Tony Benn

The Right Honourable Tony Benn
President of the Stop the War Coalition
Incumbent
Assumed office 21 September 2001
Vice President	Lindsey German
Preceded by	Office created
Secretary of State for Energy
In office 10 June 1975 – 4 May 1979
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson James Callaghan
Preceded by	Eric Varley
Succeeded by	David Howell
Secretary of State for Industry
In office 5 March 1974 – 10 June 1975
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Peter Walker (at DTI)
Succeeded by	Eric Varley
Chairman of the Labour Party
In office 20 September 1971 – 25 September 1972
Leader	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Ian Mikardo
Succeeded by	William Simpson
Minister of Technology
In office 4 July 1966 – 19 June 1970
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Frank Cousins
Succeeded by	Geoffrey Rippon
Postmaster General
In office 15 October 1964 – 4 July 1966
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Reginald Bevins
Succeeded by	Edward Short
Member of Parliament for Chesterfield
In office 1 March 1984 – 7 June 2001
Preceded by	Eric Varley
Succeeded by	Paul Holmes
Majority	24,633 (46.5%)
Member of Parliament for Bristol South East
In office 20 August 1963 – 9 June 1983
Preceded by	Malcolm St Clair
Succeeded by	Constituency Abolished
Majority	1,890 (3.5%)
In office 30 November 1950 – 17 November 1960
Preceded by	Stafford Cripps
Succeeded by	Malcolm St Clair
Majority	13,044 (39%)
Personal details
Born	Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (1925-04-03) 3 April 1925 Marylebone, London, United Kingdom
Nationality	British
Political party	Labour
Spouse(s)	Caroline DeCamp (m. 1949–2000, her death)
Children	Stephen, Hilary, Melissa, Joshua
Alma mater	New College, Oxford
Religion	Agnostic[1]
Website	Official website
Military service
Service/branch	Royal Air Force
Rank	Pilot Officer
Battles/wars	World War II

Anthony Neil Wedgwood "Tony" Benn, PC (born 3 April 1925), formerly 2nd Viscount Stansgate, is a British Labour Party politician who was a Member of Parliament (MP) for 50 years and a Cabinet Minister under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan.

Benn's campaign to renounce his hereditary peerage was instrumental in the creation of the Peerage Act 1963.^[2] In the Labour Government of 1964–1970 he served first as Postmaster General, where he oversaw the opening of the Post Office Tower, and later as a notably "technocratic" Minister of Technology. In the period when the Labour Party was in Opposition, for a year he was the Chairman of the Labour Party. In the Labour Government of 1974–1979 he returned to the Cabinet, initially as Secretary of State for Industry, before being made Secretary of State for Energy, retaining his post when James Callaghan replaced Wilson as Prime Minister. During the Labour Party's time in Opposition during the 1980s, he was seen as the party's prominent figure on the left, and the term "Bennite" has come to be used in Britain for someone of a more radical left-wing position.^[3]

Benn has topped several polls as the most popular politician in Britain.^[4] He has been described as "one of the few UK politicians to have become more left-wing after holding ministerial office."^[5] Since leaving Parliament, Benn has become involved in the grass-roots politics of demonstrations and meetings, and has been the President of the Stop the War Coalition for the last decade. He has been a vegetarian since the 1970s.

Biography

Early life and family

Benn was born in London on 3 April 1925.^[6] Benn's paternal grandfather was John Benn, a successful politician who was created a baronet in 1914, and his father William Wedgwood Benn was a Liberal Member of Parliament who later crossed the floor to the Labour Party. He was appointed Secretary of State for India by Ramsay MacDonald in 1929, a position he held until 1931. He was elevated to the House of Lords with the title of Viscount Stansgate in 1941; the new wartime coalition government was short of working Labour peers in the upper house.^[7] From 1945 to 1946, he was the Secretary of State for Air in the first majority Labour Government.

Both his grandfathers, John Benn (who founded a publishing company)^[8] and Daniel Holmes, were also Liberal MPs (respectively, for Tower Hamlets, Devonport and Glasgow Govan).^[9] Benn's contact with leading politicians of the day dates back to his earliest years; he met Ramsay MacDonald when he was five,^[10] David Lloyd George when he was 12 and Mahatma Gandhi in 1931, while his father was Secretary of State for India.

