerage, Books and Subsequent Death

Peerage, Books and Subsequent Death

From 1987, Jenkins remained in politics as a member of the House of Lords as a life peer with the title Baron Jenkins of Hillhead, of Pontypool in the County of Gwent. Also in 1987, Jenkins was elected Chancellor of the University of Oxford. In 1993, he was appointed to the Order of Merit. He was leader of the Liberal Democrats in the Lords until 1997.

In December 1997, he was appointed chair of a Government-appointed Independent Commission on the Voting System, which became known as the "Jenkins Commission", to consider alternative voting systems for the UK. The Jenkins Commission reported in favour of a new uniquely British mixed-member proportional system called "Alternative vote top-up" or "limited AMS" in October 1998, although no action was taken on this recommendation.

Jenkins wrote 19 books, including a biography of Gladstone (1995), which won the 1995 Whitbread Award for Biography, and a much-acclaimed biography of Winston Churchill (2001). His official biographer, Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis, was to have finished the Churchill biography had Jenkins not survived the heart surgery he underwent towards the end of its writing.

Jenkins underwent heart surgery in November 2000, and postponed his 80th birthday celebrations, by having a celebratory party on 7 March 2001. He died on 5 January 2003, aged 82, after suffering a heart attack at his home at East Hendred, in Oxfordshire. At the time of his death he was apparently starting work on a biography of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Roy Jenkins is fondly remembered by Private Eye as having a passion for claret and a distinct inability to pronounce his 'r's. This was clearly shown in their obituary cartoon with the caption: Roy Jenkins, 1920–2003. WIP. Referring to the same, one of the entries in Douglas Adams & John Lloyd's The Meaning of Liff reads "WATH (n.) : The rage of Roy Jenkins." It is believed he was the intended target of the Yes, Minister joke where Jim Hacker, upon being asked for the political implications of becoming an E.U. commissioner, replies: "you're reduced to forming a new party if you ever want to get back in".

Jenkins is seen by many as a key influence on "New Labour", as the Labour Party marketed itself after the election of Tony Blair (who served as prime minister from winning the first of three successive general elections in 1997) in 1994, when the party abandoned many of its long-established policies including nationalisation, nuclear disarmament and unconditional support for the trade unions. He was well regarded by other Labour statesmen including Tony Benn, but came under heavy criticism from others including Denis Healey, who condemned the SDP split as a "disaster" for the Labour Party which prolonged their time in opposition and allowed the Tories to have an unbroken run of nearly 20 years in government. Cardiff University honours the memory of Roy Jenkins by naming one of their halls of residence 'Roy Jenkins Hall' in his memory.