Glenys Kinnock

Glenys Kinnock in 2012

Glenys Elizabeth Kinnock, Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead, FRSA (née Parry; 7 July 1944 – 3 December 2023) was a British politician and teacher who served as Minister of State for Europe from June to October 2009 and Minister of State for Africa and the United Nations from 2009 to 2010. A member of the Labour Party, she was previously a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Wales, formerly South Wales East, from 1994 to 2009.

Quotes

• Are you the man from the Socialist Society?
  • Reported first comments to future husband Neil Kinnock in the refectory of University College, Cardiff, as cited in "Conscience of the Kinnocks", The Observer (30 September 1984), p. 7

• It's as if they're saying that Neil without my ideological fanaticism wouldn't have the courage of his convictions. [...] They can't imagine a relationship of partnership. There has to be one person forcing an opinion on the other.
• [On Margaret Thatcher, then the first female prime minister of the United Kingdom] I can only think of one thing she has done for women [...] and that is to prove that being a woman is not an electoral liability.
  • From an interview, as cited in "Labourite Leader's Wife: A Political Partner, Too", The New York Times (13 August 1986)

• [Speaking in Buka, Papua New Guinea after flying from the Solomon Islands] As we were taking off, the militia were at the end of the runway, firing at us.
• I heard a noise, but didn't know it was gunfire.
  • Kinnock was a mediator in a European Union delegation, as cited in "Glenys Kinnock dodges bullets in flight from coup isle", The Daily Telegraph (8 June 2000), p. 19
  • The Solomon Islands were then experiencing a period of conflict between the residents of two of the islands.