Benn's mother, Margaret Wedgwood Benn (née Holmes) (1897–1991), was a dedicated theologian, feminist and the founder President of the Congregational Federation. She was a member of the League of the Church Militant, which was the predecessor of the Movement for the Ordination of Women – in 1925 she was rebuked by Randall Thomas Davidson, the Archbishop of Canterbury, for advocating the ordination of women. His mother's theology had a profound influence on Benn, as she taught him that the stories in the Bible were based around the struggle between the prophets and the kings and that he ought in his life to support the prophets over the kings, who had power, as the prophets taught righteousness.^[11]

Benn went to Westminster School and studied at New College, Oxford, where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics and was elected President of the Oxford Union in 1947. In later life, Benn attempted to remove public references to his private education from Who's Who; in the 1975 edition his entry stated "Education—still in progress". In the 1976 edition, almost all details were omitted save for his name, jobs as a Member of Parliament and as a Government Minister, and address; the publishers confirmed that Benn had sent back the draft entry with everything else struck through.^[12] In the 1977 edition, Benn's entry disappeared entirely.^[13] In October 1973 he announced on BBC Radio that he wished to be known as Mr Tony Benn rather than as Anthony Wedgwood Benn, and his book Speeches from 1974 is credited to "Tony Benn".

In July 1943, Benn joined the Royal Air Force.^[14] His father and brother Michael (who was later killed in an accident) were already serving in the RAF. Whilst holding the rank of pilot officer, Benn served as a pilot in South Africa and Rhodesia.^[15]

Benn met Caroline Middleton DeCamp (born 13 October 1926, Cincinnati, Ohio) over tea at Worcester College in 1949 and nine days later he proposed to her on a park bench in the city. Later, he bought the bench from Oxford City Council and installed it in the garden of their home in Holland Park. Tony and Caroline had four children – Stephen, Hilary, Melissa and Joshua, and ten grandchildren. Caroline Benn died of cancer on 22 November 2000, aged 74, after a prominent career as an educationalist.^[16]

Benn's children have been active in politics; his first son Stephen was an elected Member of the Inner London Education Authority from 1986 to 1990. His second son Hilary was a councillor in London, and stood for Parliament in 1983 and 1987, becoming the Labour MP for Leeds Central in 1999. He was Secretary of State for International Development from 2003 to 2007, and then Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs until 2010. This makes him the third generation of his family to have been a member of the Cabinet, a rare distinction for a modern political family in Britain. Benn's granddaughter Emily Benn failed to win East Worthing and Shoreham in 2010,^[17] becoming the Labour Party's youngest-ever candidate in the process.^[18] Benn is a first cousin once removed of the late actress Dame Margaret Rutherford.^[19]

Member of Parliament

Following the Second World War Benn worked briefly as a BBC Radio producer. On 1 November 1950, he was unexpectedly selected to succeed Sir Stafford Cripps as the Labour candidate for Bristol South East, after Cripps stood down because of ill-health. He won the seat in a by-election on 30 November 1950.^[20] Anthony Crosland helped him get the seat as he was the MP for nearby South Gloucestershire at the time. Upon taking the oath on 4 December 1950^[21] Benn became the youngest MP, or "Baby of the House" for one day, being succeeded by Thomas Teevan, who was two years younger but took his oath a day later.^[22] He became the "Baby" again in 1951, when Teevan was not re-elected. In the 1950s, Benn held middle-of-the-road or soft left views, and was not associated with the young left wing group around Aneurin Bevan.^[23]

Peerage reform

Benn's father had been created Viscount Stansgate in 1942 when Winston Churchill increased the number of Labour peers to aid political work in the House of Lords; at this time, Benn's elder brother Michael was intending to enter the priesthood and had no objections to inheriting a peerage. However, Michael was later killed in an accident while on active service in the Second World War, and this left Benn as the heir to the peerage. He made several attempts to renounce the succession, but they were unsuccessful.^[23]

In November 1960 Viscount Stansgate died and Benn automatically became a peer and was thus prevented from sitting in the House of Commons. Insisting on his right to abandon his peerage, Benn fought to retain his seat in a by-election caused by his succession on 4 May 1961. Although he was disqualified from taking his seat, he was re-elected. An election court found that the voters were fully aware that Benn was disqualified, and declared the seat won by the Conservative runner-up, Malcolm St Clair, who was at the time also the heir presumptive to a peerage.^[2]

Benn continued his campaign outside Parliament, and eventually the Conservative Government of the time accepted the need for a change in the law.^[24] The Peerage Act 1963, allowing renunciation of peerages, became law shortly after 6 pm on 31 July 1963. Benn was the first peer to renounce his title, which he did at 6.22 pm that day. St Clair, fulfilling a promise he had made at the time of his election, then accepted the office of Stewardship of the Manor of Northstead, disqualifying himself from the House (outright resignation not being possible). Benn returned to the Commons after winning a by-election on 20 August 1963.^[23]

