Glenys Kinnock funeral: Big Labour names pay tribute

Major Labour Party figures from across the decades have gathered for the funeral of Glenys Kinnock.

Her husband, ex-party leader Neil, current leader Sir Keir Starmer and ex-prime ministers Sir Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were among those there.

A prominent political figure in her own right, Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead, who took her title from her Anglesey birthplace, died aged 79.

She had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's six years ago.

The service in Golders Green, north London, was also attended by her son Stephen, the MP for Aberavon, and daughter Rachel.

Baroness Kinnock served as a minister in the last Labour government and also represented Wales in the European Parliament as an MEP.

She grew up Glenys Elizabeth Parry in a Welsh-speaking, chapel-going family on Anglesey. She met her husband at Cardiff University, and they married in 1967.

Lord Kinnock was Labour leader from 1983 until 1992, when he resigned after a second election defeat. Two years later his wife became an MEP, before leaving Brussels in 2009 to take up a life peerage when then prime minister Gordon Brown appointed her minister for Europe.

She sat in the Lords between 2009 and April 2021.

Her wicker casket was adorned with red roses, a symbol of Labour introduced by Lord Kinnock in the 1980s.

Mr Brown was among those who spoke at the funeral to pay tribute to her life and career, along with her children, former Labour communications chief Alastair Campbell and former MEP and peer Michael Cashman.

In addition, London Mayor Sadiq Khan, shadow ministers Yvette Cooper, Ed Miliband and Hilary Benn, as well as peers and Labour veterans, were also among those present.