Editing Tony Benn

{{Short description|British politician and activist (1925–2014)}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2012}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2023}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix    = [[The Right Honourable]]
| birthname           = Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn
| honorific-suffix    = 
| image               = Tony Benn2.jpg
| alt                 = Smiling Tony Benn
| caption             = Benn in 2006
| office11              = President of the [[Stop the War Coalition]]
| vicepresident11       = [[Lindsey German]]
| 1blankname11          = Chairman
| 1namedata11           = {{plainlist|
* [[Andrew Murray (trade unionist)|Andrew Murray]]
* [[Jeremy Corbyn]]
}}
| term_start11          = 21 September 2001
| term_end11            = 14 March 2014
| predecessor11         = [[Stop the War Coalition#Formation and leading members|''Position established'']]
| successor11           = [[Brian Eno]]
| office1             = [[Secretary of State for Energy]]
| primeminister1      = {{plainlist|
* [[Harold Wilson]]
* [[James Callaghan]]
}}
| term_start1         = 10 June 1975
| term_end1           = 4 May 1979
| predecessor1        = [[Eric Varley]]
| successor1          = [[David Howell, Baron Howell of Guildford|David Howell]]
| office2             = [[Secretary of State for Industry]]
| primeminister2      = [[Harold Wilson]]
| term_start2         = 5 March 1974
| term_end2           = 10 June 1975
| predecessor2        = [[Peter Walker, Baron Walker of Worcester|Peter Walker]] ([[Department of Trade and Industry (United Kingdom)|Trade and Industry]])
| successor2          = [[Eric Varley]]
| office3             = [[Chairman of the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party]]
| leader3             = [[Harold Wilson]]
| term_start3         = 20 September 1971
| term_end3           = 25 September 1972
| predecessor3        = [[Ian Mikardo]]
| successor3          = [[William Simpson (trade unionist)|William Simpson]]
| office4             = [[Minister of Technology]]
| primeminister4      = [[Harold Wilson]]
| term_start4         = 4 July 1966
| term_end4           = 19 June 1970
| predecessor4        = [[Frank Cousins (British politician)|Frank Cousins]]
| successor4          = [[Geoffrey Rippon]]
| office5             = [[Postmaster General of the United Kingdom|Postmaster General]]
| primeminister5      = [[Harold Wilson]]
| term_start5         = 15 October 1964
| term_end5           = 4 July 1966
| predecessor5        = [[Reginald Bevins]]
| successor5          = [[Edward Short, Baron Glenamara|Edward Short]]
{{collapsed infobox section begin |last=yes |Parliamentary offices
 |titlestyle=border:1px dashed lightgrey;}}{{Infobox officeholder |embed=yes
|parliament7      = United Kingdom
|constituency_MP7 = [[Chesterfield (UK Parliament constituency)|Chesterfield]]
|term_start7      = 2 March 1984
|term_end7        = 14 May 2001
|predecessor7     = [[Eric Varley]]
|successor7       = [[Paul Holmes (Liberal Democrat politician)|Paul Holmes]]
|constituency_MP8 = [[Bristol South East]]
|term_start8      = 20 August 1963
|term_end8        = 13 May 1983
|predecessor8     = [[Malcolm St Clair (politician)|Malcolm St Clair]]
|successor8       = ''Constituency abolished''
|term_start9      = 30 November 1950
|term_end9        = 17 November 1960
|predecessor9     = [[Stafford Cripps]]
|successor9       = [[Malcolm St Clair (politician)|Malcolm St Clair]]
|office10         = [[Member of the House of Lords]]
|status10         = [[Lord Temporal]]
|term_label10     = [[Hereditary peer]]age
|term_start10     = 17 November 1960
|term_end10       = 31 July 1963
|predecessor10    = [[William Wedgwood Benn, 1st Viscount Stansgate|The 1st Viscount Stansgate]]
|successor10      = [[Stephen Benn, 3rd Viscount Stansgate|The 3rd Viscount Stansgate]] (2021)
{{Collapsed infobox section end}}}}
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|df=yes|1925|4|3}}
| birth_place         = London, England
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2014|3|14|1925|4|3}}
| death_place         = London, England
| party               = [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]]
| otherparty          = [[Socialist Campaign Group]]<ref name="Seyd 1987 165">{{cite book |last=Seyd |first=Patrick |title=The Rise and Fall of the Labour Left |publisher=Macmillan Education |year=1987 |page=165 |isbn=978-0-333-44748-2}}</ref>
| spouse              = {{marriage|[[Caroline Benn|Caroline DeCamp]]|17 June 1949|22 November 2000|reason=died}}
| children            = 4, including [[Stephen Benn, 3rd Viscount Stansgate|Stephen]], [[Hilary Benn|Hilary]] and [[Melissa Benn|Melissa]]
| father              = [[William Wedgwood Benn, 1st Viscount Stansgate|William Wedgwood Benn]]
| mother              = [[Margaret Benn, Viscountess Stansgate|Margaret Holmes]]
| relatives           = [[Emily Benn]] (granddaughter)
| education           = [[Westminster School]]
| alma_mater          = [[New College, Oxford]]
| allegiance          = United Kingdom
| branch              = [[Royal Air Force]]
| rank                = [[Pilot officer]]
| battles             = [[World War II]]
| signature           = Tony Benn signature.svg
| module              = {{Listen|pos=center|embed=yes|filename=Tony Benn on the causes of political apathy.ogg|title=Tony Benn's voice|type=speech|description=Benn on the causes of [[political apathy]]<br />Recorded November 2012}}
}}
'''Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn''' (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as '''Viscount Stansgate''', was a British [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] politician and political activist who served as a [[Cabinet of the United Kingdom|Cabinet minister]] in the 1960s and 1970s. He was the [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Bristol South East]] and [[Chesterfield (UK Parliament constituency)|Chesterfield]] for 47 of the 51 years between [[1950 Bristol South East by-election|1950]] and [[2001 United Kingdom general election|2001]]. He later served as President of the [[Stop the War Coalition]] from 2001 to 2014.

The son of a [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] and later Labour Party politician, Benn was born in [[Westminster]] and privately educated at [[Westminster School]]. He was elected for Bristol South East at the [[1950 United Kingdom general election|1950 general election]] but inherited [[Viscount Stansgate|his father's peerage]] on his death, which prevented him from continuing to serve as an MP. He fought to remain in the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] and campaigned for the ability to renounce the title, a campaign which eventually succeeded with the [[Peerage Act 1963]]. He was an active member of the [[Fabian Society]] and served as chairman from 1964 to 1965. He served in [[Harold Wilson]]'s [[Labour government, 1964–1970|Labour government]], first as [[Postmaster General of the United Kingdom|Postmaster General]], where he oversaw the opening of the [[Post Office Tower]], and later as [[Minister of Technology]].

Benn served as [[National Executive Committee (Labour Party)|Chairman of the National Executive Committee]] from 1971 to 1972 while in [[His Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition|Opposition]]. In the [[Labour government of 1974–1979]], he returned to the Cabinet as [[Secretary of State for Industry]] and subsequently served as [[Department of Energy (United Kingdom)|Secretary of State for Energy]]. He retained that post when [[James Callaghan]] succeeded Wilson as [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]]. When the Labour Party was in opposition through the 1980s, he emerged as a prominent figure on the left wing of the party and unsuccessfully [[1988 Labour Party leadership election (UK)|challenged Neil Kinnock]] for the Labour leadership in 1988. After leaving Parliament at the 2001 general election, Benn was President of the Stop the War Coalition until his death in 2014.

Benn was widely seen as a key proponent of [[democratic socialism]] and [[Christian socialism]], though in regards to the latter he supported the United Kingdom becoming a [[secular state]] and [[disestablishmentarianism|ending]] the [[Church of England]]'s status as an official church of the United Kingdom.<ref>{{cite news |last= White |first= Michael |date= 14 March 2014 |title= Tony Benn: the establishment insider turned leftwing outsider |url= https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/14/tony-benn-dies-establishment-insider-turned-leftwing-outsider |newspaper= The Guardian |access-date= 22 September 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last= Rush |first= Martyn |date= 26 February 2021 |title= Tony Benn's Plan to Democratise Britain – and Abolish the Monarchy |url= https://tribunemag.co.uk/2021/02/tony-benns-plan-to-democratise-britain-and-abolish-the-monarchy/ |work= Tribune |access-date= 22 September 2022}}</ref> Originally considered a moderate within the party, he was identified as belonging to its left wing after leaving ministerial office. The terms '''Bennism''' and '''Bennite''' came into usage to describe the [[left-wing politics]] he espoused from the late 1970s and its adherents. He was an influence on the political views of [[Jeremy Corbyn]], who was [[2015 Labour Party leadership election (UK)|elected Leader of the Labour Party]] a year after Benn's death, and [[John McDonnell]], who served as [[Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer]] under Corbyn.

==Early life and family==
Benn was born in Westminster, London,<ref>Oxford National Biography.</ref> on 3 April 1925.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tonybenn.com/Biography.html|title=Tony Benn – Official Website|publisher=tonybenn.com|access-date=2 May 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030207081541/http://www.tonybenn.com/Biography.html|archive-date=7 February 2003}}</ref> He had two brothers, Michael (1921–1944), who was killed in the Second World War, and David (1928–2017), a specialist in Russia and Eastern Europe.<ref>{{cite news|last=Webb|first=Alban|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/mar/01/david-wedgwood-benn-obituary|title=David Wedgwood Benn obituary|newspaper=The Guardian|date=1 March 2017|access-date=2 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170301190056/https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/mar/01/david-wedgwood-benn-obituary|archive-date=1 March 2017|url-status=live}} The youngest of his brothers, Jeremy, was still-born.</ref> Following the [[1928 Thames flood|Thames flood in January 1928]] their house was uninhabitable so the Benn family moved to Scotland for over 12 months.<ref>Tony Benn - A biography - Jad Adams (p. 8).</ref> Their father, [[William Wedgwood Benn, 1st Viscount Stansgate|William Benn]], was a [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] Member of Parliament from 1906 who [[crossed the floor]] to the Labour Party in 1928 and was appointed [[Secretary of State for India]] by [[Ramsay MacDonald]] in 1929, a position he held until the Labour Party's landslide [[1931 United Kingdom general election|electoral defeat in 1931]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://greatwarlondon.wordpress.com/2014/07/14/william-wedgwood-benn-mp-and-war-hero/|title=William Wedgwood Benn, MP and war hero|date=14 July 2014|work=Great War London|access-date=3 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180903150915/https://greatwarlondon.wordpress.com/2014/07/14/william-wedgwood-benn-mp-and-war-hero/|archive-date=3 September 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

William Benn was elevated to the [[House of Lords]] and Tony Benn was subsequently titled with the honorific prefix, ''The Honourable.'' William Benn was given the title of [[Viscount Stansgate]] in 1942: the [[Churchill war ministry|new wartime coalition government]] was short of working Labour peers in the upper house.<ref>{{cite ODNB|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/30705?docPos=2|title=Benn, William Wedgwood|url-access=subscription |last1=Hale|first1=Leslie|last2=Potter|first2=Mark| date=January 2008|access-date=2 May 2010|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/30705}}</ref> In 1945–46, William Benn was the [[Secretary of State for Air]] in the [[Attlee ministry|first majority Labour Government]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1551373/The-Benn-dynasty.html|title=The Benn dynasty|last=Watts|first=Robert|journal=Daily Telegraph|date=12 May 2007|access-date=3 September 2018|issn=0307-1235|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180903151026/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1551373/The-Benn-dynasty.html|archive-date=3 September 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

Benn's mother, [[Margaret Benn]] (''née'' Holmes, 1897–1991), was a 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 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 mostly about 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]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Benn|first=Tony|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UsYKitlTrdYC&q=tony+benn+free+radical|title=Free Radical|year=2003|publisher=Continuum|page=226|isbn=978-0-8264-6596-2}}</ref>

Benn was for over 30 years a committed Christian.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.historytoday.com/archive/forgotten-world-christian-socialism|title=The Forgotten World of Christian Socialism &#124; History Today|website=www.historytoday.com}}</ref> He said that the teachings of [[Jesus Christ]] had a "radical political importance" on his life, and made a distinction between the [[historical Jesus]] as "a carpenter of Nazareth" who advocated social justice and egalitarianism and "the way in which he's presented by some religious authorities; by popes, archbishops and bishops who present Jesus as justification for their power", believing this to be a gross misunderstanding of the role of Jesus.<ref name=TBJesus>{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8qC8KKdkeU|title=Tony Benn on Jesus|format=YouTube video|work=YouTube|publisher=[[Channel 4]]|access-date=29 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923124906/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8qC8KKdkeU|archive-date=23 September 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> He believed that it was a "great mistake" to assume that the teachings of Christianity are outdated in modern Britain,<ref name=TBJesus /> and Higgins wrote in ''The Benn Inheritance'' that Benn was "a socialist whose political commitment owes much more to the teaching of Jesus than the writing of Marx".<ref name="Higgins1984">{{cite book|first=Sydney |last=Higgins|title=The Benn Inheritance: The Story of a Radical Family|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1aRhQgAACAAJ|year=1984|publisher=Weidenfeld and Nicolson|isbn=978-0-297-78524-8|access-date=8 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170320151423/https://books.google.com/books?id=1aRhQgAACAAJ|archive-date=20 March 2017|url-status=live}} Quoted in {{cite news|last1=Brown|first1=Rob|title=Vital key to the real Tony Benn|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=vMtAAAAAIBAJ&pg=4768%2C5509048|access-date=4 May 2016|newspaper=The Glasgow Herald|date=27 September 1984|page=8}}</ref> (Indeed, he did not read ''[[The Communist Manifesto]]'' until he was in his 50s.<ref name="theguardian.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/22/tony-benn-peter-wilby-reads-diaries|title=Tony Benn: Peter Wilby reads the diaries|date=22 March 2014|website=The Guardian}}</ref>) "The driving force of his life was [[Christian socialism]]," according to [[Peter Wilby]], linking Benn to the "high-minded" founding roots of Labour.<ref name="theguardian.com"/>

Later in his life, Benn emphasised issues regarding morality and righteousness, as well as various ethical principles of [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|Nonconformism]]. On ''[[Desert Island Discs]]'' he said that he had been powerfully influenced by "what I would call the Dissenting tradition" (that is, the [[English Dissenters]] who left or [[Great Ejection|were ejected]] from the [[established church]], one of whom was his ancestor [[William Benn (divine)|William Benn]]).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2014/14-march/news/uk/tony-benn-leaves-life-to-spend-less-time-on-politics|title=Tony Benn leaves life to spend less time on politics|website=www.churchtimes.co.uk}}</ref> "I've never thought we can understand the world we lived in unless we understood the history of the church", Benn said to the ''[[Catholic Herald]]''. "All political freedoms were won, first of all, through religious freedom. Some of the arguments about the control of the media today, which are very big arguments, are the arguments that would have been fought in the religious wars. You have the satellites coming in now—well, it is the multinational church all over again. That's why [[Mrs Thatcher]] pulled Britain out of [[UNESCO]]: she was not prepared, any more than [[Ronald Reagan]] was, to be part of an organisation that talked about a [[New World Information Order]], people speaking to each other without the help of [[Rupert Murdoch|Murdoch]] or [[Robert Maxwell|Maxwell]]."<ref>{{cite news|last1=Kenny|first1=Mary|title=Tony Benn 1925–2014: a politician shaped by Christianity|url=http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2014/03/14/tony-benn-1925-2014-a-politician-shaped-by-christianity/|access-date=29 January 2016|newspaper=The Catholic Herald|date=14 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160204105546/http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2014/03/14/tony-benn-1925-2014-a-politician-shaped-by-christianity/|archive-date=4 February 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