In government (1964–1970)

In the 1964 Government of Harold Wilson, Benn was Postmaster General, where he oversaw the opening of the Post Office Tower, then the UK's tallest building, and the creations of the Post Bus service and Girobank. He proposed issuing stamps without the Sovereign's head, but this met with private opposition from the Queen.^{[citation needed]} Instead, the portrait was reduced to a small profile in silhouette, a format that is still used on commemorative stamps.^[25]

Benn also led the government's opposition to the popular off-shore pirate radio stations broadcasting from international waters at the time,^[26] These stations were causing problems at the time, including the breaking of international agreements, and interference to emergency radio used by shipping,^[27] although he was not responsible for introducing the Marine Broadcasting Offences Bill when it came before parliament at the end of July 1966 for its first reading.^[28]

Earlier in the month, Benn was promoted to Minister of Technology, which included responsibility for the development of Concorde and the formation of International Computers Ltd (ICL). The period also saw government involvement in industrial rationalisation, and the merger of several car companies to form British Leyland. ^[29] Labour lost the 1970 election to Edward Heath's Conservatives, and upon Heath's application to join the European Economic Community, Benn campaigned in favour of a referendum on the UK's membership. The Shadow Cabinet voted to support a referendum on 29 March 1972, and as a result Roy Jenkins resigned as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party.

In government (1974–1979)

In the Labour Government of 1974 Benn was Secretary of State for Industry, increased nationalised industry pay, provided better terms and conditions for workers such as the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and set up worker cooperatives to motivate and reform struggling industries, the best known being at Meriden, outside Birmingham which kept Triumph Motorcycles in production until 1983. In 1975 he was appointed Secretary of State for Energy, immediately following his unsuccessful campaign for a "No" vote in the referendum on the UK's continued membership of the European Community (Common Market). Later in his diary (25 October 1977) Benn wrote that he "loathed" the EEC; he claimed it was "bureaucratic and centralised" and "of course it is really dominated by Germany. All the Common Market countries except the UK have been occupied by Germany, and they have this mixed feeling of hatred and subservience towards the Germans".^[30]

Harold Wilson resigned as Leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister in March 1976. In the resulting leadership contest Benn came fourth out of the six cabinet ministers who stood — he withdrew as 11.8% of colleagues voted for him in the first ballot. Benn withdrew from the second ballot and supported Michael Foot; James Callaghan eventually won. Despite not receiving his support in the second and third rounds of the vote, Callaghan kept Benn as Energy Secretary. In 1976 there was a sterling crisis, and Chancellor of the Exchequer Denis Healey sought a loan from the International Monetary Fund. Underlining a wish to counter international market forces which seemed to penalise a larger welfare state, Benn publicly circulated the divided Cabinet minutes from the 1931 National Labour Government of Ramsay MacDonald tacking the Great Depression which cut unemployment benefits to obtain a loan from American bankers. As he highlighted, these minutes resulted in the 1931 split of the Labour Party into National Labour (Organisation) and other Labour Party members. Callaghan allowed Benn to put forward his "alternative economic strategy", which consisted of a self sufficient economy less dependent on low-rate fresh borrowing but the AES, which according to opponents, would have led to a "siege economy", was rejected by the Cabinet.^[31]

Move to the Left

By the end of the 1970s, Benn had migrated to the left wing of the Labour Party. He attributed this political shift to his experience as a Cabinet Minister in the 1964–1970 Labour Government. Benn attributed his move to the left to four lessons: 1) how "the Civil Service can frustrate the policies and decisions of popularly elected governments"; 2) the centralised nature of the Labour Party allowing to the Leader to run "the Party almost as if it were his personal kingdom"; 3) "the power of industrialists and bankers to get their way by use of the crudest form of economic pressure, even blackmail, against a Labour Government"; and 4) the power of the media, which "like the power of the medieveal Church, ensures that events of the day are always presented from the point of the view of those who enjoy economic privilege.^[32] As regards the power of industrialists and bankers, Benn remarked:

Compared to this, the pressure brought to bear in industrial disputes by the unions is minuscule. This power was revealed even more clearly in 1976 when the IMF secured cuts in our public expenditure. [...] These [four] lessons led me to the conclusion that the UK is only superficially governed by MPs and the voters who elect them. Parliamentary democracy is, in truth, little more than a means of securing a periodical change in the management team, which is then allowed to preside over a system that remains in essence intact. If the British people were ever to ask themselves what power they truly enjoyed under our political system they would be amazed to discover how little it is, and some new Chartist agitation might be born and might quickly gather momentum.^[33]

