Labour leaders past and present attend funeral of Glenys Kinnock
BARONESS Glenys Kinnock was hailed as a loyal friend, passionate feminist and major political figure as Labour leaders and veterans gathered for her funeral yesterday.
The former MEP and Labour minister died aged 79 this month after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s six years ago.
Her long public service and vital support for husband Neil, the former Labour leader Lord Kinnock, were fondly recalled at yesterday’s ceremony.
Lord Kinnock arrived with MP son Stephen and daughter Rachel, leading mourners including former Prime Ministers Gordon Brown and Sir Tony Blair, with wife Cherie.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, former No10 spin chief Alastair Campbell, and former Labour ministers Lord
Peter Mandelson and Dame Margaret Hodge were among those at the service in Golders Green, North London.
Mr Campbell, a close family friend, told mourners: “If Glenys was your friend, she was on your side. Always.
“That didn’t mean she never disagreed, criticised, suggested a different approach. But publicly, nothing else than rock-solid support, without exception. The Labour family – she was a matriarch there too.”
Lady Kinnock served for 15 years as an MEP before leaving Brussels in 2009 to take up a life peerage when then-PM Mr Brown appointed her minister for Europe.
Praising her “guts” and feminist principles, Mr Campbell spoke about her personal qualities as well as her political talents.
He said: “When Gordon made her a minister, it wasn’t because she was a famous face, and it certainly wasn’t because of her desperation to be a peer. It was because he needed someone good, serious, passionate, knowledgeable – on Africa, on the UN and on Europe. “She was driven every day by two things: her love of family and friends, and her passion for the great causes she believed in, above all how to help raise people up, especially children, women, and the poor and oppressed, wherever in the world they were.”
Her coffin was adorned with red roses, a symbol of Labour introduced by her husband in the 1980s. Mr Brown also paid tribute to her life and career. Motherland star Anna Maxwell Martin, thought to be a family friend, also attended yesterday, as did London Mayor Sadiq Khan and numerous Labour veterans.