by Benn, Tony
Jim Callaghan said there was a devastating case to be made against the Government, but added, ‘I appeal to Tam not to pursue the case that Mrs Thatcher knew about the impending invasion and lied to the House, because there is no proof of that, while there are things in the report which we can take up. It was a slipshod government, we drifted into war, and Tam will get the headlines but will it help us politically? There is a jingoistic spirit now, in contrast to 1947, when we rationed food in order to send grain ships to India.’
Thursday 24 February
To Bristol, and stayed up to watch the end of the Bermondsey by-election, which was terrible. The 11,000 majority that Bob Mellish had received in the last Election was converted to a 10,000 majority for Simon Hughes, the Liberal candidate. Poor old Peter Tatchell, who had been massacred by the press, only got 7,600 votes, but he came out of it with considerable courage and dignity.
I resolved there and then in that hotel room not to desert Bristol, where boundary changes have affected my seat, and that, when I go to Scotland on Saturday for a meeting I will make a statement saying I couldn’t accept nomination for Livingston.
Thursday 3 March
Went to the Commons in the afternoon, and Gordon McLennan, the General Secretary of the Communist Party, came to see me. We sat alone. He asked if Eric Hobsbawm had spoken to me, as he had suggested he should. Gordon thought there should be more talks between the Communist Party and the Labour Party, that the ‘Eurocommunist’ position (though he didn’t like the term) was pluralistic, and he believed everyone should choose their own road to socialism. He said that Marxism Today had done some interesting analytical work on Thatcherism, on the Labour Movement of the future, on the trade unions and on the SDP-Liberal Alliance, which they took very seriously. He emphasised the importance of internationalism.
Gordon was pretty cold, actually. He said that the composition of the working class had altered, that the change in the make-up of the TUC General Council was a great threat, and that the CP now believe there should be a progressive alliance with autonomous developments under working-class leadership but not under a solely Labour Party umbrella. He thought Militant was a real danger, and disagreed with the view of one trade union leader that, ‘without Tony Benn, Militant would never have been heard of’. On proportional representation, he believed it to be a basic democratic principle that must be upheld.
Sunday 1 May
In Liverpool for a public meeting with Eddie Loyden, the ex-MP for Garston, who has been selected to fight it again. I stayed overnight in the Liverpool Atlantic Tower Hotel.
At 1.30 in the morning I woke up coughing and choking. I was desperately trying to breathe in, and it was absolutely terrifying. I went into the bathroom and began turning blue, gasping for breath and coughing. I really thought I was going to die on May Day 1983.1 won’t say my whole life raced through my mind, but I did go through the likely sequence of my death – the final choking, the weakening, the extinction. But after a while the coughing began to ease and, although my throat was very sore and I was frightened, I managed to calm myself and finally went back to sleep.
Two hours later, I was woken up by the most appalling wailing noise as if a police car was in the bedroom. I leapt out of bed again, thinking it was the hotel alarm clock, which had a note on saying it did sometimes go haywire. I looked out of the window to see if it was a police car but it wasn’t. So I went into the bathroom, where the noise was even louder. I tried to get out of the room to look along the corridor but I had locked the door, so I had to search for the key. By this time the noise was driving me crazy and I thought it must be some sort of fire alarm. Just as I got the door open, I saw the porter and the manager banging on all the doors, shouting, ‘Evacuate the building at once.’
I was in my shirt and my underpants, but I thought I could put on my clothes, and I didn’t want to lose my papers and wallet and tape recorder, so I got everything together. The manager said, ‘Go down the stairs.’ Well, it was twelve flights down! When I finally stumbled out at the bottom, somebody in the hall ushered me outside, where there were three fire engines but no sign of a fire. I had a little folding seat which I had put in my bag for the May Day march, so I sat there with my bags, just gazing out at Liverpool at 3.30 in the morning.
Eventually they said we could go back in. I was so exhausted by this time, I fell asleep on the bed fully clothed, and woke up three hours later when they brought me breakfast.
