Prime Minister Gordon Brown Role British Politician Prime Minister Gordon Brown Spouse Neil Kinnock (m. 1967) | Preceded by Caroline Flint Education Cardiff University Name Glenys Baroness Children Stephen Kinnock | |
Preceded by The Lord Malloch-Brown (Africa, Asia and the United Nations) Succeeded by Henry Bellingham (Undersecretary of State) Succeeded by Chris Bryant (Undersecretary of State for Europe and Asia) Books Voices for One World, Eritrea: Images of War and Peace, By Faith and Daring: Interviews with Remarkable Women Grandchildren Johanna Kinnock, Camilla Kinnock Similar People Neil Kinnock, Stephen Kinnock, Helle Thorning‑Schmidt | ||
Glenys Elizabeth Kinnock, Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead, FRSA (née Parry; born 7 July 1944) is a British politician and former teacher.
Contents
She was a Labour Party Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1994 to 2009. She is the wife of Neil Kinnock, who was leader of the Labour Party from 1983 to 1992. When Neil Kinnock received a life peerage in 2005, Glenys became entitled to the style "Lady Kinnock", which she chose not to use. She was awarded a life peerage when she joined the government in 2009. She and her husband are one of the few couples to both hold life peerages in their own right. From 2010 to 2013 she was the Opposition Spokesperson for the Department of International Development in the House of Lords.
Early life
Glenys Elizabeth Parry was born at Roade, Northamptonshire, and educated at Holyhead High School, Anglesey. She graduated in 1965 from University College, Cardiff in education and history. She met her future husband Neil Kinnock at university and married him in 1967. She worked as a teacher in secondary, primary, infant and nursery schools, including the Wykeham Primary School, Neasden, London. She is a member of the GMB, the Co-operative Party, and the NUT. She speaks Welsh, but she did not pass this heritage on to her son, Stephen Kinnock, who is married to the former Danish prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt and through him she has two granddaughters and through her daughter Rachel she has a granddaughter and a grandson.
European Parliament
Kinnock represented Wales in the European Parliament from 1994 until 2009, where she was a member of the PES political group. She was a Member of the European Parliament's Development and Co-operation Committee and a substitute member of the Committee on Citizens' Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs. She was a co-president of the African, Caribbean and Pacific-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly from 2002–09, and Labour spokesperson on International Development in the European Parliament.
In November 2006, Glenys Kinnock was criticised in the press for "taking a junket" to Barbados to discuss world poverty issues. She was co-presiding over the 12th ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, which was invited by the Barbados government to discuss international aid and development.
On 18 January 2009, Kinnock revealed on the BBC's The Andrew Marr Show that she and Neil Kinnock had received a personal invitation from Joe Biden to attend Barack Obama's presidential inauguration on 20 January 2009 at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.
In 2004, Glenys Kinnock was caught up in an expenses scandal. Fellow MEP Hans-Peter Martin claimed to have caught 194 colleagues receiving the European Parliament's attendance allowance. Kinnock was among those MEPs whom Martin found and filmed leaving the building just moments after they had signed in for the day to qualify for their £175-a-day allowance, in addition to their £70,000 salaries as MEPs.
United Kingdom Parliament
In the 2009 cabinet reshuffle, Kinnock was appointed Minister for Europe following the resignation of Caroline Flint. To enable her to join the government, she was awarded a life peerage and became Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead, of Holyhead in the County of Ynys Môn, on 30 June 2009. She was introduced to the House of Lords on the same day.
In September 2009, The Daily Telegraph listed Baroness Kinnock as the UK's 38th 'Most influential Left-winger', stating: "People working closely with the new minister have asked why on earth better use had not been made of her sooner. She has impressed civil servants and, more importantly, made a good impression on visits and in meetings abroad."
From 12 October 2009 to 11 May 2010 Glenys Kinnock served as Minister of State with responsibility for Africa, the Caribbean, Central America and the UN, filling a post left vacant after the resignation of Lord Malloch-Brown.
Patron and honours
Baroness Kinnock is a Council Member of the European Council on Foreign Relations.
She is a patron, president or board member of a number of charitable organisations, including Womankind Worldwide, Saferworld, Drop the Debt, EdUKaid, Parliamentarians for Global Action, The Burma Campaign UK, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, Voluntary Service Overseas, Freedom from Torture, and the British Humanist Association. She is also Patron to Snap Cymru, a Welsh children's charity. Council member of Overseas Development Institute Member of Advisory Board of Global Witness. Also patron to Life for African Mothers, a maternal health charity based in Cardiff and working in sub Saharan Africa
She founded One World Action (formerly The Bernt Carlsson Trust) on 21 December 1989, exactly one year after UN Commissioner for Namibia, Bernt Carlsson, was killed in the Pan Am Flight 103 crash. In December 2007, a United Nations inquiry was called into Bernt Carlsson's death.
She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, an honorary Fellow of the University of Wales, Newport, and the University of Wales, Bangor. She holds honorary Doctorates from Thames Valley University, Brunel University and Kingston University.