THE political world was today reacting to the death of a Gwent man described as one of the most remarkable people ever to grace British politics.

Abersychan-born politician Roy Jenkins - Lord Jenkins of Hillhead - collapsed and died, aged 82, at his home in Oxfordshire at 9am on Sunday.

The man who rose to become a Labour chancellor and home secretary, and who could have become prime minister, is perhaps remembered best as one of the Gang of Four who founded the breakaway SDP party.

Born the son of Welsh miner Roy Harris Jenkins, on November 11, 1920, Lord Jenkins, pictured, was educated at Abersychan County School and Balliol College, Oxford, attaining a first-class Honours degree in philosophy, politics and economics.

During the Second World War he served in the Royal Artillery and Special Intelligence, then fought the safe Conservative seat of Solihull for Labour in 1945.

He became an MP at the Southwark by-election in 1948, and from 1950 represented the Stechford division of Birmingham until he became president of the European Commission in 1977.

In 1959 he successfully piloted his Obscene Publications Act onto the Statute Book.

His devotion to politics and the Labour party brought him glittering prizes - home secretary twice, Chancellor of the Exchequer and president of the European Commission.

After Labour's defeat at the June 1970 election he continued in Labour's front bench team as deputy leader - but found his relations increasingly strained with many Labour backbenchers over their hostility to Britain's planned entry into the European Community.

In 1972 he resigned as deputy leader and left the Shadow Cabinet over the Common Market, but in November 1973 returned to the Shadow Cabinet as an elected member.

Labour scraped into power in 1974 and Roy Jenkins was once more back in the Home Office until he resigned in September 1976, before going to Europe. In Brussels he scored a victory with the establishment of the European Monetary System.

After Labour's Wembley conference early in 1981, the Gang of Four - Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams, Dr David Owen and Bill Rodgers - set up their Council for Social Democracy under their Limehouse Declaration.

He won the Glasgow Hillhead by-election in March 1982, and becameleader of the SDP.

Lord Jenkins forged ever-stronger links with the Liberals and in 1983 the two parties fought the General Election as the Alliance - achieving more than 25% of the vote for their 23 seats.

In the 1987 General Election he lost his Glasgow seat to Labour. He entered the House of Lords in 1987 as Lord Jenkins of Hillhead and became leader of the SLD peers after formation of the merged party in 1988.

He was elected Chancellor of Oxford University in 1987 in a contested election ahead of Sir Edward Heath.

Lord Jenkins was also a prolific author and an accomplished biographer who wrote an extensive work on the life of Winston Churchill.

In 1993, the Queen appointed him to the Order of Merit, a recognition that outranks all others in Britain.