Saturday 7 May
To Bristol for a very important decision-making meeting with the officers of my party, before this afternoon’s selection conference for the new Bristol South seat. I had worked out a timetable of decisions, and, to cut a long story short, I had drafted the case for staying and the case for running. Clearly Bristol East is not safe and will be less so as a result of the bitter press coverage, which, Ken Coates warned me, would be a ‘lynching party’. I put the case for cutting and running from Bristol.
The case for staying was, however, much stronger. First, I had said I would stay and it was a question of integrity. Secondly, by going I would be condemning Bristol East and Kingswood to defeat by assuming that they would be lost. Thirdly, by assuming they would be lost, I would also be saying that the Labour Party would lose the Election because if they were lost we couldn’t win the Election. Fourth, I did have a requirement to show leadership when things were going badly, and that carried the day. Meg Crack, Dawn Primarolo and George Micklewright, my election agent, agreed; Paul Chamberlain thought I should announce this afternoon that I was leaving Bristol.
I was driven to the Labour Club, where Bristol South delegates had gathered. Then I was shown into a room no bigger than a lavatory. Mike Cocks was there looking extremely worried.
I drew the straw first and went into a huge room where they were all sitting. I could see a few friends, but there was a sea of trade unionists who had been brought in under the Golding aegis, and women in their early sixties from the Co-op Women’s Guild. I swear many of them had never been to a political meeting before in their lives. I knew I was going to lose, so I was relaxed, made a speech, answered a few questions and left. Then Mike Cocks went in.
I left the room, wandered round and had a word with a few journalists. When Mike Cocks came out I said, ‘If you address the press, tell them I’ll see them later if they want me to.’
He said, ‘You’re assuming I’m going to get the selection.’
‘It’s obvious you are.’
Anyway, Vic Jackson, the Chairman, came out and announced, ‘The selection is for Michael Cocks.’
He and I went in and I looked at them all – it did change my attitude, being the defeated candidate. I remember thinking how awful it must have been in 1950 for Arthur Creech-Jones, a former Cabinet Minister, when I beat him. Anyway, Mike Cocks thanked them and said a word of thanks to me. I congratulated him and said that on my way here I had passed the Fighting Cocks pub and as it turned out he was.
I am glad I went. To be defeated does no harm unless you allow it to. He had worked like anything to fix the selection conference. Many of his supporters had never been before and will never attend again. But the Left will come back to haunt him.
During my press conference, Caroline arrived; it was lovely to see her. We had a cup of tea with Meg Crack and went over it all.
That was the end of a memorable day and possibly a turning point in my life, because, having been defeated for Bristol South, and facing the possibility of being defeated in the General Election at Bristol East, I would therefore be ineligible for the leadership of the Labour Party after the Election (if we lose it).
Sunday 8 May
Caroline and I had breakfast in our hotel room and read the papers. At 10 we went to the Bristol East selection conference in Ruskin Hall, Wick Road, the place where I had been carried shoulder-high by three lads after the count on 30 November 1950, and it looked exactly as it did then. Ron Thomas was there contesting the selection with me, and he is such a frie
nd. There was quite a busy crèche with ten or twelve children being looked after by two men.
Ron knew I would beat him. It was a much smaller conference, and I made more or less the same speech. The vote was 46 to 3. Afterwards I paid tribute to Ron, who was very generous in defeat.
Monday 9 May
Someone from ‘Channel 4 News’ rang up to tell me that the Election would definitely be on 9 June. Shortly afterwards a phone call came cancelling the next NEC Organisation and Home Policy Committees.
Thursday 12 May
I went to my room in the House and cleared all the pictures, the NUM banner from Arthur Scargill, the typewriter, and so on, and put them in the car. As I left, I did wonder whether I would ever be a Member of Parliament again. I am relaxed about it, because I think the situation is so serious that socialists or representatives of socialism and of working people are being driven out of Parliament. I may have to help the Labour Movement and socialism without necessarily being in Parliament.