Benn's philosophy consisted of a form of syndicalism, state planning where necessary to ensure national competitiveness, greater democracy in the structures of the Labour Party and observance of Party Conference decisions;^[34] he was vilified by most of the press which supported the young Margaret Thatcher — his opponents implied and stated that a Benn-led Labour Government would implement a type of Eastern European socialism.^[35] Benn was overwhelmingly popular with Labour activists: a survey of delegates at the Labour Party Conference in 1978 found that by large margins they supported Benn for the leadership and many Bennite policies.^[36]

He publicly supported Sinn Féin and the unification of Ireland, although in 2005 he suggested to Sinn Féin leaders that it abandon its long-standing policy of not taking seats at Westminster (abstentionism). Sinn Féin argue that to do so would recognise Britain's claim over Northern Ireland, and the Sinn Féin constitution prevented its elected members from taking their seats in any British-created institution.^[37]

In opposition

In a keynote speech to the Labour Party Conference of 1980, shortly before the resignation of party leader James Callaghan and election of Michael Foot as successor, Benn outlined what he envisaged the next Labour Government would do. "Within days", a Labour Government would gain powers to nationalise industries, control capital and implement industrial democracy; "within weeks", all powers from Brussels would be returned to Westminster, and abolish the House of Lords by creating one thousand peers and then abolishing the peerage. Benn received tumultuous applause.^[38]

In 1981, he stood against incumbent Denis Healey for Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, disregarding the appeal from Michael Foot to either stand for the leadership or abstain from inflaming the party's divisions. Benn defended his decision with insistence that it was "not about personalities, but about policies." The contest was extremely closely fought, and Healey won by a margin of barely 1%. The decision of several moderate left-wing MPs, including Neil Kinnock, to abstain triggered the split of the Campaign Group from the Left of the Tribune Group.^[39]

After Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands in April 1982, Benn argued that the dispute should be settled by the United Nations and that the British Government should not send a task force to recapture the islands. The task force was sent and the Falklands were soon back in British control. In a subsequent debate in the Commons, Benn's demand for "a full analysis of the costs in life, equipment and money in this tragic and unnecessary war" was rejected by Margaret Thatcher, who, apparently unaware of Benn's service in World War II and the loss of his brother, stated that "he would not enjoy the freedom of speech that he put to such excellent use unless people had been prepared to fight for it".^[40]

For the 1983 election Benn's Bristol South East constituency was abolished by boundary changes, and he lost to Michael Cocks the battle to stand in the new seat of Bristol South. Rejecting offers from the new seat of Livingston in Scotland, Benn contested Bristol East, losing to Conservative candidate Jonathan Sayeed in what was perceived to be a shock result. He was selected for the next Labour seat to fall vacant, and was elected for Chesterfield in a by-election after Eric Varley resigned to head Coalite. On the day of the by-election, 1 March 1984, The Sun newspaper ran a hostile feature article "Benn on the Couch", which purported to be the opinions of an American psychiatrist.^[41] In the period since Benn's defeat in Bristol, Michael Foot had stepped down after the general election in June 1983 (which saw Labour return a mere 209 MPs) and was succeeded in October of that year by Neil Kinnock.^[42]

Benn was a prominent supporter of the 1984–1985 UK miners' strike and of his long-standing friend, the National Union of Mineworkers leader Arthur Scargill. However, some miners considered Benn's 1977 industry reforms to have caused problems during the strike; firstly, that they led to huge wage differences and distrust between miners of different regions; and secondly that the controversy over balloting miners for these reforms made it unclear as to whether a ballot was needed for a strike or whether it could be deemed as a "regional matter" in the same way that the 1977 reforms had been.^[43][44]

In June 1985, three months after the miners admitted defeat and ended their strike, Benn introduced the Miners' Amnesty (General Pardon) Bill into the Commons, which would have extended an amnesty to all miners imprisoned during the strike. This would have included two men convicted of murder (later reduced to manslaughter) for the killing of David Wilkie, a taxi driver driving a non-striking miner to work in South Wales during the strike.^[45]

Benn stood for election as Party Leader in 1988, against Neil Kinnock, following Labour's third successive defeat in the 1987 general election, and lost by a substantial margin.^[46] During the Gulf War, he visited Baghdad to persuade Saddam Hussein to release the hostages who had been captured.^[47] He was one of the very few MPs to oppose the Kosovo War.

