Listen to an interview with the British political legend
Francesca Leatham and Sean Linley interview Tony Benn, one of Britain's most outstanding politicians of the last 50 years.
In the 1960s, under Harold Wilson, Tony Benn became Postmaster General & then Minister of Technology. In the 1970s he became Secretary of State for Industry & then for Energy, including responsibility for overseeing the development of Concorde.
In 1981 he stood for election as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party – a contest he lost by a margin of barely 1%. He also stood & lost a leadership battle in 1988.
In 2001 he retired from Parliament "to devote more time to politics". He became a leading figure of the British opposition to a war on Iraq, & in February 2003 he travelled to Baghdad to interview Saddam Hussein for British TV.
Benn served in the House of Commons for over fifty years - the longest serving MP in Labour Party history. He was a cabinet minister for eleven years.
He is Now President of the Stop the War Coalition & has published 9 vols. of diaries from 1947 to 2007.
