Liam Rudden recalls an encounter with the late Labour maverick Tony Benn and his memories of his father's battle to keep Leith free of Edinburgh

Staunchly left-wing, yet respected on all sides of the House, Benn had a strong connection to Edinburgh’s port, his father, William Wegdwood Benn, a man of whom he loved sharing memories. I discovered this in 2000, when I called the Houses of Parliament switchboard on a whim and asked if I could speak to him.

It wasn’t planned, just a spur of the moment thing to ask about his father, at one time the MP for Leith. Despite being busy, he chatted for an hour when he discovered the reason for the call. That interview has become my personal tribute to the last of the great conviction politicians. The MP could barely conceal his delight, by that point in time it wasn’t often he was given the opportunity to talk about a subject so close to his heart, you see, like father, like son, William Wedgwood Benn MP was also a bit of maverick. So it was with a great enthusiasm that he launched into his family history.

“Father was first elected to Parliament in 1906, to represent the East of London, including Tower Hamlets and the Stepney Area,” he revealed. “But on my birth certificate it says, ‘Occupation of father: Member of Parliament for Leith’.”

As Benn regaled me of his father’s story, it later became clear how a London MP would come to represent a constituency so far from home - he was Leith’s MP from 1918 to 1926, truly turbulent times during which the Port finally succumbed to the rough wooing of it’s larger neighbour, Edinburgh. It was the sad end of a valiant struggle that the Liberal MP had taken to the very heart of Parliament, all to no avail, when on 21 October 1920, Leith Town Council sat for the very last time.

His son recalled, “He gave a most passionate speech in the House of Commons, which I have some-where, and argued, very strongly that Leith should retain its freedom.”

Ultimately the amalgamation of the two communities came as a great disappointment to Benn Snr.

“Well, he’d fought very hard and he’d been defeated, but that’s all part of politics. Still, he often used to speak about ‘The Battle For Leith’. He had very strong ideas on the subject, very much along the line that Leith had the right to govern itself, rather like the Irish right. I mean, I’m putting it in the same category as that because he was a democrat to his fingertips. Democracy. That was what he believed in more than anything else.”

Fiercely protective of his Scottish ward, Benn, who later became Viscount Stansgate, proved to be an unexpectedly popular representative for the people of Leith. Even now, his name is mentioned with a fond respect seldom afforded to politicians of today.

“You know, I still get letters from people saying, ‘I remember your father, the Captain’. It was his rank in the Army, and after the war it was all he was ever known by,” he told me.

A distinguished war hero, The Captain had led a daring life even before accepting the Leith challenge. Joining the Middlesex Yeomanry at the age of 37, he qualified as a pilot before transferring to the RAF where he continued to carry his Army rank. In 1918 he parachuted as the first spy behind enemy lines, and shortly before returning to Parliament was decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross, the French Croix de Guerre, and the Italian Military Cross.

His son continued the story, “During the war, he was still a Member of Parliament, but while he was away they redistributed the boundaries, and someone else was edging into his constituency. His father, my grandfather, himself a Liberal MP, said to him, ‘Do the high and sublime - don’t fight a colleague.’ He was then offered the job of joint chief whip by David Lloyd George, but turned it down, preferring instead to be adopted as the Member for Leith, which he did for the next eight years.”

It was a major undertaking for the London-based politician. “At that time you didn’t have a rail warrant you know,” explained Benn, adding, “Every time you went up to your constituency you had to pay your fare out of a parliamentary salary of £400 a year.”

Despite protecting the Port from afar, his integrity was unequivocally acknowledged by those he stood for. Their affection was never more evident than in 1920 when he married Margaret Holmes, Tony’s mother.

“The people of Leith were very generous, and gave them wonderful presents,” he recalled before disappearing for a second, calling, “I rather think that I’ve seen a plaque with something on it . . .” He returned with his mind put at rest. “Sorry to keep you waiting,” he said, “but my memory has been confirmed. The Leith Liberal Association gave them a beautiful canteen of silver cutlery for the table. I still have it.”

On his next visit to Leith, The Captain was accompanied by his new wife.

“My mother was 20 years younger than my father, and I remember him telling me that he took her with him to visit a local school. There, he asked, ‘Do you know who I have got with me today children?’ And they replied, ‘Yer daughter’,” chuckled Benn, his Leith accent was uncannily accurate. He continued, “My father loved Scotland, and as the Member for Leith he was very active in the Liberal ‘Wee Free’ group, who were non-Lloyd George Liberals. He was always bitterly opposed to Lloyd George because he had formed a coalition with the Tories, and father never believed in coalition, except during wartime. In fact, he fought and won the 1918 election campaigning against the Lloyd George ticket.”

However, in 1926 his nemesis David Lloyd George became leader of the Liberal Party. On principle, Benn Snr resigned from the Liberal Party and joined Labour.

“He also resigned his Leith seat that very same day. He said, ‘I cannot sit in Parliament when I was elected as a Liberal, and am now Labour.’ He shook hands with the Speaker, and joined the opposition benches.”

It was clear his father played a pivotal role in shaping his son’s future. “He had a tremendous influence on me,” he told me. “He was a radical Liberal, and so was his father - my grandfather was elected in 1892 as a home ruler for Ireland.”

As an example of his father’s politics Benn recalled, “He worked with Lloyd George on the National Insurance Act and was a great believer in the Welfare State, and a supporter of home rule for Ireland, and India. All those ideas influenced me very strongly. Indeed, when I was a little boy he took me to No 10 where I met Ramsay Macdonald, he was 30 when I was five. I have very strong memories of my childhood and of Father. He only died in 1960.”

Born in 1925, Benn was too young to join his father on his trips up north, but has more than made up for it since.

“I have been to Leith many times and attended many meetings there, especially when Ron Brown was the local MP,” he reflected, adding, “Being half Scots myself - my mother was from Paisley - my heart beats faster whenever I cross the Border.”