Various writers have rightly highlighted Ivor Richard’s loyalty to the Labour party, his forensic skills at the bar, sojourn in diplomacy, European vocation and important role in the development of Welsh devolution. I was privileged to serve as his chef de cabinet during his stint as European commissioner in Brussels (1980-88) and remained in contact in the following years.

Ivor, despite his public persona, was essentially a private person and shy. Not for him the flamboyant gesture or utterance: he was reluctant to intervene in debate simply to have his voice heard. However, no one would take him on at the commission’s regular Wednesday meetings and I don’t think he lost a single issue that he engaged in during the whole of his tenure in Brussels.

A number of the subjects in his portfolio were contentious: reform of the Social Fund to make disbursements more equitable, directives to protect part-time workers, a directive to ban crocidolite against considerable opposition from the German asbestos industry, equality legislation to improve the lot of women in the workforce, measures to protect workers made redundant in the coal and steel industries, and boosting the nascent Erasmus programme.

Ivor’s advocacy on some of these issues did not go down well with Margaret Thatcher, and when it came time for the new commission to be appointed she refused Neil Kinnock’s recommendation to reappoint Ivor for a second term, with the threat that if he persisted she would abandon the accepted custom of appointing one Tory and one Labour person, in favour of a Liberal Democrat. Ivor took it in his stride, remarking that he would once again have to dust off his barrister’s wig.