Editing Roy Jenkins (section)

==Home Secretary (1974–1976)==
When Labour returned to power in early 1974, Jenkins was appointed Home Secretary for the second time. Earlier, he had been promised the treasury; however, Wilson later decided to appoint [[Denis Healey]] as Chancellor instead. Upon hearing from [[Bernard Donoughue]] that Wilson had reneged on his promise, Jenkins reacted angrily. Despite being on a public staircase, he is reported to have shouted "You tell [[Harold Wilson]] he must bloody well come to see me&nbsp;...and if he doesn't watch out, I won't join his bloody government&nbsp;... This is typical of the bloody awful way Harold Wilson does things!"<ref>Bernard Donoughue, ''Downing Street Diary: With Harold Wilson in No 10'' (London: Jonathan Cape, 2005), p. 53.</ref><ref name="Sandbrook">{{cite book|title=State of Emergency – The Way We Were: Britain 1970–1974|first=Dominic|last= Sandbrook|year=2010|isbn=978-1-84614-031-0|publisher=[[Allen Lane]]}}, p. 644.</ref> The Jenkinsites were dismayed by Jenkins' refusal to insist upon the Chancellorship and began to look elsewhere for leadership, thus ending the Jenkinsites as a united group.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 415–418.</ref>

Jenkins served from 1974 to 1976. Whereas during his first period as Home Secretary in the 1960s the atmosphere had been optimistic and confident, the climate of the 1970s was much more fractious and disillusioned.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 420.</ref> After two Northern Irish sisters, [[Marian Price]] and [[Dolours Price]], were imprisoned for 20 years for the [[1973 Old Bailey bombing]], they went on hunger strike in order to be transferred to a prison in Northern Ireland.<ref name="Campbell, p. 423">Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 423.</ref> In a television broadcast in June 1974, Jenkins announced that he would refuse to give in to their demands, although in March 1975 he discreetly transferred them to a Northern Irish prison.<ref name="Campbell, p. 423"/>

He undermined his previous liberal credentials to some extent by pushing through the controversial [[Prevention of Terrorism Act (Northern Ireland)|Prevention of Terrorism Act]] in the aftermath of the [[Birmingham pub bombings]] of November 1974, which, among other things, extended the length of time suspects could be held in custody and instituted exclusion orders.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 425.</ref> Jenkins also resisted calls for the death penalty to be restored for terrorist murderers.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 426–427.</ref> On 4 December he told the Cabinet committee on Northern Ireland that "everything he heard made him more convinced that Northern Ireland had nothing to do with the rest of the UK".<ref>Donoughue, ''Downing Street Diary'', p. 254.</ref> When reviewing [[Garret FitzGerald]]'s memoirs in 1991, Jenkins proclaimed: "My natural prejudices, such as they are, are much more green than orange. I am a poor unionist, believing intuitively that even [[Ian Paisley|Paisley]] and [[Charles Haughey|Haughey]] are better at dealing with each other than the English are with either".<ref>Roy Jenkins, ''Portraits and Miniatures: Selected Writings'' (London: Macmillan, 1993), pp. 310–311.</ref>

The [[Sex Discrimination Act 1975]] (which legislated for gender equality and set up the [[Equal Opportunities Commission (United Kingdom)|Equal Opportunities Commission]]) and the [[Race Relations Act 1976]] (which extended to private clubs the outlawing of racial discrimination and founded the [[Commission for Racial Equality]]) were two notable achievements during his second time as Home Secretary.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 422, pp. 428–429.</ref>

Jenkins opposed Michael Foot's attempts to grant pickets the right to stop lorries during strikes and he was dismayed by Anthony Crosland's decision to grant an amnesty to the 11 Labour councillors at [[Clay Cross#Housing Finance Act dispute|Clay Cross]] who had been surcharged for refusing to increase council rents in accordance with the Conservatives' Housing Finance Act 1972.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 432.</ref> After two trade unionists, [[Ricky Tomlinson]] and [[Des Warren]] (known as the "[[Shrewsbury Two]]"), were imprisoned for intimidation and affray for their part in a strike, Jenkins refused to accede to demands from the labour movement that they should be released. This demonstrated Jenkins' increasing estrangement from much of the labour movement and for a time he was heckled in public by people chanting "Free the Two".<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 433.</ref> Jenkins also unsuccessfully tried to persuade the Cabinet to adopt electoral reform in the form of [[proportional representation]] and to have the [[Official Secrets Act 1911]] liberalised to facilitate more [[open government]].<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 434–435, p. 467.</ref>

