Hilary Benn was born on 26 November 1953 in Hammersmith. He is the second son of former Labour Cabinet Minister Tony Benn and American-born educationalist Caroline Benn (née DeCamp). Benn is a fourth-generation MP – his father, his paternal grandfather Lord Stansgate, and his great-grandfathers Daniel Holmes and Sir John Benn were all Members of Parliament, mostly supporting the Liberal Party.[1]
Benn has an older brother, Stephen, a younger sister Melissa and younger brother, Joshua.[4] Reflecting on his upbringing, he said: "I grew up in a household where we talked about the state of the world over breakfast, when we ate at night, and all points in between".[5]
Early political career
After graduation, Benn became a research officer with ASTMS.[6] During the 1975 referendum on British membership of the European Economic Community, he served on the research team for the National Referendum Campaign, which argued for a No vote.[7]
In 1980, he was seconded to the Labour Party to act as a joint secretary to the finance panel of the Labour Party Commission of Inquiry. In 1979, he was elected to Ealing Borough Council where he served as deputy leader from 1986 to 1990.
He was the Labour Party candidate for Ealing North at the 1983 and 1987 general elections. On both occasions he was defeated by the Conservative candidate Harry Greenway. Reflecting on the defeat at the 1983 general election, Benn said: "That was a formative experience for me because we went out on the doorstep and we didn't win the public's confidence. It made me very uncomfortable. Personally, that left a mark on me."[8] At the 1983 general election, Benn won 32.8% of the vote,[9] and four years later won 27.8% of the vote.[10]
In 1999, Benn was selected as the Labour candidate for a by-election in Leeds Central following the untimely death of Foreign Office Minister Derek Fatchett at the age of 53 years old. During the by-election campaign, he described himself as "a Benn, but not a Bennite".[14][15]
Benn won the Leeds Central by-election on 10 June 1999 following a turnout of 19.6%, the second-smallest turnout at a by-election since the Second World War; this was beaten in the 2012 Manchester Central by-election which had a mere 18.2% turnout.[16][17] In response to the poor turnout, he said: "The turnout is very disappointing and in a democracy this is a concern for all of us."[18] Benn was elected with 48.2% of the vote and a majority of 2,293 votes.
He made his maiden speech in the House of Commons on Wednesday 23 June 1999.
Early ministerial career (2001–2003)
Benn was re-elected at the 2001 general election with an increased vote share of 66.9% and an increased majority of 14,381. Following the election, Benn was appointed as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for International Development.[19] In the 2002 reshuffle, he become the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Prisons and Probation at the Home Office, serving as a deputy to Lord Falconer as Minister of State (Criminal Justice).[20] At the Home Office, he led a task force investigating internet paedophilia, which subsequently recommended the introduction of the new offence of 'grooming'.[21]
In January 2003, he had responsibility for introducing the Sexual Offences Bill in the House of Commons.[22]
Secretary of State for International Development (2003–2007)
Official portrait, 2004
In 2003, Benn was promoted to the cabinet from his position as Minister of State to become Secretary of State for International Development, after Baroness Amos was appointed as Leader of the House of Lords. When he informed his family, his father Tony said that "the house rocked with delight".[11] Following his first Department for International Development (DfID) question time, Benn was criticised by Liberal Democrat international development spokesperson Tom Brake over his comments about opening Iraq up to foreign investors.[24]
The Guardian noted that one of Benn's main challenges as Secretary of State for International Development would be the "fraught reconstruction of Iraq".[17] In February 2004, Benn said that restoring security in Iraq would be "absolutely fundamental" to a reconstruction effort.[25]
Benn oversaw the DfID response to the 2003 Bam earthquake, which included "helping to coordinate efforts on the ground, liaise with other international relief organisations and work with the Iranian government to ensure that the right equipment gets to where it is needed as quickly as possible."[26] He subsequently oversaw the UK's response to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the 2005 Nias–Simeulue earthquake, to which he responded "with skill".[8]
In July 2004, Benn set out five stages to end the Darfur War that had begun in February 2003. The stages were: "to get help to the people in the camps and elsewhere", "to get more people and more capacity on the ground to deliver this aid", "security – urgently", getting the "government of Sudan... to disarm the militias and provide security to the people" and "Finally, this crisis needs a political solution".[27]
At the 2005 general election, Benn was again re-elected, with a decreased vote share of 60% and a decreased majority of 11,866.