Tuesday 17 May
I’ve made hardly any reference to the Election campaign generally – which I suppose I should do.
The Daily Star came up with a MORI poll today suggesting that the Tory lead had been cut to 7 per cent. I watched the Tories’ party political broadcast, which was just like a presentation to a group of businessmen, with pictures of the so-called Winter of Discontent, showing the Tories reducing inflation and so on, and finishing up with pictures of Mrs Thatcher. I found it informative, skilful and practical. Michael was on television pouncing the table in Lancashire somewhere, and really looking quite good. I felt the atmosphere beginning to shift towards us a bit.
Thursday 26 May
Caught the train to Liverpool, where I was driven to the NUR club for a public meeting. On the platform were Terry Fields, the Labour candidate for Broadgreen, myself, Pat Phoenix (of ‘Coronation Street’) and the actor Tony Booth, the man she lives with. Derek Hatton of Liverpool Council was in the chair. There is tremendous excitement in Liverpool because of Labour’s landslide victory in the district council elections, and it recharged my batteries.
Pat Phoenix and Tony Booth drove me to Manchester for ‘Question Time’ with Sir Geoffrey Howe and David Penhaligon, the Liberal MP for Truro. Back to Bristol in a BBC car and got to bed at about 1.15.
Monday 6 June
To the boot and shoe factory in Kingswood, where men and women were sitting in front of sewing machines which must have been sixty years old. When the hooter blows in the morning, they have a ten-minute break for tea, then at 12.30 they have an hour’s lunch, after which they work straight through to 4.45. It was sheer wage slavery. HTV and BBC were there to take a picture of me, and I was presented with a beautiful set of boots and shoes.
Tuesday 7 June
Clive Jenkins arrived in Bristol, all bouncing, to campaign for me. We went round some shopping centres. Clive hogged the mike and went along like an emperor. You would have thought he was the candidate!
Wednesday 8 June
We drove to the Brislington shopping precinct and I spoke for a moment. Caroline went to a Community Enterprise Programme, where there were a lot of young blacks who said they weren’t going to vote; she converted about seventeen of them with a few sharp words.
At Asda supermarket, the security man told me, ‘The manager has asked you to leave the premises.’
So I replied, ‘Perhaps you’d let me have that in writing.’
Nothing happened, so we carried on, and the manager came up with a heavy-looking guy and said, ‘I must ask you to leave.’
I asked, ‘Why?’, and was told, ‘Because our customers object to canvassing here.’
So I said, ‘Well, I’m walking through your shop, and if you want me to leave you’ll have to put it in writing. I’m a candidate.’
He said, ‘Well, I hope we don’t have a silly confrontation.’
‘Well, I hope we don’t either,’ I replied.
I went on walking through the shop and then left.
Bill Owen, who plays Compo in a very popular television series called ‘Last of the Summer Wine’, arrived with my old friend, Ian Flintoff, to canvass for me.
To three eve-of-poll meetings. I resolved that tonight, as the Election is nearing the end, I would rehearse suitable farewell speeches to get on the record. Saw June Gibbs, with whom we had gone round in 1979 and with a spray gun had changed ‘Benn must go’ slogans to ‘Benn must go on’.
Thursday 9 June – General Election
Caroline and I arrived at Transport House at about 9, and Paul Chamberlain and Alan Beynon, who have been solid friends and helpers throughout the whole of the campaign, had planned a route round the constituency. From 9 until about 4, we drove round to each of the polling stations and committee rooms. The weather was quite good and the turnout high for the early part of the day, which usually means that the Tories are voting and everything then depends on whether the Labour turnout is good at the end of the day – which, in the event, it was not. Caroline had been more cautious about the result; she thought we might just win by 500 but that the most likely result would be that the Tories would win by nearly 2,000. Of course, all the polls in the morning predicted an enormous Tory landslide, and also predicted that the Alliance might do better than Labour.
People were extremely friendly and there was more activity than I had seen before. All the committee rooms were fully manned and the canvassing was efficient.
