Tony Benn

Tony Benn was born in London in 1925 and retired from the House of Commons in May 2001, after fifty years in Parliament, the longest serving Labour MP in the history of the party, which he joined in 1942. He was a Cabinet minister in the Wilson and Callaghan governments from 1964 - 79, as Minister of Technology, Secretary of State for both Industry and Energy and President of the Council of European Energy ministers in 1977.