Tony Benn admitted he “made every mistake in the book”. Photo: Andy Butterton/PA Wire

These are times of high aspirations, with many seeking self-fulfilment through financial success and moving up the social ladder. This makes it hard to understand what induces an aristocrat to renounce his hereditary title to champion the powerless and the working class. Such politicians are a dying breed.

Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn was one such politician. Popularly known as Tony Benn, he was an extraordinary person who inspired the masses in the second half of the 20th century. Benn was a charismatic, eloquent leader who was loved and hated in equal measure. His rebellion has been attributed to conviction, a deep sense of social justice, ‘class guilt’, eccentric fundamentalism.

A ‘real’ gentleman with a flair for showmanship, Benn was unfailingly polite, jovial and humane. He was bred at a time when politics was driven by ideology and became increasingly radical in the course of his political career.

Having initially built a reputation as a media-savvy, moderate moderniser, Benn swung sharply to the left in the 1970s. He entered Westminster in 1950, but three years later, was obliged to leave the Commons to join the House of Lords.

Benn had inherited his father’s title and became Viscount Stansgate. He was re-admitted to the Commons after campaigning to change the law and having renounced his title. Benn served terms as minister for technology, industry and energy under various Labour administrations. He was a foremost campaigner against EU membership, perceiving it to be a threat to British sovereignty.

His career peaked in the 1970s and early 1980s. For him, politics was a matter of principle not an art of the possible. He remained loyal to his socialist convictions and opposed the Labour Party’s shift to vote-winning centrist policies. He favoured party activism as a form of popular pressure against established power, irrespective of who was in government.

At the time, the media portrayed Benn as “the most dangerous man in Britain”, an extinct species from a distant era. ‘Bennism’ became a type of socialist fundamentalism.

Ironically, the iconic figure had all the necessary traits to become Labour Party leader. Progressively, his political stance jarred with the emerging politico-economic scenarios.

The shift in the British economy towards the tertiary sector, reduced manoeuvrability of government due to excessive public debt, increasing discontent with trade unions, the rise of globalisation and the collapse of the Soviet Union all helped shift public thinking towards the right.

At a point, Benn became a divisive figure even within the Labour Party itself. A true Marxist, he idealised the working class and saw history as a power struggle through which workers’ had to fight for their rights.

For Benn, only collective action can drive human progress and it is only through the workers’ struggle that the wealthy and powerful are forced to make concessions. Political correctness is a means to defend the status quo.

Benn’s ideological stubbornness contributed towards the rise of Thatcherism. Benn’s influence over the Labour Party started to diminish as its policies gradually shifted to the centre. In 1981, he challenged Denis Healey for deputy leader and was defeated by a few votes.

The bitter struggle that followed almost split the party. His biggest political mistake probably was when, in 1988, he challenged Neil Kinnock for leadership, obtaining just 11.4 per cent of the vote.

After the first term of the Blair government, the 76-year socialist decided not to stand for parliament. Tony Blair represented the historical compromise which Benn had strongly resisted.

An equally effective communicator, Blair’s pragmatism led Labour to an unprecedented three consecutive election wins.

For Benn, Blair was a ‘Thatcherite’ who never belonged to the Labour tradition. Cynically stating that “all political careers end in failure; mine just happened to end earlier than most”, Benn justified his not standing for parliament as being driven by the wish to “spend more time on politics”.

True to his words, Benn remained politically active, making big efforts to educate the masses and the young generation.

For Benn, only collective action can drive human progress

He criticised the political class for losing touch with the people it purported to represent. He campaigned against globalisation and the irresponsible use of power by multinational corporations.

A main opponent of the war in Iraq, Benn’s popularity was also rekindled by the collapse ofthe global financial system and the growing anti-EU sentiment in Britain.

The media somehow sought to rehabilitate the fundamentalist, with the readers of The Sunday Telegraph going as far as nominating him one of Britain’s ‘national treasures’. His reaction was: “If I’m a national treasure in the Telegraph, something’s gone wrong. All is forgiven as you get old.”

Benn admitted that in his political life he “made every mistake in the book”. He justified his stance by saying “I was simply someone with a point of view, which I put forward regardless”.

In his speeches, Benn consistently emphasised that in politics what matters are “issuesnot personalities”. But it ispersonalities like him that define the issues.

Earlier this month, the compulsive pipe smoker and loather of physical exercise passed away at the ripe age of 88 years.

His wish was that the gravestone would read: “Tony Benn – he encouraged us.” That much can surely be given to him; the rest is up to history to judge.