According to Wilby in the ''[[New Statesman]]'', Benn "decided to do without the paraphernalia and doctrine of organised religion but not without the teachings of Jesus".<ref>{{cite news|last1=Wilby|first1=Peter|title=Tony Benn's banana diet, lapsed Christians and ignoring no smoking signs|url=http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/03/tony-benn%E2%80%99s-banana-diet-lapsed-christians-and-ignoring-no-smoking-signs|access-date=29 January 2016|work=New Statesman|date=27 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160202082432/http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/03/tony-benn%E2%80%99s-banana-diet-lapsed-christians-and-ignoring-no-smoking-signs|archive-date=2 February 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> Although Benn became more agnostic as he became older, he was intrigued by the interconnections between Christianity, radicalism and socialism.<ref name="Benn2015">{{cite book|first=Tony|last= Benn|title=The Best of Benn|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JGkUCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA118|date=2 July 2015|publisher=Cornerstone|isbn=978-1-78475-032-9|page=118|access-date=5 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161224112829/https://books.google.com/books?id=JGkUCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA118|archive-date=24 December 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> Wilby also wrote in ''[[The Guardian]]'' that although former Chancellor [[Stafford Cripps]] described Benn as "as keen a Christian as I am myself", Benn wrote in 2005 that he was "a Christian agnostic" who believed "in Jesus the prophet, not Christ the king", specifically rejecting the label of "[[humanist]]".<ref>{{cite news|last1=Wilby|first1=Peter|title=Tony Benn: Peter Wilby reads the diaries|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/22/tony-benn-peter-wilby-reads-diaries|access-date=5 April 2016|newspaper=The Guardian|date=22 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160403101126/http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/22/tony-benn-peter-wilby-reads-diaries|archive-date=3 April 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

Both of Benn's grandfathers were Liberal Party MPs; his paternal grandfather was [[John Benn]], a successful politician, MP for [[Tower Hamlets (UK Parliament constituency)|Tower Hamlets]] and later [[Plymouth Devonport (UK Parliament constituency)|Devonport]], who was created a baronet in 1914 (and who founded a publishing company, [[Benn Brothers]]),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/58236/?back=,30705|title=Benn, Sir John Williams|work=Oxford National Dictionary of Biography Online|publisher=Oxford University Press|url-access=subscription |last=Brodie|first=Marc|date=January 2008|access-date=2 May 2010}}</ref> and his maternal grandfather was [[Daniel Holmes]], MP for [[Glasgow Govan (UK Parliament constituency)|Glasgow Govan]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/50714/?back=,30705|title=Benn, Margaret Eadie Wedgwood|work=Oxford National Dictionary of Biography Online|publisher=Oxford University Press|url-access=subscription|last=Stearn|first=Roger T.|year=2004|access-date=2 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924155844/http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/50714/?back=,30705|archive-date=24 September 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> Benn's contact with leading politicians of the day dates back to his earliest years. He met Prime Minister [[Ramsay MacDonald]] when he was five years old, and described him as: "A kindly old gentleman [who] leaned over me and offered me a chocolate biscuit. I've looked at Labour leaders in a funny way ever since."<ref>{{cite news|last1=Engel|first1=Matthew|title=The paradox of Tony Benn|url=https://next.ft.com/content/64814e38-ab7b-11e3-8cae-00144feab7de|access-date=8 April 2016|work=Financial Times|date=14 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160703110320/https://next.ft.com/content/64814e38-ab7b-11e3-8cae-00144feab7de|archive-date=3 July 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> Benn also met former Liberal Prime Minister [[David Lloyd George]] when he was 12, and later recalled that, while still a boy, he once shook hands with [[Mahatma Gandhi]], in 1931, while his father was [[Secretary of State for India]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=McSmith|first1=Andy|last2=Dalyell|first2=Tam|title=Tony Benn obituary: Politician who embodied the soul of the Labour Party and came to be admired – even by his rivals|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/politician-who-embodied-the-soul-of-the-labour-party-and-came-to-be-admired-even-by-his-rivals-9192333.html|access-date=10 April 2016|newspaper=The Independent|date=14 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160410045948/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/politician-who-embodied-the-soul-of-the-labour-party-and-came-to-be-admired-even-by-his-rivals-9192333.html|archive-date=10 April 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

During the [[Second World War]], Benn joined and trained with the [[Home Guard (United Kingdom)|Home Guard]] from the age of 16, later recalling in a speech made in 2009: "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?"<ref name="Stop the War Coalition">{{cite AV media|people=Jesse Oldershaw (camera); Andy Cousins (editor)|date=25 April 2009|title=Tony Benn – Stop the War Conference 2009|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og4K4yhQF8E|publisher=Stop the War Coalition|time=3:06|access-date=13 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150615151142/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og4K4yhQF8E|archive-date=15 June 2015|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>A fuller transcript of that speech, in which he called the Home Guard "Dad's Army", is given in the section "Retirement and final years".</ref> In July 1943, Benn enlisted in the [[Royal Air Force]] as an [[aircraftman]] 2nd Class.<ref name="BioChannel">{{cite web|url=http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biography_story/455:0/1/Tony_Benn.htm |title=Tony Benn |work=The Biography Channel |access-date=2 April 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930184842/http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biography_story/455%3A0/1/Tony_Benn.htm |archive-date=30 September 2007}}</ref> His father and elder brother Michael (who was later killed in an accident) were already serving in the RAF. He was granted an emergency commission as a [[pilot officer]] (on probation) on 10 March 1945.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=37124 |supp=y|page=3077|date=8 June 1945}}</ref> As a pilot officer, Benn served as a pilot in South Africa and [[Southern Rhodesia]].<ref name="Clark2013">{{cite book|first=Raymond|last= Clark|title=To the End, They Remain: Thoughts on War, Peace and Reconciliation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4_c6AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT27|date=1 October 2013|publisher=History Press|isbn=978-0-7509-5308-5|page=27}}</ref> In June 1944, he made his first solo flight, at RAF Guinea Fowl, an [[List of British Commonwealth Air Training Plan facilities in Southern Rhodesia|RAF Elementary Flying Training School]], in Southern Rhodesia.<ref>Approximate latitude/longitude from Google Maps and  Earth: 19°31'21.8"S 29°55'58.7"E;</ref> The aircraft was a Canadian-built [[Fairchild Cornell]]. In a 1993 article recounting the experience, he said, "I always thought that I would feel a sense of panic when I saw the ground coming up at me on my first solo, but strangely enough I didn't feel anything but exhilaration&nbsp;...".<ref>Tony Benn, "First Solo," in High Flyers:30 Reminiscences to Celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the Royal Air Force, Michael Fopp (ed.), Greenhill Books in Association with the Royal Air Force Museum, London 1993 p. 39</ref> He relinquished his commission with effect from 10 August 1945, three months after the Second World War ended in Europe on 8 May, and just days before the war with Japan ended on 2 September.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=37327 |supp=y|page=5276|date=26 October 1945}}</ref>

[[File:Tony Benn in 1947.jpg|thumb|Benn in 1947]]

After attending [[The Eaton House Group of Schools#Eaton House Belgravia Pre-Prep and Prep|Eaton House day school]] near Sloane Square,<ref>{{cite book |last=Benn |first=Tony |title=Dare to Be a Daniel |publisher=Hutchinson |year=2004 |isbn=978-0091799991 |location=United Kingdom |page=95}}</ref> Benn entered [[Westminster School]], and studied at [[New College, Oxford]], where he read [[Philosophy, politics and economics]] and was elected [[List of presidents of the Oxford Union|President]] of the [[Oxford Union]] in 1947.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/14/tony-benn-obituary|title=Tony Benn obituary|last=Brivati|first=Brian|author-link = Brian Brivati|date=14 March 2014|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=3 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180903215459/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/14/tony-benn-obituary|archive-date=3 September 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> In later life, Benn removed public references to his private education from ''[[Who's Who (UK)|Who's Who]]''. In 1970 all references to Westminster School were removed,<ref name="Turner2009">{{cite book|first=Alwyn W. |last=Turner|title=Crisis? What Crisis?: Britain in the 1970s|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UK30AgAAQBAJ&pg=PT43|date=19 March 2009|publisher=Aurum Press|isbn=978-1-84513-851-6|pages=43–44}}</ref> and in the 1975 edition his entry stated: "Education—still in progress". In the 1976 edition, almost all details were omitted except 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.<ref name="Times Diary">{{cite news|title=Mr Benn wipes away his past|work=The Times Diary|publisher=Times Newspapers|date=18 March 1976}}</ref> In the 1977 edition, Benn's entry disappeared entirely,<ref name="Times Diary 2">{{cite news|title=Not Out|newspaper=[[The Times]] |publisher=Diary|date=4 April 1977}}</ref> and when he returned to ''Who's Who'' in 1983, he was listed as "Tony Benn" and all references to his education or service record were removed.<ref name="Turner2009" />

In 1972, Benn said in his diaries that "Today I had the idea that I would resign my Privy Councillorship, my MA and all my honorary doctorates in order to strip myself of what the world had to offer".<ref name="Turner2009" /> While he acknowledged that he "might be ridiculed" for doing so,<ref name="Sandbrook2012">{{cite book|first=Dominic|last= Sandbrook|author-link=Dominic Sandbrook|title=Seasons in the Sun: The Battle for Britain, 1974–1979|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pTp11lAvhCMC&pg=PT323|date=19 April 2012|publisher=Penguin Books Limited|isbn=978-1-84614-627-5|page=323}}</ref> Benn said that {{"'}}Wedgie Benn' and 'the Rt Honourable Anthony Wedgwood Benn' and all that stuff is impossible. I have been Tony Benn in Bristol for a long time."<ref name="Turner2009" /> In October 1973, he announced on [[BBC Radio]] that he wished to be known as Mr. Tony Benn rather than Anthony Wedgwood Benn,<ref>{{cite news|last1=Tabassum|first1=Nazir|title=Opening {{sic|Speach|nolink=y}} of Prof. Nazir Tabassum|url=http://pwa75.sapfonline.org/gpage3.html|access-date=10 April 2016|work=Progressive Writers Conference|publisher=South Asian Peoples Forum UK|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220065256/http://pwa75.sapfonline.org/gpage3.html|archive-date=20 December 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> and his book ''Speeches'' from 1974 is credited to "Tony Benn".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Benn|first1=Tony|title=Speeches|date=2012|publisher=Spokesman Books|location=Nottingham|isbn=9780851248103|edition=[New] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_eIiLwEACAAJ|access-date=10 April 2016}}</ref> Despite this name change, social historian Alwyn W. Turner writes: "Just as those with an agenda to pursue still call [[Muhammed Ali]] by his original name ... so most newspapers continued to refer to Tony Benn as Wedgwood Benn, or Wedgie in the case of the tabloids, for years to come."<ref name="Turner2009" />

Benn met [[Caroline Middleton DeCamp]] (born 13 October 1926, [[Cincinnati]], Ohio, United States) over tea at [[Worcester College, Oxford]], in 1949; just nine days after meeting her, 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 Benn, 3rd Viscount Stansgate|Stephen]], [[Hilary Benn|Hilary]], [[Melissa Benn|Melissa]], a feminist writer, and Joshua—and 10 grandchildren. Caroline Benn died of cancer on 22 November 2000, aged 74, after a career as an educationalist.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1375544/Caroline-Benn.html|title=Caroline Benn|newspaper=Daily Telegraph|publisher=Telegraph Media Group|date=24 November 2000|access-date=2 May 2010|location=London, UK|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111120130139/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1375544/Caroline-Benn.html|archive-date=20 November 2011|url-status=live}}</ref>

Two of Benn's children have been active in Labour Party politics. His eldest son Stephen was an elected Member of the [[Inner London Education Authority]] from 1986 to 1990. His second son [[Hilary Benn|Hilary]] was a councillor in London, stood for Parliament in [[1983 United Kingdom general election|1983]] and [[1987 United Kingdom general election|1987]], and became 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, later serving as Shadow Foreign Secretary (2015–16).<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36632539|title=Brexit: Hilary Benn sacked as Corbyn faces 'no confidence' pressure|date=26 June 2016|access-date=27 June 2016|location=London, UK|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160721022342/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36632539|archive-date=21 July 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> This makes him the third generation of his family to have been a member of the [[Cabinet of the United Kingdom|Cabinet]], a rare distinction for a modern political family in Britain. Benn's granddaughter [[Emily Benn]] was the Labour Party's youngest-ever candidate<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5452741.ece|title=Emily Benn the younger|work=Times Online|publisher=Times Newspapers|date=10 January 2009|access-date=2 May 2010|location=London, UK|first=Alexia|last=Skinitis|url-access=subscription}}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> when she failed to win [[East Worthing and Shoreham]] in [[2010 United Kingdom general election|2010]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7011922.stm|title=Benn's granddaughter runs for MP|date=25 September 2007|work=BBC News|access-date=2 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090223182432/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7011922.stm|archive-date=23 February 2009|url-status=live}}</ref> Benn was a first cousin once removed of the actress [[Margaret Rutherford]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/jul/26/screen-legends-margaret-rutherford|title=Philip French's screenlegends: Margaret Rutherford|newspaper=The Observer|date=26 July 2009|author-link=Philip French|last=French|first=Philip|access-date=2 May 2010|location=London, UK|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140102114344/http://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/jul/26/screen-legends-margaret-rutherford|archive-date=2 January 2014|url-status=live}}</ref>

Benn and his wife [[Caroline Benn|Caroline]] became vegetarian in 1970, for ethical reasons, and remained so for the rest of their lives. Benn cited the decision of his son [[Hilary Benn|Hilary]] to become vegetarian as an important factor in his own decision to adopt a vegetarian diet.<ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/6004384/Tony-Benn-making-mistakes-is-part-of-life.html "Tony Benn: making mistakes is part of life"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180418102613/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/6004384/Tony-Benn-making-mistakes-is-part-of-life.html |date=18 April 2018}}, ''The Daily Telegraph'', 12 August 2009.</ref><ref>[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/tony-benn-you-ask-the-questions-481110.html "Tony Benn: You Ask The Questions"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140314235754/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/tony-benn-you-ask-the-questions-481110.html |date=14 March 2014 }}, ''The Independent'', 5 June 2006.</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-40058342|title=Jeremy Corbyn and other famous vegetarian politicians|date=5 September 2017|access-date=5 September 2017|last1=Warry|first1=Richard|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170905130504/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-40058342|archive-date=5 September 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Early parliamentary career==
===Member of Parliament, 1950–1960===
Following the Second World War, Benn worked briefly as a [[BBC Radio]] producer. On 1 November 1950, he was selected to succeed [[Stafford Cripps]] as the Labour candidate for [[Bristol South East]], after Cripps stood down because of ill-health. He won the seat in [[1950 Bristol South East by-election|a by-election on 30 November 1950]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/366619.stm|title=The Benn dynasty|date=11 June 1999|work=BBC News|access-date=2 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071014000622/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/366619.stm|archive-date=14 October 2007|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Anthony Crosland]] helped him get the seat as he was the MP for nearby [[South Gloucestershire (UK Parliament constituency)|South Gloucestershire]] at the time. Upon taking the oath on 4 December 1950<ref>{{cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1950/dec/04/new-members-sworn#S5CV0482P0_19501204_HOC_256|title=New Members Sworn|work=[[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]]|date=4 December 1950|publisher=House of Commons|access-date=2 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090716140514/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1950/dec/04/new-members-sworn#S5CV0482P0_19501204_HOC_256|archive-date=16 July 2009|url-status=live}}</ref> Benn became "[[Baby of the House]]", the youngest MP, for one day, being succeeded by [[Thomas Teevan (Unionist politician)|Thomas Teevan]], who was two years younger but took his oath a day later.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1950/dec/05/new-member-sworn#S5CV0482P0_19501205_HOC_264|title=New Members Sworn|work=[[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]]|date=5 December 1950|publisher=House of Commons|access-date=2 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121017213221/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1950/dec/05/new-member-sworn#S5CV0482P0_19501205_HOC_264|archive-date=17 October 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> 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]].<ref name=BBCBRistolprofile>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/bristol/content/articles/2008/04/03/tony_benn_profile_feature.shtml|title=Profile: Tony Benn|work=BBC Bristol|date=4 April 2008|access-date=2 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120220151008/http://www.bbc.co.uk/bristol/content/articles/2008/04/03/tony_benn_profile_feature.shtml|archive-date=20 February 2012|url-status=live}}</ref>

