Jenkin was born in September 1926 and educated at the
Dragon School in
Oxford,
Clifton College in
Bristol and
Jesus College, Cambridge. He became a barrister, called to the bar by the
Middle Temple in 1952, and company director. He was a councillor on
Hornsey Borough Council from 1960 to 1963. The following year, Jenkin became the Conservative Member of Parliament for
Wanstead and Woodford. From 1965, he served as an Opposition spokesman on economic and trade affairs. He was a member of the
Bow Group from 1951. Whilst in the Lords, Jenkin was interviewed in 2012 as part of
The History of Parliament's oral history project. He was noted for his contribution to the debate during the passage of the
Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013. On 6 January 2015, he retired from the House of Lords pursuant to section 1 of the
House of Lords Reform Act 2014. He died on 20 December 2016, aged 90. Jenkin was president of the
Foundation for Science and Technology, and a vice-president of the
Local Government Association. ==Family and personal life==