In the Britain of 40 years ago abortion and homosexuality were illegal, divorce was difficult to obtain and plays required the approval of the Lord Chamberlain before they could be performed.

As Home Secretary between 1965 and 1967, Roy Jenkins swept all these restrictions away as he delivered the “Permissive Society” for which he had argued in an influential pamphlet of the 1950’s.

He was also one of the more successful post-war Chancellors, doing much restore confidence in Britain’s economy after the devaluation of the pound in 1967.

A true believer in the European ideal, he was the first Briton to become president of the European Commission in Brussels, a post he held from 1976 to 1981.

While his liberal social reforms are Roy Jenkins’ most tangible political legacy, he has also been described- by Tony Benn no less- as “the grandfather of New Labour.” Decades before the Blairites, Jenkins marked out a middle way between the state socialism of the left and laissez faire capitalism of the right.

It led to his break with the party to which he had belonged since boyhood. Together with three other Labour luminaries he founded the Social Democratic Party.

The SDP and its “Gang of Four” enjoyed a brief heyday while Labour wrestled with its militants. Roy Jenkins delivered one of its greatest triumphs when he took Glasgow Hillhead at a dramatic by-election in 1982.

Although Jenkins remained loyal to the Liberal Democrats, formed by the merger of the SDP with the Liberals in 1988, he was also an adviser and confidante to Tony Blair.

A lover of fine wines, good food and aristocratic company, he was most comfortable at the high tables of Oxford, where he ended his days as Chancellor of the University.

The son of a miner who also became a Labour M.P. and parliamentary aide to Clement Atlee, Roy Jenkins was every inch a member of the political class.