As MP for Bristol South East, Benn helped organise the 1963 [[Bristol Bus Boycott]]<ref>{{cite news|title=How we organised to break racism on Bristol buses|url=https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/34583/|access-date=4 May 2016|work=[[Socialist Worker]]|issue=2374|publisher=[[Socialist Workers Party (UK)|Socialist Workers Party]]|date=8 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220071333/https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/34583/|archive-date=20 December 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> against the [[colour bar]] of the [[Bristol Omnibus Company]] against employing black and Asian drivers. Benn said that he would "stay off the buses, even if I have to find a bike", and Labour leader [[Harold Wilson]] also told an anti-apartheid rally in London he was "glad that so many Bristolians are supporting the [boycott] campaign", adding that he "wish[ed] them every success".<ref>{{cite news|last1=Kelly|first1=Jon|title=What was behind the Bristol bus boycott?|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23795655|access-date=4 May 2016|work=[[BBC News Magazine]]|date=27 August 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190911105036/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23795655|archive-date=11 September 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Peerage reform===
Benn's father was 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, then serving in the RAF, 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-apparent to the peerage. He made several unsuccessful attempts to renounce the succession.<ref name=BBCBRistolprofile/>

In November 1960, Lord Stansgate died. Benn automatically became a peer, preventing him from sitting in the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]]. The Speaker of the Commons, Sir [[Harry Hylton-Foster]], did not allow him to deliver a speech from the bar of the House of Commons in April 1961 when the by-election was being called.<ref>Tony Benn and Peter Kellner [http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/peter-kellner/tony-benns-finest-speech_b_4962794.html "Tony Benn's Finest Speech"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140314160455/http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/peter-kellner/tony-benns-finest-speech_b_4962794.html |date=14 March 2014 }}, ''The Huffington Post'', 14 March 2014.</ref> Continuing to maintain his right to abandon his peerage, Benn fought to [[1961 Bristol South East by-election|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 [[Re Bristol South-East Parliamentary Election|declared the seat won]] by the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] runner-up, [[Malcolm St Clair (politician)|Malcolm St Clair]], who was at the time also the heir presumptive to a peerage.<ref name="Election petition">''Re Parliamentary Election for Bristol South East'' [1964] 2 Q.B. 257, [1961] 3 W.L.R. 577.</ref>

Benn continued his campaign outside Parliament. Within two years, though, the [[Conservative government, 1957–1964|Conservative Government]] of the time, which had members in the same or similar situation to Benn's (i.e., who were going to receive title, or who had already applied for writs of summons), changed the law.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1963/48 |title=Peerage Act 1963 |access-date=23 April 2015 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121223210742/http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1963/48 |archive-date=23 December 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Jad Adams, ''Tony Benn: A Biography'' (MacMillan 1992) {{ISBN|978-1849540964}} pp. 203–204, e.g., Viscount Hinchingbrooke, and Lords Hogg and Douglas-Home.</ref> The [[Peerage Act 1963]], allowing lifetime disclaimer of peerages, became law shortly after 6&nbsp;pm on 31 July 1963. Benn was the first peer to renounce his title, doing so at 6.22&nbsp;pm that day.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=43072 |date=2 August 1963 |page=6534}}</ref> St Clair, fulfilling a promise he had made at the time of his election, then accepted the office of [[Steward of the Manor of Northstead]], disqualifying himself from the House ([[Resignation from the House of Commons of the United Kingdom|outright resignation not being possible]]). Benn returned to the Commons after [[1963 Bristol South East by-election|winning a by-election]] on 20 August 1963.<ref name=BBCBRistolprofile/>

Benn was a supporter of abolishing the House of Lords.<ref name="newstatesman.com">{{cite web |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2012/07/we-should-abolish-house-lords-not-reform-it |title=We should abolish the House of Lords, not reform it |work=New Statesman |first=Tony |last=Benn |date=12 July 2012 |access-date=21 August 2023 }}</ref>

==In government, 1964–1970==
{{multiple image
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In the [[Labour government, 1964–1970|1964 Government]] led by [[Harold Wilson]], Benn was [[Postmaster General of the United Kingdom|Postmaster General]], where he oversaw the opening of the [[Post Office Tower]], then [[List of tallest buildings in the United Kingdom|the UK's tallest building]], and the creations of the Post Bus service and [[Girobank]]. He proposed issuing stamps without the [[monarchy of the United Kingdom|monarch]]'s head, but this met with private opposition from [[Elizabeth II]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Tony Benn dies: his most memorable quotes|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/10697145/Tony-Benn-dies-his-most-memorable-quotes.html|work=The Telegraph|access-date=14 March 2014|date=14 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140314081114/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/10697145/Tony-Benn-dies-his-most-memorable-quotes.html|archive-date=14 March 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> Instead, the portrait was reduced to a small profile in silhouette, a format that is still used on commemorative stamps.<ref>{{cite news|title=Five lesser-spotted things Tony Benn gave the UK|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-26575843|access-date=5 May 2016|work=BBC News|publisher=Magazine Monitor: A collection of cultural artefacts|date=14 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150925135426/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-26575843|archive-date=25 September 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>

Benn also led the government's opposition to the [[Pirate radio in the United Kingdom#1960s|"pirate" radio stations]] broadcasting from international waters, which he was aware would be an unpopular measure.<ref>[[Briggs, Asa]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=0pRGjVGtUvwC&pg=PA515 ''The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom: Volume V: Competition''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904100627/https://books.google.com/books?id=0pRGjVGtUvwC&pg=PA515 |date=4 September 2015 }}, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995, pp. 515–19, 540.</ref> He claimed that some of these stations were causing interference to emergency radio used by shipping,<ref>[https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1966/jun/22/wireless-and-television-pirate-stations "Wireless and Television (Pirate Stations)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004233459/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1966/jun/22/wireless-and-television-pirate-stations |date=4 October 2013 }}, ''Hansard'', HC Deb, vol. 730 cc858-70, 22 June 1966.</ref> although he was not responsible for introducing the [[Marine, &c., Broadcasting (Offences) Act 1967|Marine Broadcasting Offences Bill]] when it came before Parliament at the end of July 1966 for its first reading.<ref>[https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1966/jul/27/marine-c-broadcasting-offences "Marine, & C., Broadcasting (Offences)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029191839/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1966/jul/27/marine-c-broadcasting-offences |date=29 October 2013 }}, HC Deb 27 July 1966, ''Hansard'', vol. 732 c1720.</ref>

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 Limited|International Computers Ltd. (ICL).]] The period also saw government involvement in industrial rationalisation, and the merger of several car companies to form [[British Leyland]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/uk_confidential/1706972.stm|title=UK Confidential Transcripts: Tony Benn – The Labour Minister|work=BBC News|date=1 January 2002|access-date=2 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021218141340/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/uk_confidential/1706972.stm|archive-date=18 December 2002|url-status=live}}</ref> Following Conservative MP [[Enoch Powell]]'s [[Rivers of Blood speech|1968 "Rivers of Blood" speech]] to a Conservative Association meeting, in opposition to [[Harold Wilson]]'s insistence on not "stirring up the Powell issue",<ref name="ButlerPinto-Duschinsky1971">{{cite book|first=David |last=Butler|author2=Michael Pinto-Duschinsky|title=British General Election of 1970|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9JKuCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA160|date=2 July 1971|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|isbn=978-1-349-01095-0|pages=159–160}}</ref> Benn said during the [[1970 United Kingdom general election|1970 general election]] campaign:

{{blockquote|The flag of [[racialism]] which has been hoisted in Wolverhampton is beginning to look like the one that fluttered 25 years ago over [[Dachau]] and [[Belsen]]. If we do not speak up now against the filthy and obscene racialist propaganda ... the forces of hatred will mark up their first success and mobilise their first offensive...Enoch Powell has emerged as the real leader of the Conservative Party. He is a far stronger character than Mr. Heath. He speaks his mind; Heath does not. The final proof of Powell's power is that Heath dare not attack him publicly, even when he says things that disgust decent Conservatives.<ref name="ButlerPinto-Duschinsky1971" />}}

The [[mainstream press]] attacked Benn for using language deemed as intemperate as Powell's language in his "Rivers of Blood" speech (which was widely regarded as racist),<ref name="ButlerPinto-Duschinsky1971" /> and Benn noted in his diary that "letters began pouring in on the Powell speech: 2:1 against me but some very sympathetic ones saying that my speech was overdue".<ref name="Benn2013 p.230">{{cite book|first=Tony|last=Benn|title=The Benn Diaries: 1940–1990|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LdCp8S5XK9wC&pg=PA230|date=31 January 2013|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-1-4464-9373-1|page=230}}</ref> [[Harold Wilson]] later reprimanded Benn for this speech, accusing him of losing Labour seats in the 1970 general election.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rabzGlRdsmk "Racist Laws 1971"] ''Black History Walks'' (YouTube).</ref>

During the 1970s Benn publicly defended Marxism, saying:
{{blockquote|''[[The Communist Manifesto]]'', and many other works of Marxist philosophy, have always profoundly influenced the British labour movement and the British Labour Party, and have strengthened our understanding and enriched our thinking.
It would be as unthinkable to try to construct the Labour Party without Marx as it would be to establish university faculties of astronomy, anthropology or psychology without permitting the study of Copernicus, Darwin or Freud, and still expect such faculties to be taken seriously.<ref>{{cite web|title=Marxism in the Labour Party|url=https://www.marxist.com/marxism-in-the-labour-party.htm|year=2017|access-date=20 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170920142343/https://www.marxist.com/marxism-in-the-labour-party.htm|archive-date=20 September 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Best of Benn|first=Tony |last=Benn|editor= Ruth Winstone|year=2015|page=127|publisher=Random House UK |isbn=978-1784750329}}</ref>}}

Labour lost the 1970 election to [[Edward Heath]]'s [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservatives]] and upon Heath's application to join the [[European Economic Community]], a surge in left-wing [[Euroscepticism]] emerged.<ref name="WattsPilkington2005">{{cite book|first=Duncan |last=Watts|author2=Colin Pilkington|title=Britain in the European Union Today: Third Edition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8XizwW0g2CkC&pg=PA228|date=29 November 2005|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=978-0-7190-7179-9|page=228}}</ref> Benn "was stridently against membership",<ref name="Jones2007">{{cite book|first=Alistair|last= Jones|title=Britain and the European Union|url=https://archive.org/details/britaineuropeanu0000jone|url-access=registration|year=2007|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|isbn=978-0-7486-2428-7|page=[https://archive.org/details/britaineuropeanu0000jone/page/135 135]}}</ref> and campaigned in favour of a referendum on the UK's membership. [[Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet (United Kingdom)|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 (UK)|Deputy Leader of the Labour Party]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Butler |first1=David |author-link=David Butler (psephologist) |author-link2=Dennis Kavanagh|last2=Kavanagh |first2=Dennis |title=The British General Election of February 1974 |url=https://archive.org/details/britishgeneralel0000butl_m7o7 |url-access=registration |publisher=Macmillan |year=1974 |page=[https://archive.org/details/britishgeneralel0000butl_m7o7/page/20 20] |isbn=978-0333172971}}</ref>

==In government, 1974–1979==

In the [[1974–1979 Labour government|Labour Government of 1974]], Benn was [[Secretary of State for Industry]] and as such increased [[nationalization|nationalised industry]] pay, provided better terms and conditions for workers such as the [[Health and Safety at Work Act 1974]] and was involved in setting up [[worker cooperative]]s in firms which were struggling,<ref>{{cite web|last=Hird|first=Christopher|url=http://www.newint.org/issue106/giants.htm|title=The Crippled Giants|work=New Internationalist|date=December 1981|access-date=18 September 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091125103953/http://www.newint.org/issue106/giants.htm|archive-date=25 November 2009|url-status=live}}</ref> the best known being at [[Meriden, West Midlands|Meriden]], outside [[Coventry]], producing Triumph Motorcycles. In 1975, he was appointed [[Department of Energy (United Kingdom)|Secretary of State for Energy]], immediately following his unsuccessful campaign for a "No" vote in the [[1975 United Kingdom European Communities membership referendum|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".<ref>{{cite book|last=Benn|first=Tony|title=The Benn Diaries|publisher=Arrow|year=1995|page=432|isbn= 978-0-09-963411-9}}</ref>

[[Harold Wilson]] resigned as [[Labour Party (UK)#Leaders of the Labour Party since 1906|Leader of the Labour Party]] and [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] in March 1976. Benn later attributed the collapse of the Wilson government to cuts enforced on the UK by [[global capital]], in particular the International Monetary Fund.<ref name="Bagely">{{cite news|last1=Bagley|first1=Richard|title=Into The Archives: Tony Benn On The True Power Of Democracy|url=http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-7a6a-Into-the-archives-Tony-Benn-on-the-true-power-of-democracy|access-date=2 April 2016|newspaper=The Morning Star|date=1 May 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160413114200/http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-7a6a-Into-the-archives-Tony-Benn-on-the-true-power-of-democracy|archive-date=13 April 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> In the [[1976 Labour Party leadership election|resulting leadership contest]] Benn finished in fourth place out of the six cabinet ministers who stood—he withdrew as 11.8 per cent of colleagues voted for him in the first ballot. Benn withdrew from the second ballot and endorsed [[Michael Foot]]; [[James Callaghan]] eventually won. Despite not receiving his support in the second and third rounds of the vote, Callaghan kept Benn on as Energy Secretary. In 1976, there was a [[Pound sterling|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 in which a narrow majority of the Labour Cabinet under [[Ramsay MacDonald]] supported a cut in unemployment benefits in order to obtain a loan from American bankers. As he highlighted, these minutes resulted in the 1931 split of the Labour Party in which MacDonald and [[National Labour Organisation|his allies]] formed a [[National Government (United Kingdom)|National Government]] with Conservatives and Liberals. Callaghan allowed Benn to put forward the [[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.<ref>{{cite book|last=Powell|first=David|title=Tony Benn: a political life|publisher=Continuum|location=London & New York|year=2003|edition=2nd|pages=82, 84|isbn=978-0-8264-7074-4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dYeVIfy0by8C&q=alternative%20economic%20strategy%20tony%20benn&pg=PA82}}</ref> In response, Benn later recalled that: "I retorted that their policy was a siege economy, only they had the bankers inside the castle with all our supporters left outside, whereas my policy would have our supporters in the castle with the bankers outside."<ref name="Bagely" /> Benn blamed the [[Winter of Discontent]] on these cuts to socialist policies.<ref name="Bagely" />

