'Anthony "Tony" Neil Wedgwood Benn' (born
3 April 1925), formerly '2nd Viscount Stansgate', is a
British socialist politician. He was instrumental in the creation of the
Peerage Act 1963. A popular speaker, he is known for his eccentric sense of humour. During the 1970s and 1980s he was the prominent figure on the
left of the
Labour Party. In the second government of
Harold Wilson he was Secretary of State for Industry. In the government of
James Callaghan he was Secretary of State for Energy. After
John Parker he is Labour's longest serving member of parliament. He is known as one of the few politicians to have become more left-wing after holding ministerial office.
[1] He also has become ever more interested in the grass roots politics of strikes, demonstrations and meetings, and ever less in parliamentary activities. He has been a
vegetarian since the 1970s.
The term "Bennite" has come to be used in Britain for someone of a radical but democratic left-wing position.
[2]
Early Life
Benn's paternal grandfather was
Sir John Benn, 1st Baronet and his father was the 1st
Viscount Stansgate. In October
1973 he announced on BBC radio that he wished to be known as "Mr. Tony Benn". His book ''Speeches'' from 1974 is credited to Tony Benn, but much of the media persisted with Anthony Wedgwood Benn into the late 1980s. He was frequently known to the public as Wedgwood Benn or "Wedgy Benn", the latter usually with pejorative connotations.
His father
William Wedgwood Benn was a
Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) who defected to Labour and was later elevated to the
House of Lords with the title of 1st Viscount Stansgate. Both his grandfathers Sir
John Williams Benn (who founded the family publishing house) and Daniel Holmes were also Liberal MPs (respectively, for St. George's,
Tower Hamlets,
Devonport and
Glasgow Govan). Benn's contact with leading people of the day thus goes back to his earliest years as a result of his family's profile; he met
David Lloyd George when he was twelve and
Gandhi in 1931 while his father was
Secretary of State for India.
His mother
Margaret Eadie (née Holmes) (1897-1991), was a dedicated
theologian, founder President of the Congregational Federation and
feminist. She was 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 then
Archbishop of Canterbury, for advocating the
ordination of women. This would prove that she was ahead of her time, as it would happen over 60 years later. His mother's theology had a profound influence on Tony, as she taught him to support the prophets and not the Kings, as the prophets taught righteousness.
He was a pupil at
Westminster School and studied at
New College, Oxford during which time he was elected as President of the
Oxford Union. 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 of his biography 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 his draft entry with everything else struck through.
[3] In the 1977 edition, Benn's entry disappeared entirely.
[4]
Benn met US-born
Caroline Middleton DeCamp (Born
13 October 1926) (from
Cincinnati,
Ohio, daughter of a lawyer) 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 house in
Holland Park. Tony and Caroline had four children -
Stephen,
Hilary,
Melissa (a journalist) and Joshua, and ten grandchildren. Caroline Benn died of
cancer on
22 November 2000 aged 74 after a career as a prominent educationalist.
In July 1943, Benn joined the
Royal Air Force.
[5] His father and brother Michael (who was later killed in action) were already serving in the RAF in 1943. Whilst holding the rank of
pilot officer, Tony Benn served as a pilot in
South Africa and
Rhodesia.
[6]
His children have also been active in politics and his son
Hilary is a Labour MP and was previously
Secretary of State for International Development; he is now the Environment Secretary. This makes him the third generation of his family to have sat in the
Cabinet of the Government of the United Kingdom, a rare distinction for a modern political family in Britain.
Tony Benn was a cousin of the late
actress, Dame
Margaret Rutherford.
Member of Parliament
Following his
World War II service as a pilot in the Royal Air Force, Benn worked briefly as a
BBC Radio producer. He was unexpectedly selected to follow
Stafford Cripps as Labour candidate for
Bristol South East and won the seat in a
by-election 30 November 1950 after Cripps stood down for ill health.
Anthony Crosland helped him get the seat as he was MP for nearby South Gloucestershire at the time and nicknamed Benn "Jimmy" from knowing him at Oxford University. In
1951 Benn became the youngest MP, or "
Baby of the House". Benn in the 1950s was an MP with middle-of-the-road or soft left views.
