Tony Benn

English Statesman - [b.1925]

Baby-Biography

Anthony Wedgwood Benn is born on the 3rd April 1925. In 1941, his father, William Wedgwood Benn MP, is made a peer, 'Lord Stansgate'. The following year, Tony Benn graduates from Westminster School to New College, Oxford. On the 24th July 1943, Benn joins the R.A.F. to train as a pilot. His elder brother, Michael, an R.A.F. pilot since 1940, is killed in action in 1944. On the 10th March 1945, Benn gains his pilot's wings whilst stationed in Africa.

After the war, Benn completes his studies at New College, during which time he is elected President of the Oxford Union. He briefly works as a producer with the B.B.C. North American Service until, pursuing a political career, he is elected a Labour MP for Bristol South East on 30th November 1950. In 1959, he is elected to the Labour Party's National Executive Committee. He remains a member until 1993.

Upon the death of his father in 1960, Benn succeeds to the peerage and is automatically disqualified from the House of Commons. He fights to avoid inheriting his seat in the Lords and successfully forces a change in the law, returning to the Commons as MP for Bristol South East in 1963. During his political career he maintains a high profile as a campaigner for freedom of information and open government, an opposer of violent intervention and nuclear proliferation, and an outspoken champion of socialism.

Under Labour administrations he is appointed Postmaster General (1964-1966), Minister of Technology (1966-1970), Secretary of State for Industry and Minister for Post and Telecommunications (1974-1975), and Secretary of State for Energy (1975-1979). In 1981, he narrowly misses appointment as deputy leader of his party. Attempts to be elected leader in 1976 and 1988 prove less successful.

In 1983, Benn loses his Bristol South East seat. In a by-election the following year, he is elected Labour MP for Chesterfield. He is a controversial ideological activist within his party throughout the Conservative terms of office in the 1980s and early 1990s. Upon Labour's return to government in 1997, Benn remains firmly on the back-benches, disliking 'New Labour' which he sees as a means of dismantling socialism.

In 2001, Benn stands down from his Chesterfield seat to "devote more time to politics".

Phespirit's Hero

Phespirit does not agree with all Tony Benn's political ideology;
Benn is a little too far to the left even for dyed-in-the-wool red Phespirit.

Phespirit does not agree with all Tony Benn's political activities;
Benn's actions in putting idealism ahead of realism cost both Labour and Britain dear in the Eighties.

But Phespirit considers a Tony Benn a hero for:

retaining that rarest of qualities in politics ..... integrity;
espousing only what he firmly believes and doing so with a passion;
bringing genuine life experiences to the House of Commons from both sides of the class divide;
remaining a political character in an era of political clones.

Long live Tony Benn!