Neil Gordon Kinnock

Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock is a British politician. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1970 to 1995, and was Leader of the Opposition and Labour Party leader from 1983 to 1992, when he resigned after the 1992 general election defeat.

He subsequently served as a UK Commissioner of the European Commission from 1995 until 2004, and is now Chairman of the British Council and President of Cardiff University.

Kinnock, an only child, was born in Tredegar, Wales. His father was a coal miner who suffered from dermatitis and had to find work as a labourer and his mother was a district nurse. In 1953 Kinnock went to the Lewis School, Pengam from where he won a place to University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire, obtaining a degree in industrial relations and history in 1965. A year later, Kinnock obtained a postgraduate diploma in education and between August 1966 and May 1970 Kinnock worked as a tutor for a Workers' Educational Association (WEA).