Political foes and allies paid tribute to Tony Benn, the totem of the British left who spearheaded the movement against the Iraq war, following his death on Friday aged 88.
A Labour cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s, Benn was a widely respected orator who clashed with his party’s leadership over its drift away from the radical socialism he espoused.
Benn also forced a change in the law allowing hereditary members of parliament’s upper House of Lords to renounce their titles, after he was disqualified from his seat in the elected lower House of Commons on inheriting his father’s Viscount Stansgate title in 1960.
After recently spending a month in hospital he died peacefully at his west London home surrounded by his family, his four children said in a statement.
“We are comforted by the memory of his long, full and inspiring life and so proud of his devotion to helping others as he sought to change the world for the better,” they said.
In one of his final interviews, given a few weeks ago to BBC radio, Benn said: “I think it has been a very satisfying life.
“I made every mistake in the book but making mistakes is how you learn.
“But as long as you say what you believe and believe what you say, that’s the test of authenticity.”
The well-spoken politician was typically pictured puffing on his pipe and drinking from a huge mug of tea.
Prime Minister David Cameron said Benn was a magnificent writer, speaker and campaigner, with a strong record of public and political service.
The Conservative leader said: “There was never a dull moment listening to him, even when you disagreed with everything he said.”
Labour leader Ed Miliband, who at 16 did work experience with Benn, paid tribute to an “iconic figure of our age”.
“He will be remembered as a champion of the powerless, a great parliamentarian and a conviction politician,” he said.
Miliband said he had visited Benn recently in hospital.
“As I left he said to me: ‘Well, old son — let’s have a proper talk when you have more time’.”
More than half a century after entering parliament, Benn retired in 2001, only half-joking that he wanted to “spend more time on politics”.
– Opponent of Tony Blair –
As president of the Stop the War Coalition, he led the anti-war movement as Britain, under Labour prime minister Tony Blair, sent troops into Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003. He travelled to Baghdad to interview Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein a month before US-led troops invaded.
Blair, who successfully returned Labour to office after shedding its socialism, said: “Tony Benn was one of those rare things — a genuine radical for all his life. He was a fearless campaigner and a legendary figure for the Labour movement.
“Even when I disagreed with him, I always had enormous respect for his brilliance, his passion and his commitment.”
Born into a political dynasty in 1925, both Anthony Neil Wedgwood “Tony” Benn’s grandfathers were Liberal MPs, as was his father before switching to Labour.
His father served as Britain’s Secretary of State for India and later the air force and was given a hereditary seat in the Lords.
Educated at Oxford University, Benn served as a pilot in southern Africa during World War II.
First elected in 1950, he spent three years shut out of the Commons after becoming Viscount Stansgate, before the Peerage Act 1963 allowed him to return.
He served in the governments of Labour prime ministers Harold Wilson and James Callaghan in technology, industry and energy posts.
He had responsibility for the development of the Concorde supersonic airliner.
– Radical socialism proved divisive –
Seen as a modernist and a technocrat at the time, he was Britain’s postmaster general in the mid-1960s.
He oversaw the opening of the Post Office Tower in London, then Britain’s tallest building, and clashed with Queen Elizabeth II when the staunch republican suggested removing her head from stamps.
Becoming more radically left-wing over time, he narrowly lost a bitterly divisive challenge for the Labour deputy leadership in 1981.
He failed to win the Labour leadership in 1976, and again in 1988 when he challenged the incumbent Neil Kinnock. He remained on the Labour backbenches.
Benn was a meticulous diarist, publishing his eighth and final volume last year.
His US-born wife Caroline died of cancer in 2000.
His second son Hilary Benn is a Labour MP who has served as international development and environment secretary, while his grand-daughter Emily has sought election to parliament.