Upon the death of [[Mao Zedong]] in 1976, Benn described Mao as "one of the greatest—if not the greatest—figures of the twentieth century: a schoolteacher who transformed China, released it from civil war and foreign attack and constructed a new society there" in his diaries, adding that "he certainly towers above any twentieth-century figure I can think of in his philosophical contribution and military genius".<ref name="Benn2013 p.367">{{cite book|first=Tony|last=Benn|title=The Benn Diaries: 1940–1990|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LdCp8S5XK9wC&pg=PA367|date=31 January 2013|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-1-4464-9373-1|page=367}}</ref> On his trip to the Chinese embassy after Mao's death, Benn recorded in an earlier volume of his diaries that he was "a great admirer of Mao", while also admitting that "he made mistakes, because everybody does".<ref>{{cite news|last1=Hoggart|first1=Simon|title=Simon Hoggart's week: the honour of being loathed|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/oct/18/honour-loathed-tony-benn-political-writer|access-date=8 April 2016|newspaper=The Guardian|date=18 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160418015751/http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/oct/18/honour-loathed-tony-benn-political-writer|archive-date=18 April 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

During Benn's time as energy minister from 1975 to 1979 he supported [[nuclear power in the United Kingdom]]. Later in his life he became an [[Anti-nuclear movement in the United Kingdom|opponent of nuclear power]], attributing his time as running it as a minister to persuading him it was not cheap, safe or peaceful.<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2009/11/anything-believe-life-ashamed |title= Tony Benn (1925-2014): "I would be ashamed if I ever said anything I didn't believe in" |work= New Statesman |first= Emily |last=Mann |date= 29 October 2009 |access-date= 16 March 2019 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20151228100619/http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2009/11/anything-believe-life-ashamed |archive-date= 28 December 2015 |url-status= live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.channel4.com/news/by/michael-crick/blogs/ten-tony-benn |title= Ten things you may not have known about Tony Benn |work= Channel 4 News |first= Michael |last=Crick |date= 14 March 2014 |access-date= 16 March 2019}}</ref> When asked in an interview in January 2009 on what he had changed his mind on over the course of his life he expanded on this issue by saying:

{{Blockquote|text="Nuclear power, for example. In 1955 when Eisenhower said he was going for 'Atoms for Peace' I became a passionate supporter of it. Having been brought up on the Bible I liked the idea of swords into ploughshares. I advocated nuclear power as Minister of Technology. I was told, and believed, that nuclear power was cheap, safe and peaceful. Having been in charge of nuclear power I discovered it wasn't cheap, wasn't safe and when I left office I was told that during my period as Secretary of State for Energy, plutonium from our nuclear power stations went to the Pentagon to make nuclear weapons. So every nuclear power station in Britain is a bomb factory for America. I was utterly shaken by that. Nothing in the world would now induce me to support nuclear power. It was a mistake."<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.totalpolitics.com/articles/interview/conversation-tony-benn |title= In conversation... Tony Benn |work= Total Politics |first= Iain|last= Dale |date= 21 January 2009 |access-date= 16 March 2019}}</ref>}}

===Move to the left===

By the end of the 1970s, Benn's views had shifted to the [[left wing]] of the Labour Party. He attributed this political shift to his experience as a Cabinet Minister in the [[Labour government, 1964–1970|1964–1970 Labour Government]]. Benn ascribed his move to the left to four lessons:

# How "the Civil Service can frustrate the policies and decisions of popularly elected governments"
# The centralised nature of the Labour Party which allowed the Leader to run "the Party almost as if it were his personal kingdom"
# "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"
# The power of the media, which "like the power of the medieval Church, ensures that events of the day are always presented from the point of the view of those who enjoy economic privilege"<ref>{{cite book |last=Benn |first=Tony |title=Out of the Wilderness: Diaries 1963–67 |publisher=Arrow |year=1988 |pages=xi–xiii |isbn=978-0-09-958670-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/outofwildernessd0000benn }}</ref>

As regards the power of industrialists and bankers, Benn remarked:

{{blockquote|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 [[International Monetary Fund]] 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 [[Chartism|Chartist]] agitation might be born and might quickly gather momentum.<ref>{{cite book |last=Benn |first=Tony |title=Out of the Wilderness: Diaries 1963–67 |url=https://archive.org/details/outofwildernessd0000benn |url-access=registration | year=1988 |page=xiii |publisher=Arrow |isbn=9780099586708 }}</ref>}}

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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kavanagh |first=Dennis |chapter=Tony Benn: Nuisance or Conscience? |editor= Kavanagh, Dennis |title=Politics and Personalities |year=1990 |page=184 }}</ref> Alongside an alleged 12 Labour MPs,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/profiles/story/0,9396,-361,00.html|title=Tony Benn {{!}} Aristotle {{!}} guardian.co.uk Politics|website=www.theguardian.com|access-date=9 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160603203419/http://www.theguardian.com/politics/profiles/story/0,9396,-361,00.html|archive-date=3 June 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> he spent 12 years affiliated with the [[Institute for Workers' Control]], beginning in 1971 when he visited the [[Upper Clyde Shipbuilders|Upper Clyde Shipyards]], arguing in 1975 for the "labour movement to intensify its discussion about [[industrial democracy]]".<ref>{{cite news|last1=Matthews|first1=Nick|title=Benn, co-ops and workplace democracy|url=http://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ukpressonline/getDocument/DWMS_2014_04_14_020?fileType=PDF|access-date=9 April 2016|work=The Morning Star|date=14 April 2014|page=20|url-access=subscription|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160419165216/http://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ukpressonline/getDocument/DWMS_2014_04_14_020?fileType=PDF|archive-date=19 April 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

He was vilified by most of the press while his opponents implied and stated that a Benn-led Labour Government would implement a type of Eastern European state socialism,<ref>{{cite book |last=Kavanagh |first=Dennis|chapter=Tony Benn: Nuisance or Conscience? |editor=Kavanagh, Dennis |title=Politics and Personalities |publisher=Macmillan |year=1990 |page=78 }}</ref> with [[Edward Heath]] referring to Benn as "[[Commissar]] Benn"<ref>{{cite news|last1=Warden|first1=John|title=Heath broadside for 'Commissar Benn'|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=8pFAAAAAIBAJ&pg=5317%2C2702134|newspaper=The Glasgow Herald|date=13 June 1974}}</ref> and others referring to Benn as a "[[Champagne socialist|Bollinger Bolshevik]]".<ref name="Turner2009" /> Despite this, Benn was overwhelmingly popular with Labour activists in the constituencies: a survey of delegates at the Labour Party Conference in 1978 found that by large margins they supported Benn for the leadership, as well as many Bennite policies.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Whiteley |first1=Paul |last2=Gordon |first2=Ian |title=The Labour Party: Middle Class, Militant and Male |journal=[[New Statesman]] |date=11 January 1980 |pages=41–42 }}</ref>

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 in turn argued 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.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/northern_ireland/4540343.stm |title=Benn's call for SF to take seats |work=[[BBC News Online]] |date= 12 May 2005 |access-date=2 May 2010 }}</ref> A supporter of the [[Scottish Parliament]] and [[political devolution]], Benn however opposed the [[Scottish National Party]] and [[Scottish independence]], saying: "I think nationalism is a mistake. And I am half Scots and feel it would divide me in half with a knife. The thought that my mother would suddenly be a foreigner would upset me very much."<ref>{{cite news|last1=Peterkin|first1=Tom|title=Scottish independence: Tony Benn: 'UK split would divide me with a knife'|url=http://www.scotsman.com/news/scottish-independence-tony-benn-uk-split-would-divide-me-with-a-knife-1-2475596|access-date=6 February 2016|newspaper=The Scotsman|date=18 August 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160207065807/http://www.scotsman.com/news/scottish-independence-tony-benn-uk-split-would-divide-me-with-a-knife-1-2475596|archive-date=7 February 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

In [[British politics]] during this period, the term "Bennism" came into use to describe the [[conviction politics]], economic, social and political ideology of Tony Benn; and an exponent or advocate of Bennism was regarded as a "Bennite".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://leftunity.org/benn-and-bennism/ |title=Benn and Bennism |publisher=LeftUnity |first=Kellaway |last=Dave |date=14 March 2014|access-date=13 June 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140619060406/http://leftunity.org/benn-and-bennism/ |archive-date=19 June 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Marr, pp. 392–395 (''The Left at War With Itself'').</ref><ref name="sr205">{{cite news|last=Renton|first=Dave|date=February 1997|title=Does Labour's Left Have an Alternative?|work=Socialist Review|url=http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/sr205/labour.htm|url-status=dead|access-date=2 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030911080922/http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/sr205/labour.htm|archive-date=11 September 2003}}</ref>

==In opposition, 1979–1997==
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 the [[House of Lords]] would be abolished by creating one thousand new peers and then abolishing the peerage. Benn received tumultuous applause.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/27/443/107065937w16/purl=rc1_TTDA_0_CS17008446&dyn=12!xrn_20_0_CS17008446&hst_1?sw_aep=uwesteng|title=Mr Benn proposes timetable of one month to abolish Lords and leave EEC|url-access=subscription |newspaper=The Times, archived by Gale Group|date=30 September 1980|last=Emery|first=Fred|access-date=3 May 2010}}</ref> On 25 January 1981, [[Roy Jenkins]], [[David Owen]], [[Shirley Williams]] and [[Bill Rodgers, Baron Rodgers of Quarry Bank|Bill Rodgers]] (known collectively as the "[[Gang of Four (SDP)|Gang of Four]]") launched the Council for Social Democracy, which became the [[Social Democratic Party (UK)|Social Democratic Party]] in March. The "Gang of Four" left the Labour Party because of what they perceived to be the influence of the [[Militant tendency]] and the Bennite "[[hard left]]" within the party.<ref name="ChildsStorry2013">{{cite book|first=Peter |last=Childs|author2=Michael Storry|title=Encyclopedia of Contemporary British Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tlsKXeRt0wgC&pg=PA485|date=13 May 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-75555-4|page=485|access-date=25 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161224112438/https://books.google.com/books?id=tlsKXeRt0wgC&pg=PA485|archive-date=24 December 2016|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Sassoon2010">{{cite book|first=Donald |last=Sassoon|title=One Hundred Years of Socialism: The West European Left in the Twentieth Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IUkBAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA698|date=30 July 2010|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-0-85771-530-2|page=698}}</ref> Benn was highly critical of the SDP, saying that "Britain has had SDP governments for the past 25 years."<ref name="Pomper1988">{{cite book|first=Gerald M. |last=Pomper|title=Voters, Elections, and Parties: The Practice of Democratic Theory|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eK8gGHLKHMgC&pg=PA375|year=1988|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=978-1-4128-4112-2|page=375}}</ref>

[[File:Glastonbury 2008 126.JPG|thumb|upright|Benn speaking at the [[Glastonbury Festival]] in 2008]]
Benn stood against [[Denis Healey]], the party's incumbent [[Deputy Leader of the Labour Party (UK)|deputy leader]], triggering the [[1981 Labour Party deputy leadership election|1981 deputy leadership election]], disregarding an appeal from [[Michael Foot]] to either stand for the leadership or abstain from inflaming the party's divisions. Benn defended his decision insisting that it was "not about personalities, but about policies". The result was announced on 27 September 1981; Healey retained his position by a margin of barely one per cent. The decision of several [[soft left]] MPs, including [[Neil Kinnock]], to abstain triggered the split of the [[Socialist Campaign Group]] from the left of the [[Tribune (magazine)|Tribune Group]].<ref name="Seyd 1987 165"/>
After [[1982 invasion of the Falkland Islands|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 following the [[Falklands War]], they were back in British control by mid-June. In a debate in the Commons just after the Falklands were recaptured, 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 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".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=104969|publisher=Margaret Thatcher Foundation|title=House of Commons Statement: Falkland Islands|date=15 June 1982|access-date=4 October 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111028021842/http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=104969|archive-date=28 October 2011|url-status=live}}</ref>

For the [[1983 United Kingdom general election|1983 election]] Benn's Bristol South East constituency was abolished by boundary changes, and he lost to [[Michael Cocks]] in the selection of a candidate to stand in the new winnable seat of [[Bristol South]]. Rejecting offers from the new seat of [[Livingston (UK Parliament constituency)|Livingston]] in Scotland, Benn contested [[Bristol East]], losing to the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]]'s [[Jonathan Sayeed]] in June 1983. Foot resigned as leader following the defeat which reduced Labour to only 209 MPs, while Healey also decided to step down as deputy leader. However Benn's absence from parliament meant that he was unable to stand in the [[1983 Labour Party leadership election (UK)|resulting leadership contest]] as only MPs were eligible to be candidates.<ref name="GH13061983">{{cite news |last1=Russell |first1=William |title=Race is on for Labour Leader |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=19830613&printsec=frontpage |access-date=16 December 2019 |newspaper=The Glasgow Herald |date=13 June 1983}}</ref> Benn's absence from the contest was reported by '' [[The Glasgow Herald]]'' to leave [[Neil Kinnock]] as "the favourite Left-wing candidate".<ref name="GH13061983"/> Ultimately Kinnock won the contest, formally replacing Foot as party leader in October of that year.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/27/443/107065937w16/purl=rc1_TTDA_0_CS51350883&dyn=21!xrn_30_0_CS51350883&hst_1?sw_aep=uwesteng|title=Labour's new line-up|newspaper=[[The Times]] |publisher=archived by Gale Group|date=3 November 1983|access-date=3 May 2010|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

In a by-election, Benn was elected as the MP for [[Chesterfield (UK Parliament constituency)|Chesterfield]], the next Labour seat to fall vacant, after [[Eric Varley]] had left the Commons to head [[Coalite]]. On the day of [[1984 Chesterfield by-election|the by-election]], 1 March 1984, ''[[The Sun (United Kingdom)|The Sun]]'' newspaper ran a hostile feature article, "Benn on the Couch", which purported to be the opinions of an American psychiatrist.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JGkUCgAAQBAJ&q=1984+Chesterfield+The+Sun+%22Benn+on+the+Couch%22+-been&pg=PA206|title=The Best of Benn|isbn=9781784750329|last1=Benn|first1=Tony|date=2 July 2015|publisher=Random House UK }}</ref>

Newly elected to a mining seat, Benn was a supporter of the [[1984–1985 United Kingdom miners' strike|1984–85 UK miners' strike]], which was beginning when he returned to the Commons, and of his long-standing friend, the [[National Union of Mineworkers (Great Britain)|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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://libcom.org/library/chapter-06-1974-strikea-conversation-minerslabour-government-benn-helps-divide-miners|title=Chapter 06; ...1974 strike...a conversation with miners...Labour government... Benn helps divide miners...|work=libcom.org|access-date=3 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020075103/http://libcom.org/library/chapter-06-1974-strikea-conversation-minerslabour-government-benn-helps-divide-miners|archive-date=20 October 2012|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url=http://isj.org.uk/25-years-after-the-great-miners-strike/|title=25 years after the Great Miners' Strike|journal=International Socialism|issue=126|date=23 April 2010|last=Robertson|first=Jack|publisher=Socialist Workers Party|location=London, UK|access-date=3 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150420095305/http://isj.org.uk/25-years-after-the-great-miners-strike/|archive-date=20 April 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> Benn also spoke at a [[Militant tendency]] rally held in 1984, saying: "The [[labour movement]] is not engaged in a personalised battle against individual cabinet ministers, nor do we seek to win public support by arguing that the crisis could be ended by the election of a new and more humane team of ministers who are better qualified to administer capitalism. We are working for a majority labour government, elected on a socialist programme, as decided by conference."<ref>{{cite AV media|title=Militant Video: Wembley Conference Centre 1984|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ByBWCGjAy8|date=20 October 1984|format=YouTube video|publisher=Militant|work=YouTube|access-date=29 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191103013906/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ByBWCGjAy8&gl=US&hl=en|archive-date=3 November 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1985/jun/28/miners-amnesty-general-pardon|title=Miners' Amnesty (General Pardon)|work=[[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]]|date=28 June 1985|publisher=House of Commons|access-date=2 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121003131132/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1985/jun/28/miners-amnesty-general-pardon|archive-date=3 October 2012|url-status=live}}</ref>

