Constituency : Southwark Central 1948-50, Birmingham Stetchford 1950-77 ( Labour ), Glasgow Hillhead 1982-7 ( SDP)
The Gang of Four were finally reunited in the Commons when Roy took Glasgow Hillhead from the Tories in the nick of time before the Falklands War transformed the political landscape.
Roy was born in South Wales to a miner and trade union official who became a Labour MP. He was educated at Abersychan County Grammar School and Oxford. He served in the Royal Artillery and at Bletchley Park reaching the rank of captain. He stood for Solihull in 1945 but was defeated. He became the youngest MP in the Commons when he won a by-election at Southwark Central in 1948. He switched to Birmingham Stechford due to boundary changes which he held easily through many elections despite never living in the constituency.. He was an admirer of Hugh Gaitskell and disliked Harold Wilson. He started his ministerial career at Aviation but a year later became Home Secretary where he made his reputation as a liberal reformer with his support for abortion, the decriminalisation of homosexuality and ending theatre censorship. He exasperated some of his Cabinet colleagues with his relaxed approach to the job. In 1967 he became Chancellor of the Exchequer after the devaluation crisis and won general respect for running a tight ship although it has been suggested his cautious budget of 1970 may have been a cause of Labour's defeat. In 1970, following George Brown's shock defeat, he became Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. His inexorable rise was halted by his decision to lead a revolt of 69 Labour MPs to support Britain's entry into the Common Market in 1972 and he resigned his post shortly afterwards over Wilson's decision to hold a referendum. It was too dangerous to leave him on the backbenches though and a year later he rejoined the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Home Secretary. He wanted to return to the treasury in 1974 but Wilson appointed Dennis Healey instead. He was the leading Labour figure in the Yes campaign in the 1975 referendum.
When Wilson resigned ,Roy stood for the leadership but on coming third out of six candidates he immediately withdrew. His rebellion over Europe and increasingly patrician demeanour had lost him a lot of support in the party. His decision to take up the post of President of the European Commission and take close friend David Marquand with him cost Labour their parliamentary majority which didn't make him any more popular in the party.
The feeling was mutual. Jenkins's biography of Asquith in 1964 had made his admiration of the Edwardian Liberal party obvious and his Dimbleby Lecture of 1979 called for a new centre party, an "experimental aeroplane" to challenge the duopoly in British politics. Privately, he was talking with David Steel about possibly joining the Liberal party although Steel favoured him setting up a new party. The opportunity came with the disengagement of the Gang of Three and having completed his term in Europe he joined them in setting up the SDP. He took up the challenge of the Warrington by-election in 1981 and nearly succeeded in taking the safe Labour seat. This made him the frontrunner for the SDP leadership.
The contest took place as soon as he was elected an MP. His challenger was David Owen whose rise to prominence in the Falklands conflict made it a closer contest than expected. Roy's return to the Commons was not a happy one as Dennis Skinner and his cronies set out to make life as difficult for him as possible, tacitly encouraged by the Tories.
Steel was prepared to serve under Roy in an Alliance government sidestepping the awkward issue of which leader would be P.M. Roy went into the 1983 election with the pretentious title of "Prime Minister Designate" . A couple of weeks into the campaign, discontent with the lack of impact he was making led to a decision to push Steel more to the fore at the so-called Ettrick Bridge summit.
Roy held on to his seat with an increased vote although boundary changes allowed Labour to become his main challenger. Owen immediately made it clear that he would be challenging him for the SDP leadership at the first opportunity. Roy stepped aside to avoid a contest though he remained an active spokesman for the Alliance and proportional representation in particular.
In early 1987 Roy beat two Tories in a contest to become Chancellor of Oxford University. He was defeated by George Galloway for Labour in 1987 but didn't seem too bothered. He supported the merger with the Liberals ; Owen accused him of working to this end from the start. He was elevated to the peerage, with Margaret Thatcher's approval and served as Liberal Democrat leader in the Lords until 1997.
From the early nineties onwards Roy acted as a mentor to Tony Blair. He was appointed to head a commission on electoral reform which recommended a new mixed-member proportional voting system but Blair didn't feel he could get it past party opposition.
Roy continued his writing of political biographies to increasing acclaim.
Roy was famous for his love of fine wines, good food and difficulty in pronouncing his r's. He was also something of a Casanova with a string of affairs under his belt.
He died of heart failure in 2003 aged 82 having undergone major heart surgery in 2000.
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