Tony Benn

The Right Honourable Tony Benn
Benn in 2006
Secretary of State for Energy
In office 10 June 1975 – 4 May 1979
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson James Callaghan
Preceded by	Eric Varley
Succeeded by	David Howell
Secretary of State for Industry
In office 5 March 1974 – 10 June 1975
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Peter Walker (Trade and Industry)
Succeeded by	Eric Varley
Chairman of the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party
In office 20 September 1971 – 25 September 1972
Leader	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Ian Mikardo
Succeeded by	William Simpson
Minister of Technology
In office 4 July 1966 – 19 June 1970
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Frank Cousins
Succeeded by	Geoffrey Rippon
Postmaster General
In office 15 October 1964 – 4 July 1966
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Reginald Bevins
Succeeded by	Edward Short
Parliamentary offices Member of Parliament for Chesterfield In office 2 March 1984 – 14 May 2001 Preceded by Eric Varley Succeeded by Paul Holmes Member of Parliament for Bristol South East In office 20 August 1963 – 13 May 1983 Preceded by Malcolm St Clair Succeeded by Constituency abolished In office 30 November 1950 – 17 November 1960 Preceded by Stafford Cripps Succeeded by Malcolm St Clair Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal Hereditary peerage 17 November 1960 – 31 July 1963 Preceded by The 1st Viscount Stansgate Succeeded by The 3rd Viscount Stansgate (2021)
President of the Stop the War Coalition
In office 21 September 2001 – 14 March 2014
Vice President	Lindsey German
Chairman	Andrew Murray Jeremy Corbyn
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Brian Eno
Personal details
Born	Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (1925-04-03)3 April 1925 London, England
Died	14 March 2014(2014-03-14) (aged 88) London, England
Political party	Labour
Other political affiliations	Socialist Campaign Group[1]
Spouse	Caroline DeCamp ​ ​ (m. 1949; died 2000)​
Children	4, including Stephen, Hilary and Melissa
Parents	William Wedgwood Benn (father) Margaret Holmes (mother)
Relatives	Emily Benn (granddaughter)
Education	Westminster School
Alma mater	New College, Oxford
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Branch/service	Royal Air Force
Rank	Pilot officer
Battles/wars	World War II
Tony Benn's voice Benn on the causes of political apathy Recorded November 2012

Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as The Viscount Stansgate, was a British Labour Party politician and political activist who served as a Cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s. He was the Member of Parliament for Bristol South East and Chesterfield for 47 of the 51 years between 1950 and 2001. He later served as President of the Stop the War Coalition from 2001 to 2014.

The son of a 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 general election but inherited 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 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, first as Postmaster General, where he oversaw the opening of the Post Office Tower, and later as Minister of Technology.

Benn served as Chairman of the National Executive Committee from 1971 to 1972 while in Opposition. In the Labour government of 1974–1979, he returned to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Industry and subsequently served as Secretary of State for Energy. He retained that post when James Callaghan succeeded Wilson as 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 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 ending the Church of England's status as an official church of the United Kingdom.^[2][3] 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 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.