Roy Jenkins: the frustrations of pro-European constancy

Roy Jenkins was the most consistently pro-European politician covered in this volume. This brought him early prominence, was of some importance in Labour’s turn to Europe during the late 1960s, proved crucial during the key 1971 parliamentary vote on membership and during the 1975 referendum campaign and explains his four-year stint as European Commission president. But it also complicated and ultimately broke his relationship with the Labour Party, causing clashes with Gaitskell, Wilson and Callaghan, and encouraging his move to form the breakaway SDP. This chapter will explore why Jenkins believed so passionately in Britain’s European participation and why, unlike so many other Labour politicians, he refused to temper or trim these beliefs.