Kinnock and Patten receive life peerages
Two outgoing European Commissioners are to receive life peerages in the House of Lords.
Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock (1983-1992) and the last Hong Kong governor Chris Patten are to be made life peers.
They will assume their new responsibilities once the new EU Commission gets the thumbs up from MEPs.
The new president of the Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, was forced to withdraw his entire team of commissioners on Wednesday after a row over Italian candidate Rocco Buttiglione.
The incoming justice minister told the EU parliament’s civil liberties and justice committee that homosexuality was a “sin” and marriage was an institution intended for women to rear children with the protection of a husband.
Mr Kinnock and Mr Pattem are being replaced by former Northern Ireland secretary, Peter Mandelson, who has been handed the trade brief.
Mr Kinnock, the vice-president of the outgoing Commission, said he had accepted the new job “for practical political reasons”.
He said it would give him a platform to make the case for Britain’s “effective engagement” in the EU and allow him to promote “the work and value” of the British Council, the body he currently chairs.
Peter Hain, the Welsh Secretary, said Mr Kinnock would be “a powerful voice for social justice, freedom and equality”.
“Wales is proud of yet another achievement on top of his past successes,” he said.
Mr Patten, a former chairman of the Conservative Party, said he was “honoured” to receive the peerage.
He said it would give him the opportunity to “contribute to the national debate on issues like higher education, research, Europe and foreign policy”.
Mr Patten is also set to become vice-chancellor at Oxford University.
