14 December 2023 , 17:41
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Keir Starmer and Tony Blair today joined mourners at the funeral of Glenys Kinnock, a former minister, MEP and the wife of ex-Labour leader Lord Kinnock.
Figures from across Labour past and present, including Gordon Brown, Alastair Campbell, Lord Mandelson and Ed Balls, all attended the service in north London. Several Shadow Cabinet ministers including Ed Miliband, Yvette Cooper and Hilary Benn gathered for the service alongside London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
Baroness Kinnock, 79, who served as a minister in the New Labour government and also represented Wales in the European Parliament as an MEP, died peacefully on December 3. Her wicker casket was adorned with red roses, a symbol of Labour introduced by Lord Kinnock in the 1980s.
Alastair Campbell gave the closing eulogy where he paid tribute to a 'true family friend' (PA)
Tony Blair said Baroness Kinnock's death would be 'mourned in many countries and corners of the Earth' (PA)Mr Brown was among those who spoke at the funeral to pay tribute to her life and career, with son Stephen, a serving Labour MP, and daughter Rachel also addressing mourners. Mr Campbell, as well as former MEP and peer Michael Cashman, also spoke. He said the service was a “wonderful send off” and he was “honoured” to be asked by Lord Kinnock to deliver the closing eulogy, which he posted online after.
In it, he paid tribute to Baroness Kinnock as a “matriarch” of the Labour family, as well as a “true family friend” as he recalled “unforgettable” memories of holidays filled with cooking, laughter and singing. “She was driven every day of her life by two things: her love of family and friends, and her passion for the great causes she believed in, above all how to help raise people up, especially children, women, and the poor and oppressed, wherever in the world they were,” he said.
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Keir Starmer was among those to attend (PA)
Ed Miliband attended the funeral (PA)On announcing her death, her family said they were "devastated" by her passing, which comes six years after she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. They said: "Glenys endured Alzheimer's after being diagnosed in 2017 and, as long as she could, sustained her merriment and endless capacity for love, never complaining and with the innate courage with which she had confronted every challenge throughout her life”
Labour leader Keir Starmer led tributes to a "true fighter for the Labour Party ". Sir Tony said Baroness Kinnock's death would be "mourned in many countries and corners of the Earth". "In her last years, as Stephen and Rachel have written, she took her illness with the same steadfastness which had governed her life,” he said. “Our deepest condolences to Neil, to Rachel and to Stephen and to all the wider Kinnock family.”