In 1991, with Labour still in opposition and a general election due by June 1992, he proposed the Commonwealth of Britain Bill, abolishing the Monarchy in favour of the United Kingdom becoming a "democratic, federal and secular commonwealth", a republic with a written constitution. It was read in Parliament a number of times until his retirement at the 2001 election, but never achieved a second reading.^[48] He presented an account of his proposal in Common Sense: A New Constitution for Britain.^[49]

Retirement

Benn did not stand at the 2001 general election; as he explained it, he was "leaving parliament in order to spend more time on politics".^[50] Along with Edward Heath, Benn was given the privilege of being able to continue using the House of Commons Library and Members' refreshment facilities by the Speaker. Shortly after his retirement, he was approached by the Stop the War Coalition, and was asked to become its President, an offer he accepted.^[47] He thus became a leading figure of the British opposition to the War in Afghanistan from 2001 and the Iraq War, and in February 2003 he travelled to Baghdad to meet Saddam Hussein. The interview was shown on British television.^[51] He spoke against the war at the February 2003 protest in London organised by the Stop the War Coalition with police saying it was the biggest ever demonstration in the UK with about 750,000 marchers, and the organisers estimating nearly a million people participating.^[52] In February 2004 and 2008, he was re-elected President of the Stop the War Coalition.^[53]

He has toured with a one-man stage show and appears a few times each year in a two-man show with folk singer Roy Bailey. In 2003, his show with Bailey was voted 'Best Live Act' at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.^[54] In 2002 he opened the "Left Field" stage at the Glastonbury Festival. He has continued to speak at each subsequent festival with attending one of his speeches being described as a "Glastonbury rite of passage".^[55] In October 2003, he was a guest of British Airways on the last scheduled Concorde flight from New York to London.^[56] In June 2005, Benn was a panellist on a special edition of BBC1's Question Time edited entirely by a school-age film crew selected by a BBC competition.^[57]

On 21 June 2005, Benn presented a programme on democracy as part of the Channel 5 series Big Ideas That Changed The World. He presented a left-wing view of democracy as the means to pass power from the "wallet to the ballot". He argued that traditional social democratic values were under threat in an increasingly globalised world in which powerful institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the European Commission are unelected and unaccountable to those whose lives they affect daily.^[58]

On 27 September 2005, Benn became ill while at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton and was taken by ambulance to the Royal Sussex County Hospital after being treated by paramedics at the Brighton Centre. Benn reportedly fell and struck his head. He was kept in hospital for observation and was described as being in a "comfortable condition".^[59] He was subsequently fitted with an artificial pacemaker to help regulate his heartbeat.^[60] In a list compiled by the magazine New Statesman in 2006, he was voted twelfth in the list of "Heroes of our Time".^[61]

In September 2006, Benn joined the "Time to Go" demonstration in Manchester the day before the start of the final Labour Party Conference with Tony Blair as Party Leader, with the aim of persuading the Labour Government to withdraw troops from Iraq, to refrain from attacking Iran and to reject replacing the Trident missile and submarines with a new system. He spoke to the demonstrators in the rally afterwards.^[62] In 2007, he appeared in an extended segment in the Michael Moore film Sicko giving comments about democracy, social responsibility, and health care.

Wikinews has related news: Wikinews interviews: Tony Benn on U.K. politics

A poll by the BBC2 The Daily Politics programme in January 2007 selected Benn as the UK's "Political Hero" with 38% of the vote, beating Margaret Thatcher with 35%.^[4]

In the 2007 Labour Party leadership election, Benn backed the left-wing MP John McDonnell in his unsuccessful bid. In September 2007, Benn called for the government to hold a referendum on the EU Reform Treaty.^[63] In October 2007, at the age of 82, and when it appeared that a general election was about to be held, Benn reportedly announced that he wanted to stand, having written to his local Kensington and Chelsea Constituency Labour Party offering himself as a prospective candidate for the seat held by the Conservative Malcolm Rifkind.^[64][65] However, there was no election in 2007, and the constituency was abolished.

