Sir Paul Jenkins
Government lawyer and adviser to three prime ministers who became an ardent critic of Brexit
SIR PAUL JENKINS, who has died aged 63, was for eight years the most influential lawyer in Whitehall, as Treasury Solicitor and head of government legal services; after his retirement in 2014 he trained his sharp analytical eye on Brexit.
Liked and respected across Whitehall as both a lawyer and an administrator, Jenkins – “proud to have been a bureaucrat for 35 years” – transformed his department from a stand-alone agency into the provider of a shared legal service across government. By his retirement he was in charge of 1,300 barristers and solicitors.
As Treasury Solicitor, Jenkins – himself a barrister – was the instructing lawyer in all cases involving the government, and personal legal adviser to the Prime Minister: in turn Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron.
Jenkins repeatedly advised Cameron that he had no choice but to implement the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights that inmates of British prisons were entitled to the vote; Cameron told Jenkins that to do so would make him “physically sick”.
During the Coalition government, he was enlisted by Oliver Letwin to find a formula for regulation of the press that would not cause a split between Conservative and Liberal Democrat ministers. Jenkins squared the circle by proposing a Royal Charter to establish a regulator, avoiding primary legislation which would make it look as though Parliament was exercising censorship.
Jenkins, a specialist international lawyer, had lengthy experience of negotiating within the EU and the Community that preceded it. He believed that Britain had secured a “privileged position”: outside the euro, opted-out from the justice and home affairs agendas and the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and with the budget rebate secured by Margaret Thatcher.
In the run-up to the 2016 Brexit referendum, he complained that the voters were not being given hard facts on how a UK exit would be negotiated. Britain could, he said, find itself facing tight deadlines and strong opponents, and be forced into big concessions as a result. He warned of the need to avoid a “cliff edge” exit two years after Article 50 was activated. But, he added, while a vote for Brexit would be followed by two to five years of chaos and uncertainty, “if anyone can see their way through this, it’s the British Civil Service.”
Of the campaign itself, Jenkins warned: “The long-term effect of exaggerations on both sides will be to further undermine people’s confidence in trusting the British political class.” The Leave campaign’s claim that Brexit would free up £350 million a week for the NHS he described as a “glaringly obvious untruth”.
With the Brexit process under way, Jenkins ramped up his criticism of the government’s handling of it. Last August he dismissed any attempt by Theresa May to stay in the customs union after leaving the EU as “bonkers”. He explained: “If the UK is to be part of something close enough to a customs union or the single market to remove the need for hard borders, it will only work if the rules are identical to the EU’S own internal rules.”
Jenkins’s animosity toward Brexit was heightened by the uncertainty over the future status of EU citizens in Britain. He had contracted a civil partnership with a Dane, René Hansen, in 2009, and feared that he might have to leave the country. Five days before his death, he tweeted: “I’m advised against tweeting whilst slurping morphine but, as you already realise, TM [Theresa May] is useless, ditto Corbyn, and Brexit stinks.”
Paul Christopher Jenkins was born on September 22 1954, the son of Reginald Jenkins and Elsie (née Williams). His contemporaries at Harrow County School for Boys included Michael Portillo and Nigel Sheinwald, later British ambassador in Washington.
He read Law at the University of Manchester, graduating in 1976, and the next year was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple. He would become a bencher in 2002, and later the Inn’s treasurer. Jenkins joined the Treasury Solicitor’s Department in 1979, working there for 11 years before transferring to the Monopolies & Mergers Commission.
In 1992 he became legal adviser at the new Department of National Heritage, set up by John Major with David Mellor its first secretary of state. As the department morphed under Labour into DCMS, Jenkins struck up a strong working relationship with Hayden Phillips, its urbane permanent secretary.
From 1998 Jenkins encountered even greater grandeur when he moved to the Lord Chancellor’s Department as legal adviser to Lord Irvine of Lairg. He survived Blair’s replacement of Irvine – the prime minister’s former head of chambers – in 2003, adding substance to the Department of Constitutional Affairs which took over many functions of the Lord Chancellor’s Office.
In 2004 he became legal adviser to both the Department of Work and Pensions and the Department of Health, as the DWP’S director general for law, governance and special policy.
Appointed Treasury Solicitor in 2006, Jenkins set about bringing in the legal teams of individual departments to create a shared government legal service. Late on, lawyers from the Home Office and the departments of Energy and Transport came on board.
Jenkins retired just short of his 60th birthday to give his successor, Jonathan Jones, time to bed in before the 2015 general election – the date for which, under the Coalition Agreement, had been set by statute. Under Jones, the Treasury Solicitor’s Department was relaunched as the Government Legal Department.
After his retirement Jenkins, who lived in rural Sussex, joined Matrix Chambers just before the departure of Cherie Blair QC, its co-founder. He also worked with overseas governments and as an expert witness.
While Treasury Solicitor, Jenkins was Civil Service diversity champion. He was a governor of the Europäischer Rechtsakademie, Trier; a trustee of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law and the Inns of Court and Bar Educational Trust; and a director of Hampstead Theatre.
Paul Jenkins, who was appointed honorary QC in 2009 and KCB in 2012, is survived by René Hansen.
Paul Jenkins, born September 22 1954, died February 26 2018