Neil Kinnock
Overview
 
Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock (born 28 March 1942) is a Welsh politician
Politics of the United Kingdom
The politics of the United Kingdom takes place within the framework of a constitutional monarchy, in which the Monarch is the head of state and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government...

 belonging to the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

. He served as a Member of Parliament from 1970
United Kingdom general election, 1970
The United Kingdom general election of 1970 was held on 18 June 1970, and resulted in a surprise victory for the Conservative Party under leader Edward Heath, who defeated the Labour Party under Harold Wilson. The election also saw the Liberal Party and its new leader Jeremy Thorpe lose half their...

 until 1995
Islwyn by-election, 1995
A by-election was held in the Welsh parliamentary constituency of Islwyn on 16 February 1995 following the resignation of Neil Kinnock who was appointed as a European Commissioner....

 and as Labour Leader and Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition
Leader of the Opposition (UK)
The Leader of Her Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition in the United Kingdom is the politician who leads the Official Opposition in the United Kingdom. There is also a Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords...

 from 1983
Labour Party (UK) leadership election, 1983
The Labour Party leadership election of 1983 was an election in the United Kingdom for the leadership of the Labour Party. It occurred when former leader Michael Foot resigned after winning only 209 seats at the 1983 general election — a loss of 70 seats compared to their performance at the...

 until 1992
Labour Party (UK) leadership election, 1992
The Labour Party leadership election of 1992 followed the Labour Party's failure to win the 1992 general election and the subsequent resignation of party leader Neil Kinnock....

 - his leadership of the party during nearly nine years (all in opposition) making him the longest serving opposition leader in British political history.

Following Labour's defeat in the 1992 election
United Kingdom general election, 1992
The United Kingdom general election of 1992 was held on 9 April 1992, and was the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party. This election result was one of the biggest surprises in 20th Century politics, as polling leading up to the day of the election showed Labour under leader Neil...

, Kinnock resigned as party leader and after his departure from the House of Commons three years later served as a European Commissioner from 1995–2004.
Quotations

The army of brokers, jobbers and other quaintly named parasites.

Labour Monthly, December 1974.

Devolutionary reform will not provide a factory, a machine or jobs, build a school, train a doctor or put a pound on pensions.

South Wales Echo, 1 November, 1975.

The House of Lords must go—not be reformed, not be replaced, not be reborn in some nominated life-after-death patronage paradise, just closed down, abolished, finished.

Tribune, 19 November, 1976.

We must not look for some kind of Messiah.

Robert Harris, "The Making of Neil Kinnock" (Faber and Faber, 1984), pages 157-8.

Heckler: At least Mrs Thatcher has got guts.Neil Kinnock: It's a pity that other people had to leave theirs on the ground at Goose Green to prove it.

Daily Telegraph 7 June, 1983.

The roots of defeat which were put down by some of the elements of our party in the two or three years after 1980 made victory difficult to achieve.

The Times, 10 June, 1983, p. 1.

I don't believe that the policies on which we fought the [1983] election ought to be ejected like some sort of spent cartridge.

Tribune, 15 June, 1983.

[Marx's theories] gave me a political and intellectual justification for what I believed in a way that nothing else did.

Marxism Today, June 1983.

 
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