Peerage reform
Benn's father had been created
Viscount Stansgate in
1942 when
Winston Churchill offered to increase the number of Labour Peers; at this time Benn's older brother Michael was intending to enter the priesthood and had no objections to inheriting a
peerage. However Michael was later killed on active service in the Second World War, and this left Benn as the heir to a peerage. He made several attempts to remove himself from the line of succession but they were all unsuccessful.
In November
1960, Benn's father died and as a result he was prevented from sitting in the
House of Commons. Still insisting on his right to abandon his unwelcome peerage, Benn fought to retain his seat in the
by-election on 4 May 1961 caused by his succession. Although he was disqualified from taking his seat, the people of Bristol South-East re-elected him. An election court found that the voters were fully aware that Benn was disqualified, and gave the seat to the
Conservative runner up in the by-election,
Malcolm St Clair, ironically the son of a peer too.
Outside Parliament Benn continued his campaign, and eventually the Conservative government accepted the need for a change in the law. The
Peerage Act 1963, allowing renunciation of peerages, was given the
Royal Assent and became law shortly after 6 p.m. on
31 July 1963. Benn was the first peer to renounce his title, at 6.22 p.m. that day. St. Clair had already given an undertaking that he would respect the wishes of the people of Bristol if Benn became eligible to take his seat again, and therefore took the
Manor of Northstead (i.e. resigned his seat) immediately. Benn returned to the Commons after winning a
by-election on 20 August.
In government (1964-1970)
In the
1960s government of
Harold Wilson he became
Postmaster General; during his time in that position, he oversaw the opening of the
Post Office Tower, the creation of the Postal Bus Service and the introduction of the UK's first commemorative postage stamps to be designed by
David Gentleman. He proposed issuing stamps without the Sovereign's head, but this met with private opposition from the
Queen. Instead, the portrait was reduced to a small profile in silhouette, a format that is still often used on stamps today.
[7] He later became Minister of Technology, a post which allowed his enthusiasm for gadgets to shine through, including responsibility for overseeing the development of
Concorde, as well as the formation of
International Computers Ltd. (ICL).
Labour lost the
1970 general election to
Edward Heath's
Conservatives. Heath applied to join the
European Economic Community and Benn campaigned for a referendum on the UK's membership. The Shadow Cabinet voted for a referendum on
29 March 1972 and as a result
Roy Jenkins resigned as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party.
In government (1974-1979): the move to the left
Tony Benn debating British membership of the EEC on Panorama in 1975.
In the Labour government of
1974 Benn became
Secretary of State for Industry, but in
1975 he was moved to
Secretary of State for Energy, following his unsuccessful campaign for a "No" vote in the
referendum on the UK's membership of the EEC. By his own admission in his diary (
25 October 1977), Benn "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."
[8]
Wilson resigned as Leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister in 1976. Benn entered the
leadership contest but gained only 37 votes in the first ballot, coming fourth. Benn then withdrew from the second ballot and supported
Michael Foot for the leadership but
James Callaghan won instead. There was then a
sterling crisis and Callaghan and the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Healey, sought to gain a loan from the
International Monetary Fund. Benn circulated amongst Ministers the Cabinet minutes from the
1931 minority Labour government of
Ramsay MacDonald which cut unemployment benefits to secure a loan from American bankers and resulted in splitting the Labour Party. Callaghan allowed Benn to put forward his "alternative economic strategy", which consisted of a
siege economy. However this plan was rejected by the Cabinet.
By the end of the 1970s Benn had migrated to the left-wing of the Labour Party. Benn attributed this political shift to his experience as a minister in the 1964-1970 Labour government. Benn wrote:
As a minister, I experienced 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. Compared to this, the pressure brought to bear in industrial disputes is minuscule. This power was revealed even more clearly in 1976 when the IMF secured cuts in our public expenditure. These 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.[9]
Benn's philosophy became known as "
Bennism", which consisted of a form of
syndicalism, economic planning, greater democracy in the structures of the Labour Party and observance of Party conference decisions by the Party leadership.
[10] Benn was vilified in the press and his enemies implied a Benn-led Labour government would implement a type of East European socialism.