Benn stood for election as party leader [[1988 Labour Party leadership election (UK)|in 1988]], against [[Neil Kinnock]], following Labour's third successive defeat in the [[1987 United Kingdom general election|1987 general election]], losing by a substantial margin, and received only about 11 per cent of the vote. In May 1989 he made an [[After Dark (TV series)#Tony Benn and "Out of Bounds"|extended appearance]] on [[Channel 4]]'s late-night discussion programme ''[[After Dark (TV programme)|After Dark]]'', alongside among others [[Hugh Trevor-Roper|Lord Dacre]] and [[Miles Copeland Jr.|Miles Copeland]]. During the [[Gulf War]], Benn visited [[Baghdad]] in order to try to persuade [[Saddam Hussein]] to release the hostages who had been captured.<ref name=Guardian-Stadlen>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2006/dec/08/1|title=Brief Encounter: Tony Benn|newspaper=The Guardian|publisher=Guardian News and Media|date=8 December 2006|last=Stadlen|first=Nick|access-date=3 May 2010|location=London, UK|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140315023007/http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2006/dec/08/1|archive-date=15 March 2014|url-status=live}}</ref>

Benn supported various [[LGBT social movements]], which were then known as [[gay liberation]];<ref>{{cite news|last1=Hearse|first1=Phil|title=Tony Benn: A Vision to Inspire and Mobilise|url=http://socialistresistance.org/6058/tony-benn-a-vision-to-inspire-and-mobilise|access-date=6 February 2016|work=Socialist Resistance|date=15 March 2014|quote=He readily took up the banner of LGBT struggles, what was then known as lesbian and gay liberation.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160207000329/http://socialistresistance.org/6058/tony-benn-a-vision-to-inspire-and-mobilise|archive-date=7 February 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> Benn had voted in favour of [[Sexual Offences Act 1967|decriminalisation]] in 1967.<ref name=Sect28 /> Talking about [[Section 28]] of the [[Local Government Act 1988]], a piece of anti-gay legislation preventing the "[[promotion of homosexuality]]", Benn said:

{{blockquote|if the sense of the word "promote" can be read across from "describe", every murder play promotes murder, every war play promotes war, every drama involving the eternal triangle promotes adultery; and Mr. [[Richard Branson]]'s condom campaign promotes fornication. The House had better be very careful before it gives to judges, who come from a narrow section of society, the power to interpret "promote".<ref name=Sect28>{{cite news|last1=Roberts|first1=Scott|title=Tony Benn: "Long before it was accepted I did support gay rights"|url=http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2014/03/14/tony-benn-long-accepted-support-gay-rights/|access-date=22 May 2015|work=[[Pink News]]|date=14 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150711013857/http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2014/03/14/tony-benn-long-accepted-support-gay-rights/|archive-date=11 July 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

Benn later voted for the repeal of Section 28 during the first term of [[Tony Blair]]'s [[New Labour]] Government, and voted in favour of equalising the age of consent.<ref name=Sect28 />

In 1990, he proposed a "[[Margaret Thatcher]] (Global Repeal) Bill", which he said "could go through both Houses in 24 hours. It would be easy to reverse the policies and replace the personalities—the process has begun—but the rotten values that have been propagated from the platform of political power in Britain during the past 10 years will be an infection—a virulent strain of right-wing capitalist thinking which it will take time to overcome."<ref>[[Hansard]], HC Deb (22 November 1990) vol 181, cols 439–518, at [https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1990/nov/22/confidence-in-her-majestys-government#S6CV0181P0_19901122_HOC_457 486] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140318031950/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1990/nov/22/confidence-in-her-majestys-government#S6CV0181P0_19901122_HOC_457 |date=18 March 2014 }}</ref>

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 of the United Kingdom|monarchy]] in favour of the United Kingdom becoming a "democratic, federal and [[Secularism|secular]] [[commonwealth]]", a [[republic]] with a written constitution. It was read in Parliament a number of times until his retirement at the [[2001 United Kingdom general election|2001 election]], but never achieved a [[Reading (legislature)|second reading]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/bills/commonwealth-of-britain-bill|title=Commonwealth of Britain Bill|work=[[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]]|publisher=House of Commons|access-date=3 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121017213239/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/bills/commonwealth-of-britain-bill|archive-date=17 October 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> He presented an account of his proposal in ''[[Common Sense: A New Constitution for Britain]]''.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Benn|first1=Tony|last2=Hood|first2= Andrew|title=Common Sense: New Constitution for Britain|editor=Hood, Andrew|publisher=Hutchinson|location=London|date=17 June 1993|isbn=978-0-09-177308-3}}</ref>

{{Republicanism sidebar}}

The bill included the following:

* [[Reform of the House of Lords#Abolition|Abolishing the House of Lords]]
* Establishing a House of the People
* Lowering the [[voting age]] to 16
* Establishing a national parliament for England, Scotland and Wales
* Ending British rule in Northern Ireland
* [[Separation of church and state|The Church separated from the state]]
* Honours list reformed to recognise services to the community
* Confirmation of judges and election of magistrates
* [[Republicanism in the United Kingdom|No constitutional role for the monarchy]] (continue to live in Buckingham Palace)<ref>{{cite web |date=12 December 1992 |title=Benn revives Bill to replace monarch with a president |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/benn-revives-bill-to-replace-monarch-with-a-president-1563089.html |access-date=10 March 2022 |website=The Independent }}</ref>

In the same year, Benn also received a [[Pipe Smoker of the Year]] award, claiming in his acceptance speech that "pipe smoking stopped you going to war".<ref name="Taylor2009">{{cite book|first=Alan |last=Taylor|title=Those who Marched Away: An Anthology of the World's Greatest War Diaries|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vdui7_3_I84C&pg=PA601|year=2009|publisher=Canongate|isbn=978-1-84767-415-9|page=601|access-date=4 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161224115741/https://books.google.com/books?id=Vdui7_3_I84C&pg=PA601|archive-date=24 December 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1991, Benn reiterated his opposition to the [[European Commission]] and highlighted an alleged [[Democratic legitimacy of the European Union|democratic deficit in the institution]], saying: "Some people genuinely believe that we shall never get social justice from the British Government, but we shall get it from [[Jacques Delors]]. They believe that a good king is better than a bad Parliament. I have never taken that view."<ref>{{cite news|title=Column 333|url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199192/cmhansrd/1991-11-20/Debate-6.html|access-date=25 April 2016|agency=[[Hansard]], [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]]|date=20 November 1991|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160508234655/http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199192/cmhansrd/1991-11-20/Debate-6.html|archive-date=8 May 2016|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="MacArthur2012">{{cite book|first=Brian |last=MacArthur|title=The Penguin Book of Modern Speeches|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O1jOYbhvgP4C&pg=PT389|date=3 May 2012|publisher=Penguin Books Limited|isbn=978-0-14-190916-5|page=389}}</ref> This argument has also been used by many on the right-wing [[Eurosceptic]] wing of the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]], such as [[Daniel Hannan]] [[Member of the European Parliament|MEP]].<ref name="Hannan2016">{{cite book|first=Daniel|last= Hannan|title=Why Vote Leave|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nJGGCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT43|date=24 March 2016|publisher=Head of Zeus|isbn=978-1-78497-709-2|page=43}}</ref> [[Jonathan Freedland]] writes in ''[[The Guardian]]'': "For [Tony Benn], even benign rule by a monarch was worthless because the king's whim could change and there'd be nothing you could do about it."<ref>{{cite news|last1=Freedland|first1=Jonathan|author-link1=Jonathan Freedland|title=EU referendum: the next big populist wave could sweep Britain out of Europe|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/oct/09/eu-referendum-britain-out-europe-brexit|access-date=25 April 2016|newspaper=The Guardian|date=9 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160508230718/http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/oct/09/eu-referendum-britain-out-europe-brexit|archive-date=8 May 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

== Prior to retirement, 1997–2001 ==
In 1997, the Labour Party under [[Premiership of Tony Blair|the leadership of Tony Blair]] won [[1997 United Kingdom general election|the general election]] in a landslide, after 18 years of Conservative Party rule. Despite later calling Labour under Blair "the idea of a Conservative group who had taken over Labour"<ref>{{cite news|last1=Delaney|first1=Sam|title=Tony Benn interview: "Labour suffered greatly through Tony Blair"|url=http://www.bigissue.com/features/interviews/3202/tony-benn-interview-labour-suffered-greatly-through-tony-blair|access-date=7 April 2016|work=Big Issue|date=14 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131120065622/http://www.bigissue.com/features/interviews/3202/tony-benn-interview-labour-suffered-greatly-through-tony-blair|archive-date=20 November 2013|url-status=live}}</ref> and saying that "[Blair] set up a new political party, [[New Labour]]",<ref>{{cite news|last1=Benn|first1=Tony|title=Tony Benn: 'What is really significant about Tony Blair was that he set up a new political party, New Labour'|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/sep/05/tony-blair-journey-tony-benn|access-date=7 April 2016|newspaper=The Guardian|date=4 September 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160417013853/http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/sep/05/tony-blair-journey-tony-benn|archive-date=17 April 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> his political diaries ''Free at Last'' show that Benn was initially somewhat sympathetic to Blair, welcoming a change of government. Benn supported the introduction of the [[national minimum wage]], and welcomed [[Good Friday Agreement|the progress towards peace and security in Northern Ireland]] (particularly under [[Mo Mowlam]]). He was supportive of the extra money given to public services in the New Labour years but believed it to be under the guise of privatisation. Overall, his concluding judgement on New Labour is highly critical; he describes its evolution as a way of retaining office by abandoning socialism and distancing the party from the trade union movement,<ref>{{cite news|last1=Mortimer|first1=Jim|title=Tony Benn: An inspiring symbol of political steadfastness and advocacy|url=http://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ukpressonline/getDocument/DWMS_2002_11_20_009?fileType=PDF|access-date=7 April 2016|newspaper=Morning Star|date=20 November 2002|page=9|format=PDF|url-access=subscription|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160418233811/http://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ukpressonline/getDocument/DWMS_2002_11_20_009?fileType=PDF|archive-date=18 April 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> adopting a [[presidentialist]] style of politics, overriding the concept of the [[collective ministerial responsibility]] by reducing the power of the Cabinet, eliminated any effective influence from the annual conference of the Labour Party and "hinged its foreign policy on support for one of the worst presidents in US history".<ref>{{cite news|last1=Mortimer|first1=Jim|title=Telling it straight|url=http://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ukpressonline/getDocument/DWMS_2003_05_06_008?fileType=PDF|access-date=7 April 2016|newspaper=Morning Star|date=6 May 2003|page=8|format=PDF|url-access=subscription|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160418203745/http://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ukpressonline/getDocument/DWMS_2003_05_06_008?fileType=PDF|archive-date=18 April 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

Benn strongly objected to the [[1998 bombing of Iraq|bombing of Iraq]] in December 1998,<ref>{{cite news|title=Tony Benn dies: watch archive clip of Labour stalwart in Parliament|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/10697203/Tony-Benn-dies-watch-archive-clip-of-Labour-stalwart-in-Parliament.html|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=14 March 2014|access-date=3 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170803172051/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/10697203/Tony-Benn-dies-watch-archive-clip-of-Labour-stalwart-in-Parliament.html|archive-date=3 August 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> calling it immoral and saying: "Aren't Arabs terrified? Aren't Iraqis terrified? Don't Arab and Iraqi women weep when their children die? Doesn't bombing strengthen their determination? ... Every Member of Parliament tonight who votes for the government motion will be consciously and deliberately accepting the responsibility for the deaths of innocent people if the war begins, as I fear it will."<ref>{{cite news|last1=Allegretti|first1=Aubrey|title=If Tony Benn Were Here Today, He Might Use This Iraq Speech To Defend Not Bombing Syria|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/12/02/syria-vote-airstrikes-tony-benn-iraq-speech_n_8700306.html|access-date=8 April 2016|work=The Huffington Post UK|date=3 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160409204142/http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/12/02/syria-vote-airstrikes-tony-benn-iraq-speech_n_8700306.html|archive-date=9 April 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> Benn also opposed the 1999 [[NATO bombing of Yugoslavia]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/apr/18/balkans12 |title=Fighting for democracy while Kosovo burns|last= Benn |first= Tony |date=18 April 1999 |newspaper=The Guardian |accessdate=24 October 2022}}</ref>

Several months prior to his retirement, Benn was a signatory to a letter, alongside Niki Adams (Legal Action for Women), Ian Macdonald, [[Gareth Peirce]], and other legal professionals, that was published in ''[[The Guardian]]'' newspaper on 22 February 2001 condemning raids of more than 50 brothels in the central London area of [[Soho]]. At the time, a police spokesman said: "As far as we know, this is the biggest simultaneous crackdown on brothels and prostitution in this country in recent times", the arrest of 28 people in an operation that involved around 110 police officers.<ref>{{cite news|title=50 Soho brothels targeted in raids|url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12233498.50_Soho_brothels_targeted_in_raids/|access-date=22 March 2014|work=Herald Scotland|date=16 February 2001|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016153948/http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12233498.50_Soho_brothels_targeted_in_raids/|archive-date=16 October 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> The letter read:

{{blockquote|
In the name of "protecting" women from trafficking, about 40 women, including a woman from Iraq, were arrested, detained and in some cases summarily removed from Britain. If any of these women have been trafficked ... they deserve protection and resources, not punishment by expulsion. ... Having forced women into destitution, the government first criminalised those who begged. Now it is trying to use prostitution as a way to make deportation of the vulnerable more acceptable. We will not allow such injustice to go unchallenged.<ref name="Soho">{{cite news|title=Law violates sex workers|url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2001/feb/22/guardianletters6|access-date=22 March 2014|newspaper=The Guardian|date=22 February 2001|first=Niki |last=Adams|author2=Tony Benn|display-authors=etal|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140322153040/http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2001/feb/22/guardianletters6|archive-date=22 March 2014|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

==Retirement and final years, 2001–2014==
[[File:Tony Benn 2005.jpg|right|thumb|upright=0.6|Benn about to join [[Protests against the Iraq War|the March 2005 anti-war demonstration]] in London]]
Benn chose not to seek re-election at the [[2001 United Kingdom general election|2001 general election]], saying he was "leaving parliament in order to spend more time on politics."<ref>{{cite news|author-link=Gary Younge|first=Gary|last=Younge|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2002/jul/20/interviews.labour|title=The stirrer|newspaper=The Guardian|date=20 July 2002|access-date=16 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140228183305/http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2002/jul/20/interviews.labour|archive-date=28 February 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> Along with former [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] [[Edward Heath]], Benn was permitted by the Speaker to continue using the [[House of Commons Library]] and Members' refreshment facilities. Shortly after his retirement, he became the President of the [[Stop the War Coalition]].<ref name=Guardian-Stadlen/> He became a leading figure of the British opposition to the [[War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)|War in Afghanistan]] from 2001 and the [[Iraq War]], and in February 2003 he travelled to [[Baghdad]] to meet [[Saddam Hussein]]. The interview was broadcast on British television.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/2726831.stm|title=Full text of Benn interview with Saddam|work=BBC News|access-date=3 May 2010|date=4 February 2003}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/2765041.stm|title='Million' march against Iraq war|date=16 February 2003|work=BBC News|access-date=3 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170410013455/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/2765041.stm|archive-date=10 April 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> In February 2004 and 2008, he was re-elected President of the Stop the War Coalition.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://stopwar.org.uk/content/view/20/52|title=Elected positions|work=Stop the War Coalition|access-date=3 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100401145946/http://stopwar.org.uk/content/view/20/52|archive-date=1 April 2010}}</ref>

