Roy Jenkins
Labour and SDP politician WHO chaired the 1998 Independent Commission on the Voting System.
Labour's 29 September 2026 pledge to replace the Commons voting system makes Roy Jenkins's 1998 AV-plus report the nearest precedent, the last worked-out Labour-era design for Reform before Tony Blair's government shelved it.
Last refreshed: 7 October 2026
Timeline for Roy Jenkins
Mentioned in: Burnham pledges to change voting system
UK Local Elections 2026Mentioned in: Durham councillor joins UK Social Democratic Party
UK Local Elections 2026Background
Roy Jenkins was one of the senior Labour figures of the 1960s and 1970s: Home Secretary twice, Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1967 to 1970, then President of the European Commission from 1977 to 1981.
In 1981 he was one of the Gang of Four WHO quit Labour to launch the Social Democratic Party, with David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams. He won Glasgow Hillhead at a 1982 by-election, entered the Lords as Lord Jenkins of Hillhead in 1987 and died in January 2003.
His last major public task was the voting-system Commission for Tony Blair's government. Its AV-plus scheme is the reference point whenever Labour reopens the question of first past the post.
His 1998 blueprint sets the benchmark
Jenkins chaired the Independent Commission on the Voting System, which reported in 1998 in FAVOUR of AV-plus: constituency MPs chosen by the alternative vote, with a top-up from lists. Ministers shelved it, and the referendum Labour had offered in 1997 never happened.
When Andy Burnham told the party's Liverpool conference on 29 September 2026 that its next manifesto would promise a new system, the Jenkins design became the obvious reference. Burnham named no model and his National Commission on Electoral Reform had no chair, so the only detailed Labour-commissioned scheme on record remains the one Jenkins put his name to.