The Peerage Act resulted largely from the protests of Anthony Wedgwood Benn (better known, especially in later years, as Tony Benn) who had been disqualified from the House of Commons on inheriting his father's peerage.
Tony Benn's father, William Wedgwood Benn, was a decorated RAF officer (DSO and DFC) who had been elected to Parliament in 1906 as a Liberal, representing the St. George constituency in what is now the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Between 1910 and 1915 he served as a Government whip, and during the 1920s he worked with other radical Liberal MPs to oppose the Conservative government.
In 1927 he resigned his membership of the Liberal Party, and with it his seat in Parliament. He joined the Labour Party, and was elected in 1928 as MP for Aberdeen North. He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1929, and between 1929 and 1931 he served as Secretary of State for India in Ramsay Macdonald's second government. He lost his seat at the 1931 general election, after refusing to follow MacDonald into the National Government coalition with the Conservatives, but returned in 1937 when he was elected to represent Manchester Gorton. In 1942 he was raised to the peerage as Viscount Stansgate (of Stansgate in the County of Essex), and between 1945 and 1946 he served as Secretary of State for Air.
Before accepting the peerage, William Wedgwood Benn had made a point of ascertaining that his eldest son, Michael, did not plan to enter the House of Commons. Unfortunately however, Michael Benn was killed in action in the Second World War, leaving his younger brother Anthony (Tony) as heir–apparent.
Anthony Wedgwood Benn was elected in 1950 as Labour MP for Bristol South. Knowing that he was in line to inherit a peerage, he campaigned throughout the 1950s for for a change in the law.
The 1st Viscount Stansgate duly died in 1960 and Tony Benn inherited the title, automatically losing his seat in the House of Commons. He won the ensuing by–election, despite being disqualified; an election court ruled however that he could not take his seat, awarding it instead to the runner–up, the Conservative Malcolm St Clair.
In 1963 Harold Macmillan's Conservative Government agreed to introduce a Peerage Bill, allowing individuals to disclaim peerages; it received Royal Assent on 31 July 1963, and Tony Benn was the first peer to make use of it. Malcolm St Clair fulfilled a promise he had made on taking his seat by accepting the Stewardship of the Manor of Northstead the previous day, thereby disqualifying himself from the House, and at the ensuing by–election Tony Benn was re–elected to represent Bristol South East. During Harold Wilson's ministries he served as Postmaster General (1964–6), Minister of Technology (1966–70), Industry Secretary (1974–5), and then as Energy Secretary until James Callaghan's defeat at the hands of Margaret Thatcher in the general election of 1979.
When the 1983 general election came around, constituency boundary changes had led to the abolition of Bristol South East. Benn sought selection in his original seat of Bristol South, but was passed over in favour of Michael Cocks (who had represented the previous constituency of that name since 1970). He contested instead the less winnable Bristol East, and lost to the Conservative Jonathan Sayeed. His absence from Parliament meant that he was ineligible to stand as Labour leader following the party's second successive election defeat and the resignation of Michael Foot, leaving Neil Kinnock to be elected.
The next Labour seat to become vacant was Chesterfield, and Tony Benn stood successfully at a by–election in March 1984. In 1988 he challenged Kinnock for the party leadership, but was unsuccessful. He kept his seat in Parliament until the 2001 general election, when he announced that he was "leaving parliament in order to spend more time on politics." He died in 2014, aged 88.
Tony Benn's eldest son, Hilary James Wedgwood Benn, was elected as MP for Leeds Central, at a by–election in 1999. In 2003 Tony Blair made him Secretary of State for International Development, and under Gordon Brown he was Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. He represents the fourth generation of Benns to sit in Parliament – both of Tony Benn's grandfathers having been Liberal MPs.
© Haydn Thompson 2020