He toured with a one-man stage show and appeared a few times each year in a two-man show with folk singer [[Roy Bailey (folk singer)|Roy Bailey]]. In 2003, his show with Bailey was voted 'Best Live Act' at the [[BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Irwin|first1=Colin|title=BBC Radio 2 Folk awards 2013 names Nic Jones singer of the year|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2013/jan/31/bbc-folk-awards-2013-nic-jones|access-date=5 May 2016|newspaper=The Guardian|date=31 January 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160426181305/http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2013/jan/31/bbc-folk-awards-2013-nic-jones|archive-date=26 April 2016|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Radio 2 Folk Awards 2003|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2003/02_february/11/folk_2003.shtml|work=Press Office|publisher=BBC|date=11 February 2003|access-date=5 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181104062653/http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2003/02_february/11/folk_2003.shtml|archive-date=4 November 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2002, he opened the "Left Field" stage at the [[Glastonbury Festival]]. He continued to speak at each subsequent festival; attending one of his speeches was described as a "Glastonbury [[rite of passage]]".<ref>{{cite web|last=Jonze|first=Tim|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2007/jun/24/glastonburyfestivaltonybenn|title=Glastonbury festival: Tony Benn on 'a self-generating community'|newspaper=The Guardian|date=24 June 2007|access-date=17 January 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140314140153/http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2007/jun/24/glastonburyfestivaltonybenn|archive-date=14 March 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> In October 2003, he was a guest of [[British Airways]] on the last scheduled [[Concorde]] flight from [[New York City|New York]] to [[London]]. In June 2005, he was a panellist on a special edition of [[BBC One]]'s ''[[Question Time (TV programme)|Question Time]]'' edited entirely by a school-age film crew selected by a BBC competition.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/question_time/4642035.stm|title=Question Time: A question of citizenship|work=BBC News|date=1 July 2005|access-date=3 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090111180928/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/question_time/4642035.stm|archive-date=11 January 2009|url-status=live}}</ref>

On 21 June 2005, Benn presented a programme on democracy as part of the [[Channel 5 (British TV channel)|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 Group|World Bank]] and the [[European Commission]] are unelected and unaccountable to those whose lives they affect daily.<ref>{{cite news |last=Joseph |first=Joe |title=Benn's stall sells democracy short |newspaper=[[The Times]] |date=22 June 2005 |url=https://www.thetimes.com/comment/register/article/benns-stall-sells-democracy-short-qsvdc8l2xt0 |url-access=subscription |page=27 |access-date=25 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160506212511/http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/film/article2429934.ece |archive-date=6 May 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>
[[File:Tony Benn Giles Fraser Levellers Day Burford 20080517.jpg|thumb|left|Tony Benn and [[Giles Fraser]] speaking at [[Levellers]]' Day, [[Burford]], 17 May 2008]]

On 27 September 2005, Benn became ill while attending the annual [[Labour Party Conference]] in [[Brighton]] and was taken by ambulance to the [[Royal Sussex County Hospital]] after being treated by paramedics on-the-scene 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".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2005/sep/28/labourconference.labour2|title=Tony Benn 'comfortable' in hospital after fall|newspaper=The Guardian|date=28 September 2005|last=Staff|access-date=3 May 2010|location=London|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140228211812/http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2005/sep/28/labourconference.labour2|archive-date=28 February 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> He was subsequently fitted with an [[artificial pacemaker]] to help regulate his heartbeat.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4300306.stm|title=Benn gets pacemaker after fall|work=BBC News|access-date=3 May 2010|date=1 October 2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051109181246/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4300306.stm|archive-date=9 November 2005|url-status=live}}</ref>

In a list compiled by the magazine ''[[New Statesman]]'' in 2006, he was voted twelfth in the list of "Heroes of our Time". In September 2006, Benn joined the "Time to Go" demonstration in [[Manchester]] the day before the final Labour Party Conference with [[Tony Blair]] as Leader of the Labour Party, with the aim of persuading the Government to withdraw troops from [[Iraq]], to refrain from attacking [[Iran]] and to reject replacing the [[Trident missile]] and [[Vanguard-class submarine|submarines]] with a new system. He spoke to the demonstrators in the rally afterwards.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/5373128.stm|title=Thousands at city's anti-war demo|work=BBC News|date=23 September 2006|access-date=3 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080317113454/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/5373128.stm|archive-date=17 March 2008|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2007, he appeared in an extended segment in the [[Michael Moore]] film ''[[Sicko]]'' giving comments about democracy, social responsibility and healthcare, saying "If we can find the money to kill people, we can find the money to help people."<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/15/10-of-the-best-tony-benn-quotes-as-picked-by-our-readers| first=James |last=Walsh| title=10 of the best Tony Benn quotes – as picked by our readers| newspaper=The Guardian| location=London| date=15 March 2014| access-date=22 August 2014| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140625211116/http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/15/10-of-the-best-tony-benn-quotes-as-picked-by-our-readers| archive-date=25 June 2014| url-status=live}}</ref> A poll by the [[BBC Two]] ''[[The Daily Politics]]'' programme in January 2007 selected Benn as the UK's "Political Hero" with 38% of the vote, narrowly defeating [[Margaret Thatcher]], who had 35%.<ref name=autogenerated1>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/politics_show/6161847.stm|title=The Magnificent Seven political heroes...|date=12 December 2006|work=BBC News|access-date=4 October 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070210072041/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/politics_show/6161847.stm|archive-date=10 February 2007|url-status=live}}</ref>

For the [[2007 Labour Party leadership election (UK)|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]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7011231.stm|title=Give us EU referendum, says Benn|work=BBC News|date=24 September 2007|access-date=2 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090203170159/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7011231.stm|archive-date=3 February 2009|url-status=live}}</ref> In October 2007, aged 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 [[Constituency Labour Party]] offering himself as a prospective candidate for the newly drawn [[Kensington (UK Parliament constituency)|Kensington]] seat. His main opponent would have been the incumbent Conservative MP for the predecessor seat of [[Kensington and Chelsea (UK Parliament constituency)|Kensington and Chelsea]], [[Malcolm Rifkind]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7028042.stm|title=I want to be an MP again – Benn|work=BBC News|date=4 October 2007|access-date=4 October 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011012553/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7028042.stm|archive-date=11 October 2007|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk_news/story/0,,2183661,00.html|title=Benn: I want to return to parliament|last=Attewill|first=Fred|newspaper=The Guardian|location=London|date=4 October 2007|access-date=5 October 2007}}</ref> However, there was no election held in 2007, and so the boundary changes did not take effect until the eventual election in 2010, when Benn was not a candidate and the new seat was won by Rifkind.

[[File:Dartford Living September 2009 Front Cover.jpg|right|thumb|upright|Benn on the cover of ''Dartford Living'', September 2009]]
In early 2008, Benn appeared on Scottish singer-songwriter [[Colin MacIntyre]]'s album ''[[The Water (Colin MacIntyre album)|The Water]]'', reading a poem he had written himself.<ref name=telegraph>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/3670995/Tony-Benn-pop-star.html|title=Tony Benn, pop star|date=7 February 2008|newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|access-date=5 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140322043004/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/3670995/Tony-Benn-pop-star.html|archive-date=22 March 2014|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="independent">{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/house-music-tony-benns-debut-solo-album-800170.html|title=House music: Tony Benn's debut solo album|date=25 March 2008|newspaper=[[The Independent]]|access-date=6 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140226171446/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/house-music-tony-benns-debut-solo-album-800170.html|archive-date=26 February 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> In September 2008, he 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 on a ''Doctor Who'' DVD.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://totalscifionline.com/reviews/2386-doctor-who-the-war-machines|title=Doctor Who: The War Machines Review|work=Total SciFi Online|date=21 August 2008|last=Wilkins|first=Jonathan|access-date=3 May 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120226100355/http://totalscifionline.com/reviews/2386-doctor-who-the-war-machines|archive-date=26 February 2012}}</ref>

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 [[Home Guard (United Kingdom)|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?"<ref name="Stop the War Coalition"/>

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."<ref name=dartford>{{cite web|url=http://www.dartfordadvertising.co.uk/uploaded_files/Dartford%20Living%20September%202009.pdf|title= Big Benn Chimes in to Dartford|date=September 2009|page=10 |work=Dartford Living|access-date=2 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111008203657/http://www.dartfordadvertising.co.uk/uploaded_files/Dartford%20Living%20September%202009.pdf|archive-date=8 October 2011}}</ref> He also stated that local government was strangled by [[Margaret Thatcher]] and had not been liberated by [[New Labour]].<ref name=dartford/>

In 2009, Benn was admitted to hospital and ''An Evening with Tony Benn'', scheduled to take place at London's [[Cadogan Hall]], was cancelled. 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.celebrityproductions.info/displayer_productions.php/178/An_Evening_with_Tony_Benn |title=Clive Conway Celebrity Productions – An Audience with an Evening With Tony Benn|work=celebrityproductions.info|year=2011|access-date=5 May 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120415144225/http://www.celebrityproductions.info/displayer_productions.php/178/An_Evening_with_Tony_Benn |archive-date=15 April 2012|via=the Wayback Machine}}</ref> In July 2011 Benn was awarded an honorary doctorate from the [[University of Glamorgan]], [[Wales]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.glam.ac.uk/news/en/2011/jun/28/university-glamorgan-honours-contributions-public-|title=University of Glamorgan honours contributions to public life, communities, science, literature, and sport|work=news.glam.ac.uk|year=2011|access-date=7 July 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716101945/http://news.glam.ac.uk/news/en/2011/jun/28/university-glamorgan-honours-contributions-public-/|archive-date=16 July 2011|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Tony Benn, Tolpuddle 2012.JPG|upright|thumb|Tony Benn speaking at the [[Tolpuddle Martyrs festival|Tolpuddle Martyrs' Festival and Rally]] 2012]]
Benn headed the "coalition of resistance", a group which was opposed to the [[United Kingdom government austerity programme|UK austerity programme]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Hundal|first1=Sunny|title=Tony Benn's 'coalition of resistance' needs a strategy {{!}} Sunny Hundal|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/aug/09/tony-benns-coalition-resistance-needs-stategic-approach|access-date=6 June 2016|newspaper=The Guardian|date=9 August 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916205957/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/aug/09/tony-benns-coalition-resistance-needs-stategic-approach|archive-date=16 September 2016|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Benn|first1=Tony|title=The time to organise resistance is now {{!}} Tony Benn and 73 others|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/aug/04/time-to-organise-resistance-now|access-date=6 June 2016|newspaper=The Guardian|date=4 August 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160801063732/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/aug/04/time-to-organise-resistance-now|archive-date=1 August 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> In interviews in 2010 with [[Amy Goodman]] on ''[[Democracy Now!]]'' and 2013 with [[Afshin Rattansi]] on ''[[RT UK]]'', Benn claimed that the actions of [[New Labour]] in the leadup to and aftermath of the [[Iraq War]] were such that the former Prime Minister [[Tony Blair]] should [[Tony Blair#Accusations of war crimes|be tried for war crimes]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Goodman|first1=Amy|last2=Benn|first2=Tony|title=Tony Benn on Tony Blair: "He Will Have to Live 'Til the Day He Dies with the Knowledge that He Is Guilty of a War Crime"|url=http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/21/british_mp_tony_benn_on_tony|access-date=31 March 2016|work=Democracy Now!|date=21 September 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160401083532/http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/21/british_mp_tony_benn_on_tony|archive-date=1 April 2016|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Rattansi|first1=Afshin|last2=Benn|first2=Tony|title=Big Benn: Blair committed war crimes in Iraq|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYce_RJx9WE|access-date=31 March 2016|work=RT International|date=16 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150218083607/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYce_RJx9WE|archive-date=18 February 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> Benn also claimed in 2010 that Blair had lost the "trust of the nation" regarding the war in Iraq.<ref>{{cite news|title=Labour drückt sich vor Irak-Debatte|trans-title=Labour shirks Iraq debate|url=http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/parteitag-labour-drueckt-sich-vor-irak-debatte-1.746742|access-date=25 April 2016|work=[[Süddeutsche Zeitung]]|date=11 May 2010|language=de|quote=Der Veteran der Labour-Linken, Tony Benn, sagte, der Irak-Krieg habe Blair das "Vertrauen der Nation" gekostet.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160807112421/http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/parteitag-labour-drueckt-sich-vor-irak-debatte-1.746742|archive-date=7 August 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 2012, Benn was awarded an honorary degree from [[Goldsmiths, University of London]]. He was also the honorary president of the [[Goldsmiths Students' Union]], who successfully campaigned for him to retract comments dismissing the [[Julian Assange]] rape allegations.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gold.ac.uk/news/goldsmiths-academics-pay-tribute-to-tony-benn/ |title=Goldsmiths academics pay tribute to Tony Benn |website=Goldsmiths, University of London |access-date=3 September 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220073954/http://www.gold.ac.uk/news/goldsmiths-academics-pay-tribute-to-tony-benn/ |archive-date=20 December 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://liberalconspiracy.org/2012/09/18/tony-benn-sorry-for-dismissing-assange-rape-allegations/ |title=Benn sorry for dismissing Assange rape allegations |website=Liberal Conspiracy |date=18 September 2012 |access-date=3 September 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140904084659/http://liberalconspiracy.org/2012/09/18/tony-benn-sorry-for-dismissing-assange-rape-allegations/ |archive-date=4 September 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref> In February 2013, Benn was among those who gave their support to the [[People's Assembly Against Austerity|People's Assembly]] in a letter published by ''The Guardian'' newspaper.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/feb/05/people-assembly-against-austerity People's Assembly opening letter] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150725065133/http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/feb/05/people-assembly-against-austerity |date=25 July 2015 }}, ''The Guardian'', 5 February 2013.</ref> He gave a speech at the People's Assembly Conference held at [[Westminster Central Hall]] on 22 June 2013.

