Stephen Kinnock

Vorlage:BLP sources Vorlage:Infobox politician Stephen Nathan Kinnock (born 1 January 1970) is the husband of Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt and a British executive who has held various senior positions with the British Council prior to joining the World Economic Forum in January 2009 as director, head of Europe and Central Asia. On the Xynteo website he is listed as 'managing director of the GLTE partnership', a green lobbying organisation.

Stephen Kinnock describes himself as from a 'Labour and Trade Union family'. That is, he is the son of Neil Kinnock, former leader of the Labour Party and ex-chair of the British Council, and Glenys Kinnock, a former Labour Member of the European Parliament and Minister of State (2009–10) at the UK Foreign Office.

He is married to the Prime Minister of Denmark, Helle Thorning-Schmidt. They met in their twenties while working in Brussels and married in a civil ceremony in 1996. However, they live separate lives with Stephen Kinnock only spending weekends in Copenhagen (fewer than 33 per year, according to his wife's tax return, although she later claimed 'every weekend of the year' when applying to have her husband registered as co-owner of their house) leading to some speculation on the nature of the marriage or allegations of tax evasion.

Career

After attending Drayton Manor High School, and having achieved a degree in Modern Languages from Queens' College, University of Cambridge, and an MA from the College of Europe in Bruges in 1993, Stephen Kinnock worked as a research assistant at the European Parliament in Brussels before becoming a British Council Development and Training Services executive based in Brussels from 1997.

The British Council was involved in a major tax-dispute over its alleged failure to register commercial activities in Russia and pay taxes. In St. Petersburg on 15 January 2008, Kinnock was detained for an hour for drunk driving before being released, after claiming diplomatic immunity and refusing to take an alcohol breath test. British diplomatic spokesmen confirmed that before driving, Kinnock had a glass of wine, but that he was not drunk because it was less than allowed by Russian norms, and that he might at most have committed a minor traffic offence.

Following the closure, imposed by the Russian authorities, of the St. Petersburg office, Kinnock took up a position with the British Council in Sierra Leone.

From January 2009 he was employed by the World Economic Forum based in Geneva, Switzerland, as director, head of Europe and Central Asia.

In August 2012 he took up a position at Xyntéo in London, a business advisory company that helps global businesses go beyond the green basics and reinvent the way they grow. Kinnock is managing director of the 'Global Leadership and Technology Exchange', a partnership which aims to bring together some of the world’s leading businesses to discuss and act upon routes that can be taken to bring about resource-efficient growth'.

In March 2014 it was announced that Kinnock had been selected as the Labour Party candidate for the seat of Aberavon in Wales for the General Election of 2015 despite having no connections to the area .

He has been referred to as a 'red prince' as one of several sons of senior Labour Party figures to have been selected for safe seats.

Personal life

Kinnock was born Tredegar. He has been married to the Prime Minister of Denmark Helle Thorning-Schmidt since 1996. The couple have two daughters.

In June 2010, the Danish tabloid B.T. accused Kinnock of tax evasion. At that time he was paying tax in Switzerland where his workplace was situated, and therefore had his main residence there, although his wife's political website states that 'The family lives in Østerbro in Copenhagen'. The couple had previously stated to the media that Kinnock would spend his weekends in Denmark, sometimes including Thursday, and that he regarded his home and base as being exclusively with his family in Copenhagen. According to the tabloid, he would possibly exceed 183 days a year in Denmark, meaning he would be fully taxable there. Helle Thorning-Schmidt repudiated the accusations but said the couple would ask the Danish tax authority for an audit. The audit by the Danish Tax & Customs Administration (SKAT) was concluded on 17 September 2010, and in its Official Report SKAT stated that 'Mr Kinnock does not have tax liability for 2007, 08, or 09, as he does not reside in this country within the meaning of the Danish Tax at Sources Act' [various Danish newspaper reports as of 18 September 2010.]