In early 2008 Benn appeared on Scottish singer-songwriter Colin MacIntyre's album The Water, reading a poem he composed himself.^[66][67] In September 2008, Benn appeared on the DVD release for the Doctor Who story The War Machines with a vignette discussing the Post Office Tower; he became the second Labour politician, after Roy Hattersley to appear in a Doctor Who DVD.^[68]

At the Stop the War Conference 2009, he described the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as "Imperialist war(s)" and discussed the killing of American and allied troops by Iraqi or foreign insurgents, questioning whether they were in fact freedom fighters, and comparing the insurgents to a British Dad's Army, saying "If you are invaded you have a right to self defence, and this idea that people in Iraq and Afghanistan who are resisting the invasion are militant Muslim extremists is a complete bloody lie. I joined Dad's Army when I was sixteen, and if the Germans had arrived, I tell you, I could use a bayonet, a rifle, a revolver, and if I'd seen a German officer having a meal I'd have tossed a grenade through the window. Would I have been a freedom fighter or a terrorist?"^[69]

In an interview published in Dartford Living in September 2009, Benn was critical of the Government's decision to delay the findings of the Iraq War Inquiry until after the General Election, stating that "people can take into account what the inquiry has reported on but they’ve deliberately pushed it beyond the election. Government is responsible for explaining what it has done and I don’t think we were told the truth."^[70] He also stated that local government was strangled by Margaret Thatcher and had not been liberated by New Labour.^[70]

In 2009 Benn was admitted to hospital and An Evening with Tony Benn, scheduled to take place at London's Cadogan Hall, was cancelled.^[71] He performed his show The Writing on the Wall with Roy Bailey at St Mary's Church, Ashford, Kent in September 2011 as part of the arts venue's first Revelation St Mary's Season.^[72] In July 2011 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Glamorgan, Wales.^[73]

In November 2011 it was reported that Benn had moved out of his home in Holland Park Avenue, London, into a smaller £750,000 flat nearby which benefits from a warden.^[74]

In February 2013 Benn was among those who gave their support to the People's Assembly in a letter published by The Guardian newspaper.^[75] He also gave a speech at the People's Assembly Conference held at Westminster Central Hall on 22 June 2013. On 11 September, Tony Benn was admitted to hospital on the advice of his GP after complaining of feeling unwell. He was reported to be "comfortable" two days later.^[76]

Diaries and biographies

Benn has been a prolific diarist: eight volumes of his diaries have been published (the first six collected as ISBN 0-09-963411-2, the penultimate available as ISBN 0-09-941502-X). He has now stopped writing them following a stroke, and in April 2012 was reportedly working on the final volume.^[77] Collections of his speeches and writings were published as Arguments for Socialism (1979), Arguments for Democracy (1981), (both edited by Chris Mullin), Fighting Back (1988) and (with Andrew Hood) Common Sense (1993), as well as Free Radical: New Century Essays (2004). In August 2003, London DJ Charles Bailey created an album of Benn's speeches (ISBN 1-904734-03-0) set to ambient groove.

He has made public several episodes of audio diaries he made during his time in Parliament and after retirement, entitled 'The Benn Tapes', broadcast originally on BBC Radio 4. Short series have been played periodically on BBC Radio 7.^[78] A major biography was written by Jad Adams and published by Macmillan in 1992; it was updated to cover the intervening 20 years and reissued by Biteback Publishing in 2011: Tony Benn: A Biography (ISBN 0-333-52558-2) A more recent 'semi-authorised' biography with a foreword by Benn was published in 2001: David Powell, Tony Benn: A Political Life, Continuum Books (ISBN 978-0826464156). An autobiography, Dare to be a Daniel: Then and Now, Hutchinson (ISBN 978-0099471530), was published in 2004.

There are substantial essays on Benn in the Dictionary of Labour Biography by Phillip Whitehead, Greg Rosen [ed], Politicos Publishing, 2001 (ISBN 978-1902301181) and in Labour Forces: From Ernie Bevin to Gordon Brown, Kevin Jefferys [ed], I.B. Tauris Publishing, 2002 (ISBN 978-1860647437). Michael Moore dedicates his book Mike's Election Guide 2008 (ISBN 978-0141039817) to Benn with: "For Tony Benn, keep teaching us".^[79]

Plaques

During his final years in Parliament, Benn placed three plaques within the Houses of Parliament. Two are in the 'Suffragettes room' (next to the Central Lobby). The first was placed in 1995. The second was placed in 1996 and is dedicated to all who work within the Houses of Parliament.

The third is dedicated to Suffragette Emily Wilding-Davison and was placed in the broom cupboard next to the Undercroft Chapel within the Palace of Westminster, where Davison is said to have hidden during the 1911 census in order to establish her address as the House of Commons.^[80]

He unveiled a plaque in Highbury, North London, to commemorate the Peasants' Revolt of 1381.^[81]

See also

• Labour Representation Committee
• Socialist Campaign Group

References

Bibliography

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Tony Benn

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tony Benn.