On 13 June 2005, he committed an additional £19 million to the African Union security mission in Darfur, bringing the total UK contribution to £32 million.[30] Benn led the UK negotiating team at the 2006 Darfur peace negotiations.[29]
In 2007, the New Statesman noted that "Benn's work at DfID ... has often been at odds with the Bush administration". In particular, an example was Benn's opposition to the United States policy of increasing abstinence when it came to fighting AIDS in Africa, whereas Benn took a "harm reduction" approach. He was also dismissive of US policy, saying: "Abstinence-only programmes are fine if you want to abstain, but not everybody does."[31]
Labour Party Deputy Leadership election, 2007
In late October 2006, Benn announced that he would be standing in the 2007 Labour Party deputy leadership election.[32] One of his earliest backers was Dennis Skinner, and it was also announced that Ian McCartney would play an important role in his campaign.[33] On 6 December, an open letter was published in The Guardian signed by six Labour parliamentarians that said Benn's election as Deputy Leader could rebuild a "coalition of trust" in the Labour Party.[34][35]
Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (2007–2010)
In 2007, Benn was appointed as the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, following the election of Gordon Brown as Party Leader, and the promotion of David Miliband to Foreign Secretary.[40] As Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, he introduced and implemented the UK's Climate Change Act 2008. It was also his responsibility as Secretary to respond to the threat to cattle from Mycobacterium bovis, colloquially referred to as bovine tuberculosis (TB). The recommended option from the Chief Scientific Advisor until 2007, Sir David King, was a badger cull.[41] In April 2010, a badger cull was announced in Wales, after the high court in Cardiff rejected a legal challenge from The Badger Trust.[42]
During the parliamentary expenses scandal, Benn was picked out by several national newspapers as one of only three senior members of the Labour Party to have not presented expenses beyond reproach. The Guardian stated: "When all Westminster MPs' total expenditures are ranked, Benn's bill is the fifteenth least expensive for the taxpayer".[43]
At the 2015 general election, Benn was again re-elected, increasing his share of the vote to 55% and increasing his majority to 16,967.[46][47] Following the election, Benn was named Shadow Foreign Secretary in the Second Shadow Cabinet of Harriet Harman. On 17 June, Benn deputised for Harriet Harman at Prime Minister's Questions, when David Cameron was overseas in Europe, and Benn was Harman's unofficial deputy.[48] One of the questions he asked challenged George Osborne, who was deputising for Cameron, over whether HMS Bulwark was under active review as revealed in a report by The Guardian.[49] Writing for the New Statesman, George Eaton commended Benn's performance, saying: "Benn smartly denied the Chancellor the chance to deploy his favourite attack lines by devoting his six questions to national security and the Mediterranean refugee crisis, rather than the economy."[50]
In September 2015, both leadership and deputy leadership elections took place in the Labour Party. Benn supported Caroline Flint in the deputy leadership election,[51] and Andy Burnham in the leadership election.[52] Following the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Leader of the Labour Party in September, Benn retained the role of Shadow Foreign Secretary in Corbyn's shadow cabinet, and stressed that Labour would campaign to remain in the EU "under all circumstances".[53] This was later affirmed by a joint statement released by both Benn and Corbyn, which said that "Labour will be campaigning in the referendum for the UK to stay in the European Union."[54]
On 20 September, Benn signalled that Labour could back Prime Minister David Cameron's plans for airstrikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria: "What we've said consistently is that the government, if it has got a proposal, should bring that to the House of Commons. In relation to airstrikes, we shall look at the objectives. At the moment we don't know what the proposal is ... We will judge that against the objective, the legal base..."[55] In November 2015, following the Paris attacks that had occurred a few days earlier, Benn initially agreed with Corbyn's position rejecting the proposal for Britain to launch airstrikes against ISIL in Syria and any intervention.[56] However, Benn subsequently supported plans laid out by the Prime Minister, and said he would not resign over his disagreement with Corbyn because he was "doing [his] job as the Shadow Foreign Secretary".[57][58] Benn had voted in favour of the Iraq War in 2003 and the 2011 military intervention in Libya,[59] but voted against military intervention against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2013.[60]