Although becoming increasingly disillusioned during this time by what he considered the party's drift to the left, he was the leading Labour figure in the [[1975 United Kingdom European Communities membership referendum|EEC referendum]] of June 1975 (and was also president of the 'Yes' campaign). In September 1974 he had followed [[Shirley Williams]] in stating that he "could not stay in a Cabinet which had to carry out withdrawal" from the EEC.<ref>David Wood, 'Mr Jenkins says he too would resign if Britain decided to leave EEC', ''The Times'' (27 September 1974), p. 1.</ref> During the referendum campaign, Tony Benn claimed that 500,000 jobs had been lost due to Britain's membership; Jenkins replied on 27 May that "I find it increasingly difficult to take Mr Benn seriously as an economics minister".<ref>George Clark, 'Mr Wilson joins in criticism of Mr Benn's figures', ''The Times'' (28 May 1975), p. 1.</ref> He added that Britain outside the EEC would enter "an old people's home for fading nations. ... I do not even think it would be a comfortable or agreeable old people's home. I do not much like the look of some of the prospective wardens".<ref>Roger Berthoud, 'Mr Jenkins sees cold world outside Nine', ''The Times'' (28 May 1975), p. 3.</ref> The two men debated Britain's membership together on ''Panorama'', which was chaired by [[David Dimbleby]].<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 447.</ref> According to David Butler and [[Uwe Kitzinger]], "they achieved a decidedly more lucid and intricate level of discussion than is commonly seen on political television".<ref>David Butler and Uwe Kitzinger, ''The 1975 Referendum'' (London: Macmillan, 1976), p. 205.</ref> Jenkins found it congenial to work with the centrists of all parties in the campaign and the 'Yes' campaign won by two to one.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 448.</ref>

After the referendum, Wilson demoted Benn to Energy Secretary and attempted to balance the downgrading of Benn with the dismissal of the right-wing minister [[Reg Prentice]] from the Department of Education, despite already promising Jenkins that he had no intention of sacking Prentice. Jenkins threatened to resign if Prentice was sacked, telling Wilson that he was "a squalid little man who was using squalid little arguments in order to explain why he was performing so much below the level of events".<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 450.</ref> Wilson quickly backed down.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 451.</ref> In September Jenkins delivered a speech in Prentice's constituency of [[Newham]] to demonstrate solidarity with him after he was threatened with deselection by left-wingers in the constituency party. Jenkins was heckled by both far-left and far-right demonstrators and he was hit in the chest by a flour bomb thrown by a member of the [[National Front (UK)|National Front]].<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 452.</ref> Jenkins warned that if Prentice was deselected "it is not just the local party that is undermining its own foundations by ignoring the beliefs and feelings of ordinary people, the whole legitimate Labour Party, left as well as right, is crippled if extremists have their way". He added that if "tolerance is shattered formidable consequences will follow. Labour MPs will either have to become creatures of cowardice, concealing their views, trimming their sails, accepting orders, stilling their consciences, or they will all have to be men far far to the left of those whose votes they seek. Either would make a mockery of parliamentary democracy".<ref>Michael Hatfield and David Leigh, 'Mr Jenkins attacked from right and left at Prentice rally', ''The Times'' (12 September 1975), p. 1.</ref>

In January 1976, he further distanced himself from the left with a speech in [[Anglesey]], where he repudiated ever-higher public spending: "I do not think you can push public expenditure significantly above 60 per cent [of GNP] and maintain the values of a plural society with adequate freedom of choice. We are here close to one of the frontiers of social democracy".<ref>Michael Hatfield, 'Inflation fight goes on, Mr Jenkins tells left', ''The Times'' (24 January 1976), p. 2.</ref> A former supporter, Roy Hattersley, distanced himself from Jenkins after this speech.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 454.</ref><ref>Susan Crosland, ''Tony Crosland'' (London: Coronet, 1983), p. 315.</ref>

In May 1976, he told the [[Police Federation of England and Wales|Police Federation]] conference to "be prepared first to look at the evidence and to recognize how little the widespread use of prison reduces our crime or deals effectively with many of the individuals concerned".<ref name="Times1976">Peter Evans, 'Plain speaking from Mr Jenkins and the police on measures to reduce worsening crime', ''The Times'' (19 May 1976), p. 5.</ref> He also responded to the Federation's proposals on law and order: "I respect your right to put them to me. You will no doubt respect my right to tell you that I do not think all the points in sum amount to a basis for a rational penal policy".<ref name="Times1976"/>

When Wilson suddenly resigned as prime minister in March 1976, Jenkins was one of six candidates for the [[1976 Labour Party leadership election|leadership of the Labour Party]] but came third in the first ballot, behind Callaghan and Michael Foot. Realising that his vote was lower than expected, and sensing that the parliamentary party was in no mood to overlook his actions five years before, he immediately withdrew from the contest.<ref name="G 8-1-03 RJ obit" /> On issues such as the EEC, trade union reform and economic policy he had proclaimed views opposite to those held by the majority of Labour Party activists, and his libertarian social views were at variance with the majority of Labour voters.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 458.</ref> A famous story alleged that when one of Jenkins' supporters canvassed a group of miners' MPs in the Commons' tea-room, he was told: "Nay, lad, we're all Labour here".<ref>Stephen Haseler, ''The Tragedy of Labour'' (Wiley-Blackwell, 1980), p. 119.</ref>

Jenkins had wanted to become Foreign Secretary,<ref>{{cite dictionary|first=Dick |last=Leonard |title=Roy Jenkins (Lord Jenkins of Hillhead)|editor-first= Greg |editor-last=Rosen |year=2001|dictionary= Dictionary of Labour Biography|location= London|publisher= Politicos| pages=314–8, 318}}</ref> but Foot warned Callaghan that the party would not accept the pro-European Jenkins as Foreign Secretary. Callaghan instead offered Jenkins the Treasury in six months' time (when it would be possible to move [[Denis Healey]] to the Foreign Office). Jenkins turned the offer down.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 462–463.</ref> Jenkins then accepted an appointment as [[President of the European Commission]] (succeeding [[François-Xavier Ortoli]]) after Callaghan appointed [[Anthony Crosland]] to the Foreign Office.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 462–466.</ref>