[11] Conversely, Benn was overwhelmingly popular with Labour activists. A survey of Labour Conference delegates of
1978 found that by large margins they supported Benn for the leadership and many Bennite policies.
[12]
He publicly supported
Sinn Féin and the unification of Ireland, although he has recently suggested to Sinn Féin leaders that Sinn Féin abandon its long-standing policy of not taking seats at Westminster. Sinn Féin argue that to do so would recognise Britain's claim over
Northern Ireland and the Sinn Féin constitution prevents its elected members from taking their seats in any British-created institution.
In opposition
In a keynote speech to the Labour Party Conference of
1980, Benn outlined what he envisaged the next Labour government would do. "Within days" a Labour government would grant powers to nationalise industries, control capital and implement industrial democracy; "within weeks" all powers from Brussels would be returned to Westminster and then they would abolish the
House of Lords by the creation of a thousand peers and then by abolishing the peerage. Benn received a tumultuous applause from the audience.
In
1981 he stood for election against the incumbent
Denis Healey as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, disregarding the appeal from party leader
Michael Foot either to stand for the leadership or to abstain from inflaming the party's divisions. Benn defended his decision with an insistence that it was "not about personalities but about policies." The contest was closely fought and Healey emerged victorious by a margin of barely 1%. The decision of several moderate left wing MPs, including
Neil Kinnock, to abstain from supporting Benn triggered the split of the
Campaign Group from the left of the
Tribune Group.
After
Argentina had
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 was soon back in British hands. 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 countered by Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher stating 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", apparently unaware of Benn's RAF service and the loss of his brother Michael in
World War II.
[1]
Benn's Bristol South-East constituency was abolished by boundary changes in
1983, and he lost the selection battle to stand in the safe seat of
Bristol South to
Michael Cocks. Rejecting offers from the new seat of
Livingston in Scotland, Benn fought and was defeated in
Bristol East by
Conservative candidate
Jonathan Sayeed. As the darling of Labour activists it was not surprising that he was selected for the first Labour seat to fall vacant, and he was elected as MP for
Chesterfield in a by-election the following year when
Eric Varley resigned his seat 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, a clear attempt to influence the voters. In fact, the psychiatrist had been fed ''The Sun's'' anonymous version of Benn. In the intervening period, since Benn's defeat in Bristol, another leadership election had taken place in which
Neil Kinnock won, and which Benn was not able to contest because he was not an MP.
He was a prominent supporter of the
1984-1985 miners' strike and his long-standing friend, the
National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) leader
Arthur Scargill. Some miners though considered Benn's 1977 industry reforms to have led to problems during the strike: firstly, they led to huge wage differences and distrust between miners of different regions; secondly, 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 were.
He stood for
election as Party Leader in
1988 and was defeated again. In the first
Gulf War he was active in the anti-war movement and visited Baghdad (after
Edward Heath) to persuade
Saddam Hussein to release the hostages who had been captured. He was also one of the very few MPs to oppose the
Kosovo War. In
1991, he proposed the
Commonwealth of Britain Bill. It proposed abolishing the
British monarchy, with the
United Kingdom becoming a "
democratic,
federal and
secular commonwealth", in effect, a
republic with a written constitution. It was read in
Parliament a number of times until his retirement in 2001, but never achieved a
second reading.
Retirement
In
2001 he retired from Parliament but remains involved in politics. 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. Benn claimed that his retirement allowed him to "devote more time to politics", suggesting that for him 'real politics' is about struggle rather than parliamentary procedure. He became a leading figure of the British opposition to the
War on Iraq, and in
February 2003 he travelled to
Baghdad to again meet (and interview)
Saddam Hussein. The interview was shown on British television. He also spoke out against the Iraq war at the February 2003 protest in London organised by the
Stop the War Coalition, attended by over 1 million people. In
February 2004 he was elected the first President of the
Stop the War Coalition.
He has toured with a one-man stage show, and also appears regularly 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. In
2002 he opened the "Left Field" stage at the
Glastonbury Festival. In
October 2003 Benn was a guest of
British Airways on the last-ever scheduled
Concorde flight from
New York to
London. In
June 2005 Benn was a panellist on a special edition of
BBC1's ''
Question Time'' (shown
30 June 2005). The special edition was edited entirely by a school age film crew selected by a BBC competition.
On
21 June 2005 Benn presented a show 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 remain unelected and unaccountable to those whose lives they affect daily.