On 2 December 2015, Benn made the closing speech for the official opposition in the House of Commons debate on airstrikes against ISIL in Syria. The speech opposed the position espoused by Corbyn against the government's motion.[61] The speech was applauded by MPs on both sides of the house,[62] a gesture not usually permitted in the Commons.[63] Along with a minority of shadow cabinet colleagues, he voted for airstrikes in Syria and the motion passed by a higher-than-expected majority of 174 votes.[64] The Conservative Foreign SecretaryPhilip Hammond described Benn's oration as "one of the truly great speeches in Commons history".[65] Speaking to the BBC the following day, Shadow ChancellorJohn McDonnell compared Benn's speech to that given by Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2003 ahead of the Iraq War. McDonnell described it as an "excellent" piece of oratory, but added: "The greatest oratory can lead us to the greatest mistakes."[66] According to Labour MP Jamie Reed, following his speech, in the eyes of Corbyn, Benn became "at best a rebel, at worst a traitor."[67]
In January 2016, Benn criticised British involvement in Saudi Arabian–led intervention in Yemen after a leaked UN report concluded there had been "widespread and systematic" attacks on civilian targets in violation of international humanitarian law.[68]
On 25 June 2016, The Observer revealed that Benn "called fellow MPs over the weekend to suggest that he will ask Corbyn to stand down if there is significant support for a move against the leader. He has also asked shadow cabinet colleagues to join him in resigning if the Labour leader ignores that request."[69] During a phone call in the early hours of 26 June, Benn told Corbyn that Labour MPs and shadow cabinet members had "no confidence in our ability to win the election" under his leadership. Corbyn then dismissed Benn from his position as Shadow Foreign Secretary. In a statement issued at 03:30, Benn said: "It has now become clear that there is widespread concern among Labour MPs and in the shadow cabinet about Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of our party. In particular, there is no confidence in our ability to win the next election, which may come much sooner than expected, if Jeremy continues as leader."[70] Later in the morning, Heidi Alexander, the Shadow Secretary of State for Health, also resigned. Throughout the day, a further eight members of the shadow cabinet resigned.[71]
In September 2016, Benn announced his intention to stand for chairman of the new Exiting the European Union Select Committee, a House of Commons select committee. He stated that his intention was to "get the best deal for the British people". His bid was supported by former Labour leader Ed Miliband, as well as other senior Labour Party figures including Angela Eagle, Dan Jarvis, and Andy Burnham. His opponent in the bid was Kate Hoey, a fellow Labour MP and a Leave vote supporter. The result, announced on 19 October, was 330 votes to Benn, and 209 to Hoey, so Benn became the new chairman.[73][74][75]
At the snap 2017 general election, Benn was again re-elected with an increased vote share of 70.2% and an increased majority of 23,698.[76]
Prior to Benn's speech at the Labour Party Conference on 23 September 2024, he announced in an interview that the new Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) investigating Troubles killings will not be scrapped. He also defended the government's decision to cut winter fuel payments for almost 250,000 pensioners in Northern Ireland, stating that "being in government is about making difficult choices" given the state of public finances.[92]
In 1973, while at university, Benn married fellow student Rosalind Caroline Retey. She died of cancer, aged 26, in 1979.[94] Benn subsequently married Sally Christina Clark in 1982,[95][96] and the couple have four children.[97]
Benn was shortlisted for the Grassroot Diplomat Initiative Award in 2015 for his work on increasing aid at DfID, and remains in the directory of the Grassroot Diplomat Who's Who publication.[99]
Benn has won the Channel 4 Political Awards Politicians' Politician 2006,[100] Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year 2016[101] and the Political Studies Association Parliamentarian of the Year 2019.[102]
^Ashley, Jackie (9 November 2006). "'I'm not a natural rebel'". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 5 September 2008. Retrieved 11 October 2008.
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