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Tony Benn
• 'Face-to-Face with Tony Benn'. Freeview video interview by the Vega Science Trust
• Unofficial Tony Benn Quotation site
• Tony Benn's interview with The Third Estate.
• Andrew Roth. Tony Benn Chesterfield and Bristol South East MP, The Guardian, 25 March 2001.
• Guardian web guide to the veteran leftwinger Tony Benn
• Tony Benn interview for Leftfield appearances at the Glastonbury Festival
• Tony Benn. Atomic hypocrisy: West is not in a position to take a high moral line, The Guardian, 30 November 2005.
• Amy Goodman. Interview with Tony Benn: How Britain secretly helped Israel build its nuclear arsenal, Democracy Now!, 10 March 2006.
• Benn in the 1960s as seen by Private Eye
• Audio interview with The Guardian.
• His Address to the College Historical Society of Trinity College
• Interview with Tony Benn – Radio France Internationale – 28 March 2008 – 6-minute audio – Ahead of G20 marches, London
• Tony Benn on Tony Blair: "He Is Guilty of a War Crime" – video report by Democracy Now!

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Stafford Cripps	Member of Parliament for Bristol South East 1950–1960	Succeeded by Malcolm St Clair
Preceded by Peter Baker	Baby of the House 1950	Succeeded by Thomas Leslie Teevan
Preceded by Thomas Leslie Teevan	Baby of the House 1951–1954	Succeeded by John Eden
Preceded by Malcolm St Clair	Member of Parliament for Bristol South East 1963–1983	Succeeded by Constituency Abolished
Preceded by Eric Varley	Member of Parliament for Chesterfield 1984–2001	Succeeded by Paul Holmes
Political offices
Preceded by Reginald Bevins	Postmaster General 1964–1966	Succeeded by Edward Short
Preceded by Frank Cousins	Minister of Technology 1966–1970	Succeeded by Geoffrey Rippon
Preceded by Peter Walker	Secretary of State for Industry 1974–1975	Succeeded by Eric Varley
Preceded by Eric Varley	Secretary of State for Energy 1975–1979	Succeeded by David Howell
Party political offices
Preceded by Ian Mikardo	Chairman of the Labour Party 1971–1972	Succeeded by William Simpson
Non-profit organisation positions
Preceded by Office Created	President of the Stop the War Coalition 2001–present	Incumbent
Order of precedence in England and Wales
Preceded by James Ramsden as a Member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council	Gentlemen as a Member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council	Succeeded by Sir Edward du Cann as a Member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council
Order of precedence in Scotland
Preceded by James Ramsden as a Member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council	Gentlemen as a Member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council	Succeeded by Sir Edward du Cann as a Member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council
Order of precedence in Northern Ireland
Preceded by James Ramsden as a Member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council	Gentlemen as a Member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council	Succeeded by Sir Edward du Cann as a Member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by William Wedgwood Benn	Viscount Stansgate 1960–1963	Succeeded by Disclaimed

v t e Wilson Cabinet Tony Benn James Callaghan Barbara Castle Anthony Crosland Lord Elwyn-Jones Michael Foot Denis Healey Roy Jenkins Harold Lever Roy Mason Bob Mellish John Morris Fred Mulley Stanley Orme Lord Peart Reg Prentice Merlyn Rees Bill Rodgers Willie Ross Lord Shepherd Peter Shore Edward Short John Silkin Eric Varley Shirley Williams Harold Wilson

v t e Callaghan Cabinet Joel Barnett Tony Benn Albert Booth James Callaghan Anthony Crosland Edmund Dell Lord Elwyn-Jones David Ennals Michael Foot Roy Hattersley Denis Healey Roy Jenkins Harold Lever Roy Mason Bruce Millan John Morris Fred Mulley Stanley Orme David Owen Lord Peart Reg Prentice Merlyn Rees Bill Rodgers Lord Shepherd Peter Shore John Silkin John Smith Eric Varley Shirley Williams

v t e Energy Secretaries of the United Kingdom Minister of Fuel, Light and Power Gwilym Lloyd George Manny Shinwell Hugh Gaitskell Philip Noel-Baker Minister of Co-ordination of Transport, Fuel and Power Frederik Leathers Minister of Fuel and Power Geoffrey Lloyd Aubrey Jones Minister of Power Percy Mills Richard Wood Frederick Erroll Minister of Technology Frank Cousins Tony Benn Secretary of State for Trade and Industry John Davies Peter Walker Secretary of State for Energy Lord Carrington Eric Varley Tony Benn David Howell Nigel Lawson Peter Walker Cecil Parkinson John Wakeham President of the Board of Trade and Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Michael Heseltine Ian Lang Margaret Beckett Peter Mandelson Stephen Byers Patricia Hewitt Alan Johnson Alistair Darling Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform John Hutton Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Ed Miliband Chris Huhne Ed Davey