Benn was consistently one of the most vocal critics of [[British membership of the European Union]] in Parliament, citing the EU's "[[democratic deficit]]" as a main point of contempt.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Benn |first1=Tony |last2=Worcester |first2=Kent |date=1991 |title=Europe's Democratic Deficit |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40209235 |journal=World Policy Journal |volume=8 |issue=4 |pages=739–753 |jstor=40209235 |issn=0740-2775}}</ref> In 2013, Benn reiterated his previous opposition to [[European integration]]. Speaking to the [[Oxford Union]] on the alleged overshadowing of the EU debate by "UKIP and Tory backbenchers", he said:{{blockquote|I took the view that having fought [Europeans in the [[Second World War]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> that we should now work with them, and co-operate, and that was my first thought about it. Then how I saw how the European Union was developing, it was very obvious that what they had in mind was not democratic. ... And the way that Europe has developed is that the bankers and the [[multinational corporation]]s have got very powerful positions, and if you come in on their terms, they will tell you what you can and cannot do. And that is unacceptable. My view about the European Union has always been not that I am hostile to foreigners, but that I am in favour of democracy ... I think they're building an empire there, they want us to be a part of their empire and I don't want that.<ref>{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0wFii8klNg|first=Tony|last= Benn|work=[[Oxford Union]]|title=European Union|date=25 March 2013|access-date=4 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160426104445/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0wFii8klNg|archive-date=26 April 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

==Illness and death==
In 1990, Benn was diagnosed with [[Chronic lymphocytic leukemia|chronic lymphatic leukaemia]] and given three or four years to live; at this time, he kept the news of his leukaemia from everyone except his immediate family. Benn said: "When you're in parliament, you can't describe your medical condition. People immediately start wondering what your majority is and when there will be a by-election. They're very brutal."<ref name="Scotsman2002">{{cite news|title=Tony Benn: My fight with leukaemia|url=http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/tony-benn-my-fight-with-leukaemia-1-1377345|access-date=10 April 2016|newspaper=The Scotsman|date=29 September 2002|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160422015510/http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/tony-benn-my-fight-with-leukaemia-1-1377345|archive-date=22 April 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> This was revealed in 2002 with the release of his 1990–2001 diaries.<ref name="Scotsman2002" />

Benn had a stroke in 2012, and spent much of the following year in hospital.<ref>{{cite news|title=Tony Benn, veteran Labour politician, dies aged 88|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/14/tony-benn-dies-aged-88-labour-politiican|newspaper=The Guardian|author-link=Patrick Wintour|first=Patrick|last= Wintour|author2=Rowena Mason|date=14 March 2014|access-date=13 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161201205609/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/14/tony-benn-dies-aged-88-labour-politiican|archive-date=1 December 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> He was reported to be "seriously ill" in hospital in February 2014.<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26150987 "Tony Benn seriously ill in hospital"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180927114837/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26150987 |date=27 September 2018 }}, BBC News, 12 February 2014.</ref> Benn died at home on 14 March 2014, surrounded by his family, at the age of 88.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26573929|title=BBC News – Labour stalwart Tony Benn dies at 88|work=[[BBC Online]]|access-date=14 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140314075003/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26573929|archive-date=14 March 2014|url-status=live}}</ref>

Benn's funeral took place on 27 March 2014 at [[St Margaret's Church, Westminster]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26766936 |title=Tony Benn's funeral takes place in Westminster |publisher=BBC |date=27 March 2014 |access-date=12 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140330213826/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26766936 |archive-date=30 March 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=guardian-20140327>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/27/tony-benn-funeral-bedfellows-foes-unite |title=Bedfellows and foes unite at Tony Benn's funeral |author-link=Owen Jones (writer) |first=Owen |last=Jones|newspaper=The Guardian |date=27 March 2014 |access-date=12 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140413130101/http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/27/tony-benn-funeral-bedfellows-foes-unite |archive-date=13 April 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref> His body had lain in rest at [[St Mary Undercroft]] in the [[Palace of Westminster]] the night before the funeral service.<ref name=bbc-20140320>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26664023 |title=Queen approves Tony Benn overnight vigil in Parliament's chapel |publisher=BBC |date=20 March 2014 |access-date=12 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140323110535/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26664023 |archive-date=23 March 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref> The service ended with the singing of "[[The Red Flag]]".<ref name=telegraph-20140327>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/10726659/Tony-Benns-funeral-ends-with-rendition-of-The-Red-Flag.html |title=Tony Benn's funeral ends with rendition of The Red Flag |newspaper=Daily Telegraph |date=27 March 2014 |access-date=12 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140328134723/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/10726659/Tony-Benns-funeral-ends-with-rendition-of-The-Red-Flag.html |archive-date=28 March 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref> His body was then cremated; the ashes were expected to be buried alongside those of his wife at the family home near [[Steeple, Essex]].<ref name=ec-20140327>{{cite news |url=http://www.essexchronicle.co.uk/Crowds-gather-funeral-Tony-Benn/story-20860483-detail/story.html |title=Tony Benn funeral: Crowds gather for Westminster send-off |first=William |last=Watkinson |work=Essex Chronicle |date=27 March 2014 |access-date=12 April 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140413143554/http://www.essexchronicle.co.uk/Crowds-gather-funeral-Tony-Benn/story-20860483-detail/story.html |archive-date=13 April 2014 }}</ref>

Figures from across the [[political spectrum]] praised Benn following his death,<ref>{{cite news|last1=Dominiczak|first1=Peter|last2=Swinford|first2=Steve|title='I hope I didn't cause offence': Tony Benn's message from beyond the grave|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/10699114/I-hope-I-didnt-cause-offence-Tony-Benns-message-from-beyond-the-grave.html|access-date=9 February 2016|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=14 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306045406/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/10699114/I-hope-I-didnt-cause-offence-Tony-Benns-message-from-beyond-the-grave.html|archive-date=6 March 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Burrows|first1=Saffron|date=21 December 2014|title=He loved so well: a moving tribute to Tony Benn by the actor Saffron Burrows|newspaper=The Guardian|publisher=[[Stop the War Coalition]]|url=http://www.stopwar.org.uk/index.php/news-comment/1085-he-loved-so-well-moving-tribute-to-tony-benn-by-actor-saffron-burrows|url-status=live|access-date=7 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160424125841/http://www.stopwar.org.uk/index.php/news-comment/1085-he-loved-so-well-moving-tribute-to-tony-benn-by-actor-saffron-burrows|archive-date=24 April 2016}}</ref> and the leaders of all three major political parties (the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservatives]], [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] and the [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats]]) in the United Kingdom paid tribute.

Conservative leader and Prime Minister [[David Cameron]] said:{{blockquote|... he was an extraordinary man: a great writer, a brilliant speaker, extraordinary in Parliament, and a great life of public and political and parliamentary service. I mean, I disagreed with most of what he said. But he was always engaging and interesting, and you were never bored when reading or listening to him, and the country a great campaigner, a great writer, and someone who I'm sure whose words will be followed keenly for many, many years to come.<ref name="BennDeathGuardian">{{cite news|title=David Cameron and Ed Miliband pay tribute to Tony Benn – video|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/video/2014/mar/14/david-cameron-ed-miliband-tribute-tony-benn-video|access-date=6 February 2016|newspaper=The Guardian|publisher=ITN|date=14 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160207002150/http://www.theguardian.com/politics/video/2014/mar/14/david-cameron-ed-miliband-tribute-tony-benn-video|archive-date=7 February 2016|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=BennDeathBBC>{{cite news|title=Tributes to former MP Tony Benn from key politicians|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26573818|access-date=6 February 2016|work=[[BBC News Online]]|date=14 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140711212359/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26573818|archive-date=11 July 2014|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

Deputy Prime Minister, [[Nick Clegg]] called Benn an "astonishing, iconic figure" and a "veteran parliamentarian, he was a great writer, he had great warmth and he had great conviction ... his political life will be looked back on with affection and admiration".<ref name=BennDeathBBC />

[[Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom)|Leader of the Opposition]] and [[Leader of the Labour Party (UK)|Labour leader]] [[Ed Miliband]], who knew Benn personally as a family friend, said:{{blockquote|I think Tony Benn will be remembered as a champion of the powerless, as a conviction politician, as somebody of deep principle and integrity. The thing about Tony Benn is that you always knew what he stood for, and who he stood up for. And I think that's why he was admired right across the political spectrum. There are people who agreed with him and disagreed with him, including in my own party, but I think people admired that sense of conviction and integrity that shone through from Tony Benn.<ref name="BennDeathGuardian" /><ref name=BennDeathBBC />}}

==Personal life==

Benn was a lifelong [[Teetotalism|teetotaler]] and a [[Vegetarianism|vegetarian]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Tempest|first=Matthew|title=Tony Benn|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=6 June 2002|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2002/jun/06/redbox.netnotes|access-date=4 April 2024}}</ref> He was known for his "fondness for a mug of [[tea]] and a [[Tobacco pipe|pipe]]",<ref>{{Cite news |last=Brivati |first=Brian |date=2014-03-14 |title=Tony Benn obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/14/tony-benn-obituary |access-date=2024-10-14 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> and Benn himself jokingly said that throughout his life he had drunk enough tea to "float the [[Queen Elizabeth 2|QE2]]".<ref>{{Cite news |date=2010-12-16 |title=Is a tea break at work good for productivity? |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-12008712 |access-date=2024-10-14 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref> In 2003, he participated in the [[Royal Society of Chemistry]]'s tasting event on how to make a cup of tea.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kennedy |first=Maev |date=2003-06-25 |title=How to make a perfect cuppa: put milk in first |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/jun/25/science.highereducation |access-date=2024-10-14 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

==Diaries and biographies==
{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?59695-1/tony-benns-diaries Interview with Benn on his diaries, July 13, 1994], [[C-SPAN]]}}
Benn was a prolific diarist.<ref>{{cite news|title=Tony Benn {{!}} Biography, Facts, & Radicalism|work=Encyclopedia Britannica|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tony-Benn|url-status=live|access-date=3 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180622034431/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tony-Benn|archive-date=22 June 2018}}</ref> Nine volumes of his diaries have been published. The final volume was published in 2013.<ref>[https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/happy-birthday-tony-benn-87-pl0tdjr7kn0 "Happy Birthday Tony Benn, 87"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140315031338/http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/life/courtsocial/article3371918.ece |date=15 March 2014 }}, ''The Times'', 3 April 2012.</ref> Collections of his speeches and writings were published as ''Arguments for Socialism'' (1979), ''Arguments for Democracy'' (1981), (both edited by [[Chris Mullin (politician)|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 music|ambient groove]].

He 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 4 Extra]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007jr2r#synopsis|title=BBC Radio 7 Programmes – The Benn Tapes|work=BBC|date=16 March 2009|access-date=3 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101019094345/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007jr2r#synopsis|archive-date=19 October 2010|url-status=live}}</ref> A major biography was written by Jad Adams and published by [[Macmillan Publishers|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 (publisher)|Hutchinson]] ({{ISBN|978-0099471530}}), a reference to the [[Daniel in the lions' den|Old Testament prophet in the lions' den]], was published in 2004.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2011/07/tony-benn-biography-labour|title=Tony Benn: a Biography|website=www.newstatesman.com|access-date=3 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180903151004/https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2011/07/tony-benn-biography-labour|archive-date=3 September 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

There are substantial essays on Benn in the ''Dictionary of Labour Biography'' by [[Phillip Whitehead]], Greg Rosen (eds), [[Politicos Publishing]], 2001 ({{ISBN|978-1902301181}}) and in ''Labour Forces: From Ernie Bevin to Gordon Brown'', Kevin Jefferys (ed.), [[I.B. Tauris|I.B. Tauris Publishing]], 2002 ({{ISBN|978-1860647437}}). American [[Michael Moore]] dedicates his book ''Mike's Election Guide 2008'' ({{ISBN|978-0141039817}}) to Benn, with the words: "For Tony Benn, keep teaching us".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.zcommunications.org/michael-moore-on-the-election-the-bailout-healthcare-and-10-proposals-for-the-next-president-by-michael-moore|title=Michael Moore on the Election, the Bailout, Healthcare, and 10 Proposals for the Next President by Michael Moore|work=Democracy Now!|author-link=Amy Goodman|last=Goodman|first=Amy|publisher=ZCommunications|access-date=3 May 2010|date=1 November 2008|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111002180822/http://www.zcommunications.org/michael-moore-on-the-election-the-bailout-healthcare-and-10-proposals-for-the-next-president-by-michael-moore|archive-date=2 October 2011|via=the Wayback Machine}}</ref>

On 5 March 2019, it was announced that a large political archive of Benn's speeches, diaries, letters, pamphlets, recordings and ephemera had been accepted in lieu of £210,000 inheritance tax and allocated to the [[British Library]]. The audio recordings total to thousands of hours of content.<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/mar/05/the-most-tremendous-result-how-tony-benn-celebrated-losing-to-denis-healey |title= 'The most tremendous result': how Tony Benn celebrated losing to Denis Healey |newspaper= The Guardian |first= Mark |last=Brown |date= 5 March 2019 |access-date= 16 March 2019 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190308140122/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/mar/05/the-most-tremendous-result-how-tony-benn-celebrated-losing-to-denis-healey |archive-date= 8 March 2019 |url-status= live }}</ref>

==Plaques==
During his final years in Parliament, Benn placed three plaques within the [[Houses of Parliament]]. Two are in a room between the Central Lobby and [[Strangers' Gallery]] that holds a permanent display about the [[suffragette]]s.<ref>{{cite web|title=Suffragettes display|url=http://www.parliament.uk/visiting/exhibitions-and-events/exhibitions/suffragettes/|work=www.parliament.uk|publisher=UK Parliament|access-date=12 February 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131015074122/http://www.parliament.uk/visiting/exhibitions-and-events/exhibitions/suffragettes/|archive-date=15 October 2013}}</ref> 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 [[Emily Wilding Davison]], who died for the cause of [[Elections in the United Kingdom|"Votes for women"]], and was placed in the broom cupboard next to the Undercroft Chapel, where Davison is said to have hidden during the night of the [[Census in the United Kingdom|1911 census]] in order to establish her address as the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]].<ref name="NZBenn's secret tribute to suffragette martyr">{{cite news|url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article6529773.ece|title=Benn's secret tribute to suffragette martyr|access-date=3 November 2011|work= BBC News|date=17 March 1999}}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Plaque to Emily Wilding Davison|url=http://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/case-study-emily-wilding-davison/ewd/tony-benn-plaque|work=www.parliament.uk|publisher=Uk Parliament|access-date=12 February 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222220733/http://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/case-study-emily-wilding-davison/ewd/tony-benn-plaque/|archive-date=22 February 2014}}</ref>

In 2011, Benn unveiled a plaque in [[Highbury]], North London, to commemorate the [[Peasants' Revolt]] of 1381.<ref name="NZTony Benn to unveil Islington People's Plaque commemorating the Peasants' Revolt">{{cite news|url=http://www.islington.gov.uk/Council/CouncilNews/PressOffice/2011/06/PR4430.asp|title=Tony Benn to unveil Islington People's Plaque commemorating the Peasants' Revolt|first=Caroline|last=Horrocks|access-date=3 November 2011|work=Islington Borough Council|date=2 June 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120113003305/http://www.islington.gov.uk/Council/CouncilNews/PressOffice/2011/06/PR4430.asp|archive-date=13 January 2012}}</ref>

==Legacy==

In Bristol, where Benn first served as a member of parliament, a number of tributes exist in his honour. A bust of him was unveiled in Bristol's [[City Hall, Bristol|City Hall]] in 2005.<ref>{{cite news|title=Bust celebrates politician's work|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/4344986.stm|work=BBC News|date=16 October 2005|access-date=4 July 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/pictures/PHOTOS-Bristol-MP-Tony-Benn-passes-away/pictures-20810430-detail/pictures.html|title=Tony Benn remembered 1925 – 2014|first=Simon|last=Galloway|work=Bristol Post|date=14 March 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150714042549/http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/pictures/PHOTOS-Bristol-MP-Tony-Benn-passes-away/pictures-20810430-detail/pictures.html|archive-date=14 July 2015}}</ref> In 2012 Transport House on Victoria Street, headquarters of [[Unite the Union]]'s regional office, was officially renamed Tony Benn House and opened by Benn himself.<ref>{{cite news|title=Former Bristol Labour MP Tony Benn opens union HQ|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-20151777|work=BBC News|access-date=4 July 2015|date=31 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904100627/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-20151777|archive-date=4 September 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> As of 2015 he appears, alongside other famous people associated with the city, on the reverse of the [[Bristol pound]]'s £B5 banknote.<ref>{{cite web|title=New Bristol Pounds|url=http://bristolpound.org/new-bristol-pounds|work=Bristol Pound|access-date=4 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150703154449/http://bristolpound.org/new-bristol-pounds|archive-date=3 July 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>

Benn told the ''[[Socialist Review]]'' in 2007:{{blockquote|I'd like to have on my gravestone: "He encouraged us." I'm proud to have been in the parliament that introduced the health service, the welfare state and voted against means testing. I did my maiden speech on nationalising the steel industry, put down the first motion for the boycott of South African goods, and resigned from the shadow cabinet in 1958 because of their support for nuclear weapons.

I think you do plant a few acorns, and I have lived to see one or two trees growing: gay rights, freedom of information, CND. I'm not claiming them for myself but you feel you have encouraged other people and see the arguments developing.