On
27 September 2005 Benn was taken ill at the
Labour Party Conference in
Brighton and 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 to be kept in hospital for observation but was described as being in "comfortable condition". He was subsequently fitted with an
artificial pacemaker to help regulate his heartbeat. In a list compiled by the magazine ''
New Statesman'' in 2006, he was voted twelfth in the list of "Heroes of our time"
[13].
Tony Benn attacks John Bolton on the BBC's Question Time programme in 2007.
In
September 2006, Benn joined the "Time to Go" Demonstration in Manchester the day before the start of the final Labour 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 along with other politicians and journalists including
George Galloway and members of the
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. In
2007, he appeared in an extended segment in the
Michael Moore film ''
Sicko'' giving comments about democracy, social responsibility, and health care.
A poll by the
BBC2 ''
The Daily Politics'' programme in
January 2007 selected Benn as the UK's "Political hero" with 38.22% of the vote, beating
Baroness Thatcher with 35.3% and five other contenders including
Alex Salmond, leader of the
Scottish National Party;
Clare Short, independent MP;
Neil Kinnock, previous
Labour Party leader;
Norman Tebbit, previous
Conservative Party chairman and
Shirley Williams, one of the 'gang of four' who founded the
Social Democratic Party.
[14]
Tony Benn backed the left wing MP
John McDonnell in his unsuccessful bid to be leader of the Labour Party in
May 2007.
Aphorisms
★ He is known for saying (in connection with his placing of a plaque in memory of
Emily Davison in the House of Commons) "Never ask the authorities for permission - it takes up so much of your time!"
★ "It's very interesting to me that some ex-communists in the Labour party have been able to shift from Stalin to Blair and it hasn't been much of a shift... the shift from Stalin to Blair is a minor adjustment."
[15].
★ "All war represents a failure of diplomacy."
[3]
★ "There is no moral difference between a Stealth bomber and a suicide bomber. They both kill innocent people for political reasons."
[4]
★ "If we can find the money to kill people, we can find the money to help people."
[16]
Diaries and biographies
Tony Benn is a prolific
diarist: seven volumes of his diaries have been published (the first six collected as ISBN 0-09-963411-2, the latest available as ISBN 0-09-941502-X). He also wrote ''Arguments for Socialism'' (1979), ''Arguments for Democracy'' (1981) 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 also made public several episodes of audio diaries he made during his time in Parliament and after retirement. Short series of these have been played periodically on
BBC 7 Radio.
A major biography was written by Jad Adams and published by Macmillan in 1992. Tony Benn: A Biography (ISBN 0-333-52558-2)
There are substantial essays on Tony Benn in both the ''Dictionary of Labour Biography'', (Greg Rosen [ed],
Politicos Publishing, 2001) and in ''Labour Forces'' (Kevin Jefferys [ed],
I. B. Taurus Publishing, 2002).
A 'semi-authorised' biography, with a foreword by Benn, was published in 2001: David Powell, ''Tony Benn: A Political Life'', Continuum Books.
[17] An autobiography, ''Dare to be a Daniel: Then and Now'' (Hutchinson), was published in 2004.
References
1. Tony Benn, ''Dare to be A Daniel: Then and Now'' (Arrow Books, 2006, ISBN 0-09-947153-1), p.166
2. Socialist Review, February 1997 - Does Labours Left Have an Alternative?
3. "Mr Benn wipes away his past", The Times Diary, ''The Times'', 18 March 1976.
4. "Not Out", The Times Diary, ''The Times'', 4 April 1977.
5. Tony Benn, ''The Biography Channel''. Retrieved on 2 April 2007.
6. William Wedgwood Benn, ''Spartacus Educational''. Retrieved on 2 April 2007.
7. 80 fascinating facts about the Queen, ''The Scotsman'', 11 April 2006 (the first of the "10 more things you may not know" near the bottom discusses postage stamps)
8. Tony Benn, ''The Benn Diaries'' (Arrow, 1995), p. 432.
9. Tony Benn, ''Out of the Wilderness: Diaries 1963-7'', Introduction
10. Dennis Kavanagh, 'Tony Benn: Nuisance or Conscience?', in Kavanagh (ed.), ''Politics and Personalities'' (Macmillan, 1990), p. 184.