v t e Presidents of the Board of Trade Shaftesbury Bridgewater Stamford Weymouth Stamford Winchilsea Guilford Berkeley Suffolk Holderness Fitzwalter Monson Halifax Sandys Townshend Shelburne Hillsborough Dartmouth Hillsborough Nugent Hillsborough Dartmouth Sackville Carlisle Grantham Sydney Liverpool Montrose Auckland Bathurst Clancarty Robinson Huskisson Grant Vesey-Fitzgerald Herries Auckland Thomson Baring Thomson Labouchere Ripon Gladstone Dalhousie Clarendon Labouchere Henley Cardwell Stanley Henley Dnoughmore Gibson Northcote Richmond Bright Parkinson-Fortescue Adderley Sandon Chamberlain Richmond Stanhope Mundella Stanley Hicks Beach Mundella Bryce Ritchie Balfour Salisbury Lloyd George Churchill Buxton Burns Runciman Stanley Geddes Horne Baldwin Cunliffe-Lister Graham Cunliffe-Lister Runciman Stanley Duncan Lyttelton Duncan Llewellin Dalton Lyttelton Cripps Wilson Shawcross Thorneycroft Eccles Maulding Erroll Heath Jay Crosland Mason Noble Davies Walker Benn Varley Joseph Jenkin Shore Dell Smith Nott Biffen Cockfield Parkinson Tebbit Brittan Channon Young Ridley Lilley Heseltine Lang Beckett Mandelson Byers Hewitt Johnson Darling Hutton Mandelson Cable

v t e British viscounts*   ...of England, ...of Scotland and ...of Great Britain Hereford Falkland Arbuthnott Oxfuird Bolingbroke & St John Cobham Falmouth Torrington Hood   ...of Ireland (pre-1801) Gormanston Mountgarret Valentia Dillon Massereene & Ferrard Charlemont Downe Molesworth Chetwynd Midleton Boyne Gage Galway Powerscourt Ashbrook Southwell de Vesci Lifford Bangor Doneraile Haberton Hawarden   ...of the United Kingdom & ...of Ireland (post-1801) Monck St Vincent Melville Sidmouth Gort Exmouth Combermere Hill Hardinge Gough Bridport Portman Hampden Hambleden Knutsford Esher Goschen Ridley Colville of Culross Churchill Selby Knollys Allendale Chilston Scarsdale Mersey Cowdray Devonport Astor Wimborne St Davids Rothermere Allenby Chelmsford Long Ullswater Younger of Leckie Bearsted Craigavon Bridgeman Hailsham Brentford Buckmaster Bledisloe Hanworth Trenchard Samuel Runciman of Doxford Davidson Weir Caldecote Simon Camrose Stansgate (d) Margesson Daventry Addison Kemsley Marchwood Alanbrooke Montgomery of Alamein Waverley Thurso Brookeborough Norwich Leathers Soulbury Chandos Malvern De L'Isle Monckton of Brenchley Tenby Mackintosh of Halifax Dunrossil Stuart of Findhorn Rochdale Slim Head Boyd of Merton Mills Blakenham Eccles Dilhorne *Current substantive viscounts, listed by precedence, from highest to lowest

v t e Labour Party deputy leadership election, 1981 Re-Elected Deputy Leader: Denis Healey Tony Benn Denis Healey John Silkin

v t e Question Time Presenters Sir Robin Day (1979–1989) Peter Sissons (1989–1993) David Dimbleby (1994–present) Guest presenters Robert McKenzie (1980 and 1981) Ludovic Kennedy (1982 and 1983) Donald MacCormick (1985) Sue Lawley (1985 and 1987) John Humphrys (12 November 2009) Ten highest appearance makers Shirley Williams Kenneth Clarke Sir Menzies Campbell Clare Short Charles Kennedy Harriet Harman Roy Hattersley Michael Heseltine Robin Cook Tony Benn Episodes List of Question Time episodes British National Party controversy

Authority control WorldCat VIAF: 109553597 LCCN: n81072696 ISNI: 0000 0001 0933 403X GND: 118983296 BNF: cb122949065

Persondata
Name	Benn, Tony
Alternative names	Benn, Anthony Neil Wedgwood; 2nd Viscount Stansgate
Short description	British politician on the left of the Labour Party
Date of birth	3 April 1925
Place of birth	Marylebone, London, England
Date of death
Place of death