I'm not ashamed of making mistakes. I've made a million mistakes and they're all in the diary. When we edit the diary—which is cut to around 10 per cent—every mistake has to be printed because people look to see if you do. I would be ashamed if I thought I'd ever said anything I didn't believe to get on, but making mistakes is part of life, isn't it?<ref>{{cite news|last1=Benn|first1=Tony|last2=German|first2=Lindsey|last3=Orr|first3=Judith|title=Interview|url=http://socialistreview.org.uk/317/tony-benn-life-outside|access-date=6 February 2016|issue=317|date=September 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160206235150/http://socialistreview.org.uk/317/tony-benn-life-outside|archive-date=6 February 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

Benn was widely seen as a key proponent of [[democratic socialism]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=White|first1=Michael|date=14 March 2014|title=Tony Benn: the establishment insider turned leftwing outsider|newspaper=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/14/tony-benn-dies-establishment-insider-turned-leftwing-outsider|url-status=live|access-date=4 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160407220410/http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/14/tony-benn-dies-establishment-insider-turned-leftwing-outsider|archive-date=7 April 2016}}</ref> He was described as "one of the few UK politicians to have become more left-wing after holding ministerial office".<ref>{{cite web|title=Collection – The Rt Hon Tony Benn MP|url=http://www.parliament.uk/worksofart/artwork/andrew-tift/the-rt-hon-tony-benn-mp/4761|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101013152824/http://www.parliament.uk/worksofart/artwork/andrew-tift/the-rt-hon-tony-benn-mp/4761|archive-date=13 October 2010|access-date=3 May 2010|work=Art in Parliament|publisher=UK Parliament}}</ref> Harold Wilson, his former boss, maintained that Benn was the only man he knew who "immatures with age".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/vauxhallsignum/story/0,,952860,00.html|title=Leading the way &#124; Microsite &#124; guardian.co.uk|website=www.theguardian.com}}</ref>

He has been cited as being a key mentor to future leader of the Labour Party [[Jeremy Corbyn]], with his Shadow Chancellor [[John McDonnell]] commenting that "they would discuss everything under the sun. Jeremy was very close to Tony right up until the end."<ref>{{cite news|last=Boffey|first=Daniel|title=Jeremy Corbyn's world: his friends, supporters, mentors and influences|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/aug/15/jeremy-corbyn-world-supporters-mentors-influences|access-date=12 June 2017|date=15 August 2015|newspaper=The Guardian|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150913010747/http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/aug/15/jeremy-corbyn-world-supporters-mentors-influences|archive-date=13 September 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> Corbyn [[2015 Labour Party leadership election (UK)|was elected]] as [[Leader of the Labour Party (UK)|leader of the Labour Party]] a little over a year after Benn's death, an act which [[Hilary Benn]] said would have made his father feel "thrilled".<ref>{{cite news|last=Murphy|first=Joe|title=Hilary Benn: Dad would've been thrilled by Jeremy Corbyn's win|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/hilary-benn-dad-would-ve-been-thrilled-by-corbyn-win-a2955906.html|access-date=12 June 2017|date=25 September 2015|newspaper=[[London Evening Standard]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170608230500/http://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/hilary-benn-dad-would-ve-been-thrilled-by-corbyn-win-a2955906.html|archive-date=8 June 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Styles and arms==
* Anthony Wedgwood Benn, Esq. (1925 – 12 January 1942)
* The Hon. Anthony Wedgwood Benn (12 January 1942 – 30 November 1950)
* The Hon. Anthony Wedgwood Benn, MP (30 November 1950 – 17 November 1960)
* The Rt Hon. The Viscount Stansgate (17 November 1960 – 31 July 1963)
* Anthony Wedgwood Benn, Esq. (31 July – 20 August 1963)
* Anthony Wedgwood Benn, Esq., MP (20 August 1963 – 1964)
* The Rt Hon. Anthony Wedgwood Benn, MP (1964 – October 1973)
* The Rt Hon. Tony Benn, MP (October 1973 – 9 June 1983)
* The Rt Hon. Tony Benn (9 June 1983 – 1 March 1984)
* The Rt Hon. Tony Benn, MP (1 March 1984 – 14 May 2001)
* The Rt Hon. Tony Benn (14 May 2001 – 14 March 2014)

===Arms===
{{Infobox emblem wide
|image = [[File:Coronet of a British Viscount.svg|center|110px]]
[[File:Stansgate Escutcheon.png|center|120px]]
|notes = The arms shown with the coronet of a viscount, as borne by Benn between 1960 and 1963.
|escutcheon = Argent two Barrulets Gules between in chief as many Dragons' Heads erased and in base a Pencil and Pen in saltire proper tied with a Lace Azure pendent therefrom a Torteau charged with Figures "1914".
|coronet=[[Coronet|that of a viscount]]}}

==Bibliography==
* {{cite book |last=Marr |first=Andrew |author-link=Andrew Marr |title=A History of Modern Britain |year=2007 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-0-330-51147-6}}

=== Works by Tony Benn ===
* ''Speeches'', Spokesman Books (1974); {{ISBN|0851240917}}
* ''Levellers and the English Democratic Tradition'', Spokesman Books (1976); {{ISBN|978-0-85124-633-8}}
* ''Why America Needs Democratic Socialism'', Spokesman Books (1978); {{ISBN|978-0-85124-266-8}}
* ''Prospects'', Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers, Technical, Administrative and Supervisory Section (1979)
* ''Case for Constitutional Civil Service'', [[Institute for Workers' Control]] (1980); {{ISBN|978-0-901740-67-0}}
* ''Case for Party Democracy'', Institute for Workers' Control (1980); {{ISBN|978-0-901740-70-0}}
* ''Arguments for Socialism'', [[Penguin Books]] (1980); {{ISBN|978-0-14-005489-7}}
* & [[Chris Mullin (politician)|Chris Mullin]], ''Arguments for Democracy'', [[Jonathan Cape]] (1981); {{ISBN|978-0-224-01878-4}}
* ''European Unity: A New Perspective'', Spokesman Books (1981) {{ISBN|978-0-85124-326-9}}
* ''Parliament and Power: Agenda for a Free Society'', [[Verso Books]] (1982); {{ISBN|978-0-86091-057-2}}
* ''Fighting Back: Speaking Out for Socialism in the Eighties'', Hutchinson, (1988) {{ISBN|0091737923}}
* ''The Future for Socialism'', Fount (1991) {{ISBN|0006275834}}
* & Andrew Hood, ''Common Sense: New Constitution for Britain'', Hutchinson (1993)
* ''Free Radical: New Century Essays'', Continuum International Publishing (2004); {{ISBN|978-0-8264-7400-1}}
* ''Dare to Be a Daniel: Then and Now'', [[Hutchinson (publisher)|Hutchinson]] (2004); {{ISBN|978-0-09-179999-1}}
* ''Letters to my Grandchildren: Thoughts on the Future'', [[Arrow Books]] (2010); {{ISBN|978-0-09-953909-4}}

===Diaries===
* ''Out of the Wilderness: Diaries 1963–67'', Hutchinson (1987); {{ISBN|978-0-09-170660-9}}
* ''Office Without Power: Diaries 1968–72'', Hutchinson (1988); {{ISBN|978-0-09-173647-7}}
* ''Against the Tide: Diaries 1973–76'', Hutchinson (1989); {{ISBN|978-0-09-173775-7}}
* ''Conflicts of Interest: Diaries 1977–80'', Hutchinson (1990); {{ISBN|978-0-09-174321-5}}
* ''The End of an Era: Diaries 1980–90'', Hutchinson (1992); {{ISBN|978-0-09-174857-9}}
* ''Years of Hope: Diaries 1940–62'', Hutchinson (1994); {{ISBN|978-0-09-178534-5}}
* ''The Benn Diaries: Single Volume Edition 1940–90'', Hutchinson (1995); {{ISBN|978-0-09-179223-7}}
* ''Free at Last!: Diaries 1991–2001'', Hutchinson (2002); {{ISBN|978-0-09-179352-4}}
* ''More Time for Politics: Diaries 2001–2007'', Hutchinson (2007); {{ISBN|978-0-09-951705-4}}
* ''A Blaze of Autumn Sunshine: The Last Diaries'', Hutchinson (2013); {{ISBN|978-0-09-194387-5}}

==See also==
* [[Labour Representation Committee (2004)]]
* [[List of British republicans]]
* [[Republicanism in the United Kingdom]]
* [[Socialist Campaign Group]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Subject bar|auto=y|d=y|United Kingdom|Politics|Biography}}
'''By date'''
* [https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/people/mr-tony-benn/index.html Contributions in Parliament by Tony Benn]. Hansard, 1925–2005. [https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/people/mr-tony-benn/index.html]
* [http://marxists.org/archive/foot-paul/1985/02/benn.html Late Developer: Review of Against the Tide: Diaries 1973–1976 by Tony Benn]. Author – [[Paul Foot (journalist)|Paul Foot]], 1985.
* [[Andrew Roth]]. [http://politics.guardian.co.uk/profiles/story/0,9396,-361,00.html "Tony Benn Chesterfield and Bristol South East MP"]. ''[[The Guardian]]'', 25 March 2001.
* [https://www.theguardian.com/netnotes/article/0,6729,728418,00.html ''The Guardian'' web guide to Benn.]. 6 June 2002.
* [http://www.vega.org.uk/video/programme/26 ''Face-to-Face with Tony Benn'']. Freeview video interview by the Vega Science Trust. Recorded in 2005.
* {{cite web|last1=Benn|first1=Tony|title=Exclusive Interview|url=http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/news/index.asp?id=212|website=Glastonbury Festival|access-date=5 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050524090710/http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/news/index.asp?id=212|archive-date=24 May 2005 |url-status=dead|via=the Wayback Machine}}
* Tony Benn. [http://politics.guardian.co.uk/publicservices/comment/0,11032,1653785,00.html "Atomic hypocrisy: West is not in a position to take a high moral line"]. ''The Guardian'', 30 November 2005.
* [http://www.rfi.fr/actuen/articles/111/article_3308.asp Interview with Tony Benn – Radio France Internationale]. 28 March 2008 – 6-minute audio – Ahead of G20 marches, London. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131027083301/http://www.rfi.fr/actuen/articles/111/article_3308.asp |date=27 October 2013 }}
* [http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/21/british_mp_tony_benn_on_tony Tony Benn on Tony Blair: "He Is Guilty of a War Crime"]. Video report by ''Democracy Now!''. 21 September 2010.
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18686794 Obituary: Tony Benn]. [[BBC News]], 14 March 2014.
* [http://www.cnduk.org/cnd-media/item/1851-tony-benn-a-stalwart-of-the-peace-and-anti-nuclear-movement Tony Benn: a stalwart of the peace and anti-nuclear movement]. [[Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament]], 14 March 2014.
* {{cite news |last=Allegretti |first=Aubrey |title=Tony Benn's son takes House of Lords seat renounced by his father |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jul/12/tony-benns-son-takes-house-of-lords-seat-renounced-by-his-father |access-date=8 November 2021 |newspaper=The Guardian |date=12 July 2021}}

'''Other'''
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070211064834/http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/podcasts/2006/12/brief_encounter_tony_benn.html Audio interview] with ''The Guardian''.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110326012522/http://www.thehist.com/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=80&Itemid=455 His Address] to the [[College Historical Society]] of Trinity College.
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPREZNbITH8 Tony Benn | People Before Profit | the Budget | 24 Nov 2008]. ''YouTube''. Tony Benn speaking in November 2008.
* ''[[Private Eye]]'' depictions of Benn: [http://www.private-eye.co.uk/pictures/covers/full/147_big.jpg "Most Dangerous Man in Britain"], [http://www.private-eye.co.uk/pictures/covers/full/543_big.jpg "Labour United"], [http://www.private-eye.co.uk/pictures/covers/full/580_big.jpg "Benn's Triumph"], [http://www.private-eye.co.uk/pictures/covers/full/504_big.jpg "Foot & Benn Disease"], [http://www.private-eye.co.uk/pictures/covers/full/349_big.jpg "Would You Buy a New Car From This Man?"].
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak9aAJ5_zhY Tony Benn on Modern Liberty]. Tony Benn speaking for [[The Convention on Modern Liberty]]. ''YouTube''. 23 February 2009.
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Tony Benn}}
* {{Librivox author |id=8949}}
*[https://www.theguardian.com/profile/tonybenn Tony Benn] on ''[[The Guardian]]''
*{{C-SPAN|15636}}
* {{NPG name}}

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{{S-par|uk}}
{{S-bef|before=[[Stafford Cripps]]}}
{{S-ttl|title=[[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|MP]] for [[Bristol South East]]|years=[[1950 Bristol South East by-election|1950]]–[[1961 Bristol South East by-election|1960]]}}
{{S-aft|after=[[Malcolm St Clair (politician)|Malcolm St Clair]]}}
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{{s-break}}
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{{S-ttl|title=MP for [[Chesterfield (UK Parliament constituency)|Chesterfield]]|years=[[1984 Chesterfield by-election|1984]]–[[2001 United Kingdom general election|2001]]}}
{{S-aft|after=[[Paul Holmes (Liberal Democrat politician)|Paul Holmes]]}}
{{s-break}}
{{S-off}}
{{S-bef|before=[[Reginald Bevins]]}}
{{S-ttl|title=[[Postmaster General of the United Kingdom|Postmaster General]]|years=1964–1966}}
{{S-aft|after=[[Edward Short, Baron Glenamara|Edward Short]]}}
{{s-break}}
{{S-bef|before=[[Frank Cousins (British politician)|Frank Cousins]]}}
{{S-ttl|title=[[Minister of Technology]]|years=1966–1970}}
{{S-aft|after=[[Geoffrey Rippon]]}}
{{s-break}}
{{S-bef|before=[[Peter Walker, Baron Walker of Worcester|Peter Walker]]}}
{{S-ttl|title=[[Secretary of State for Industry]]|years=1974–1975}}
{{S-aft|after=[[Eric Varley]]}}
{{s-break}}
{{S-bef|before=[[Eric Varley]]}}
{{S-ttl|title=[[Department of Energy (United Kingdom)|Secretary of State for Energy]]|years=1975–1979}}
{{S-aft|after=[[David Howell, Baron Howell of Guildford|David Howell]]}}
{{s-break}}
{{S-ppo}}
{{succession box|title=Chair of the [[Fabian Society]]|years=1964–1965|before=[[Brian Abel-Smith]]|after=[[Peter Townsend (sociologist)|Peter Townsend]]}}
{{S-bef|before=[[Ian Mikardo]]}}
{{S-ttl|title=[[National Executive Committee of the Labour Party|Chairman of the Labour Party]]|years=1971–1972}}
{{S-aft|after=[[William Simpson (trade unionist)|William Simpson]]}}
{{s-break}}
{{s-npo|is}}
{{S-new|office}}
{{S-ttl|title=President of the<br />[[Stop the War Coalition]] |years=2001–2014 }}
{{s-aft|after=[[Brian Eno]]}}
{{s-break}}
{{S-reg|uk}}
{{S-bef|before=[[William Wedgwood Benn]]}}
{{S-ttl|title=[[Viscount Stansgate]]|years=1960–1963}}
{{S-vac|disclaimed|next=[[Stephen Benn]]}}
{{S-end}}

{{Second Wilson Ministry}}
{{Callaghan cabinet}}
{{Babies of the House}}
{{Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change}}
{{Presidents of the Board of Trade}}
{{Labour Party leadership election, 1976}}
{{Labour Party deputy leadership election, 1981}}
{{Fabian Society}}
{{Authority control}}

{{Good article}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benn, Tony}}
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