Between 1964 and 1979, every Labour Home Secretary either sat for a Welsh Seat, or was Welsh by birth. Several more Welsh MPs also served in junior capacities at the Home Office. Whilst it would be simplistic to suggest that this coincidence had an effect on the management and culture of a predominantly Oxbridge-educated, London based institution, one could argue that policy initiatives pursued by a Welsh-born minister could have been influenced by their background. When asked to name a famous Welsh politician, most would turn to one of the two great orators, David Lloyd George or Aneurin Bevan. Yet Roy Jenkins, a native of Pontypool and son of Monmouthshire miners leader Arthur Jenkins, was Home Secretary twice, between 1965-67 and 1974-76, as well as
serving as a popular Chancellor between 1967 and 1970. His term in this office is still lauded as an era of effective and progressive reform. Jenkins famously oversaw the passing of legislation on liberalising the
states attitude to abortion, theatre censorship and homosexuality. However, what is often forgotten is the important role he played in making the Race Relations (Amendment) Act, 1968 a reality.

In his lecture about Jenkins in Parliament, Andrew Adonis has argued that his tenure was exemplar of the ‘transformational minister’. This claim, however, is based on Jenkins’ support for wider, equally
progressive legislation to create a ‘civilised’ society, and does not pay attention to his attempts at reforming Race Relations apparatus. Before his intervention, the Race Relations Act (1965) had been passed as a mere palliative, doing little to alleviate racial discrimination that had permeated some sections of British society. It was Jenkins who had the defining impact on the development of this liberalising legislation. His parliamentary and public intervention, promoting the improving race relations legislation in the mid-1960s did more for the cause than the myriad of metropolitan liberal campaign groups active in the field. Jenkins was a trailblazer in the development of post-war integration.

In a speech widely described as his best, Jenkins argued that integration relied on equal opportunity, cultural diversity and mutual tolerance. He was critical of attempts to disparage the purity of an existing little Englander mentality, arguing ‘If it were to happen to the rest of us, to the Welsh (like myself), to the Scots, to the Irish, to the Jews, to the mid-European, and to still more recent arrivals, it would be little
short of a national disaster’. Jenkins rarely spoke of his Welshness within the political arena, so his summoning of this oft suppressed identity over the issues of integration, multiculturalism and identity is
deserving of greater attention. Within the wider debates over Wales as a tolerant nation, the extent to which this supposed tradition of religious and cultural tolerance influenced Jenkins in his thinking during
this period is important. This impact on race relations is undoubtedly a forgotten aspect of a full and impactful career.