11. Ibid., p. 178.
12. Paul Whiteley and Ian Gordon, 'The Labour Party: Middle Class, Militant and Male', ''New Statesman'', 11 January 1980, pp. 41-42.
13. New Statesman
14. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/politics_show/6161847.stm
15. [2]
16. Interview in the movie "Sicko"
17. Benn's autobiography
Bibliography
'''Diaries:'''
★ Benn, Tony: "The Benn Diaries, 1940-90", Arrow Books Ltd (2005)
★ Benn, Tony: "Years of Hope: Diaries, Letters and Papers, 1940-62", Arrow Books Ltd (1995)
★ Benn, Tony: "Out of the Wilderness: Diaries, 1963-67", Arrow Books Ltd (1988)
★ Benn, Tony: "Office Without Power: Diaries, 1968-72", Arrow Books Ltd (1989)
★ Benn, Tony: "Against the Tide: Diaries, 1973-77", Arrow Books Ltd (1990)
★ Benn, Tony: "Conflicts of Interest: Diaries, 1977-80", Arrow Books Ltd (1991)
★ Benn, Tony: "The End of an Era: Diaries 1980-90", Arrow Books Ltd (1994)
★ Benn, Tony: "Free at Last!: Diaries, 1991-2001", Arrow Books Ltd (2003)
★ Benn, Tony: "More Time for Politics: Diaries 2001-2007", Hutchinson (TO BE PUBLISHED- 4th October 2007)
'''Essays/ Biography etc'''
★ Benn, Tony: "Levellers and the English Democratic Tradition", Spokesman Books (1976)
★ Benn, Tony: "Why America Needs Democratic Socialism", Spokesman Books (1978)
★ Benn, Tony: "Prospects", Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers, Technical, Administrative and Supervisory Section (1979)
★ Benn, Tony: "Case for Constitutional Civil Service", Inst. for Workers' Control (1980)
★ Benn, Tony: "Case for Party Democracy", Inst. for Workers' Control (1980)
★ Benn, Tony: "Arguments for Socialism", Penguin Books Ltd (1980)
★ Benn, Tony: "Arguments for Democracy", Jonathan Cape (1981)
★ Benn, Tony: "European Unity: A New Perspective", Spokesman Books (1981)
★ Benn, Tony: "Parliament and Power: Agenda for a Free Society", Verso Books (1982)
★ Benn, Tony & Hood, Andrew: "Common Sense: New Constitution for Britain", Hutchinson (1993)
★ Benn, Tony: "Free Radical: New Century Essays", Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd (2004)
★ Benn, Tony: "Dare to Be a Daniel: Then and Now", Arrow Books Ltd (2005)
External links
★
Tony Benn Official site (currently unavailable until further notice - October 2006)
★
Unofficial Tony Benn site with extensive interview, articles, audio & visual
★
Tony Benn Podcast From
Channel 4 Radio, a single 15-minute episode where Tony Benn presents personal thoughts on government, society and control.
★ 'Face-to-Face with Tony Benn'.
Freeview video interview by the Vega Science Trust
★
Transcript of Tony Benn's interview with Saddam
★
Tony Benn: End of an era
★
Andrew Roth.
Tony Benn Chesterfield and Bristol South East MP, ''
The Guardian'',
25 March 2001.
★
Tony Benn: A Political Life ISBN 0-8264-5699-5
★
''Guardian'' web guide to the veteran leftwinger Tony Benn
★
Tony Benn interview for Leftfield appearances at the
Glastonbury Festival
★
Tony Benn speaking at Anti-War event Manchester, UK, February, 2005 - 20 minute video on the
Internet Archive
★
Tony Benn speaking at Anti-War event in Manchester, UK, 15th March 2006 - 25 minute video on the
Internet Archive
★ 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.
★
The Commonwealth - UK government site
★
Benn in the 1960s as seen by ''
Private Eye''
★
[5] audio interview with ''The Guardian''.
★
His Address to the
College Historical Society of Trinity College
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