I didn’t go into the count itself; I just sat in Brislington school and watched on TV the defeat of our best MPs, with the obvious certainty that Labour would be badly beaten. Caroline came in at one stage and told me that, from the count so far, it looked as if we might be just marginally ahead, so I had a feeling that I might have scraped home. The enormity of what was to happen was not apparent. I had prepared what to say in advance and had kept it in the back of my mind – not that it would be much different whether it was a victory or a defeat for me, because clearly it was going to be a bad day for the Labour Party as a whole. A few people gathered in the room with us. Finally Caroline came to me at about 1.30 and said, ‘They are almost ready. You have lost.’ She had seen the votes piling up on the table.
So we walked out of the room, and all our Party workers gave me a dazed look, and I don’t think they fully appreciated what had happened either. We walked arm-in-arm into the assembly hall, and when we got there we saw Sayeed and his wife and the Liberal candidate, Peter Tyrer, and the Ecology and the National Front candidates. The whole thing seemed like a dream. The returning officer read out the result, and I had lost by about 1,790 votes.
A great cheer went up among the Tories when they discovered they had won. Sayeed spoke and paid tribute to me, saying I could have fled Bristol and gone to one of the left-wing strongholds but I had stayed to fight. He said he would do his best for a better Bristol and a better Britain, or something.
I came forward, and there were film units trying to film me, and photographers and journalists jostling. I had resolved what I would say, and I paid a tribute to the Chartists and the suffragettes. I then thanked the people in Bristol for what they had done and said I didn’t regret for one moment staying there to fight. The Labour Party still had things to do – to protect people, to build a mass party, or something or another. Finally, I said, ‘If I may be allowed a personal word, I shall carry on with my commitment outside Parliament.’ Then we all went outside the school and I had to say it all over again for the television and press waiting there. But this time I added, ‘I hope nobody will shed any tears for me, because I am going to carry on my work.’
It was a warm evening, and we drove back to Transport House in Bristol. For the first time since 1950, I had been defeated. It was no longer an area which I represented but an area where I was a visitor. When we arrived, the media were all outside and one photographer from the Observer managed to get in, so we chased him out. I made a speech again, and the only person who marred it was a tall man who was drunk and kept
leaning forward and interrupting. It is out of events like this that history is made; it was a rather moving occasion, all the Party people crying their eyes out, and here was this drunk saying, ‘Why did you do it, Tony? Why didn’t you leave Bristol?’ But I managed to silence him, and then I went round and gave everybody a hug and thanked them.
I can’t say I was surprised, but the campaign did buoy me up to the point where I thought I might have won.
12
1983–87
Saturday 11 June
THE FULL SCALE of the Labour losses is enormous: Albert Booth, Neil Carmichael, Arthur Davidson, Joe Dean, David Ennals, John Garrett, Ted Graham, Frank Hooley, Alex Lyon (a great loss), Jim Marshall, Stan Newens, Ossie O’Brien, Gwilym Roberts, Chris Price, David Stoddart, Ann Taylor, Frank White, Philip Whitehead, Roland Moyle and many others. But there are a lot of good new Members now in – Tony Banks, Richard Caborn, Bob Clay, Frank Cook, Jeremy Corbyn, Terry Fields, Bill Michie, Dave Nellist, Bob Wareing.
Sunday 12 June
Chris Mullin had a post-mortem at his flat in Brixton. Most of our friends were there – Tom Sawyer, Jeremy Corbyn, Audrey Wise, Ann Pettifor, Francis Prideaux, Les Huckfield, Michael Meacher, Tony Banks, Mandy Moore, Frances Morrell, Reg Race, Jon Lansman, Jo Richardson, Stuart Holland, Alan Meale, Ken Livingstone. We sat in the garden at the back of Chris’s flat.
I arrived early for a talk with Chris and Tony Banks. Michael Foot let it be known today, or rather it was known as a result of his refusing nomination for the Party leadership, that there would be a leadership contest, and Tony Banks, who has just been newly elected for Newham North West, offered to stand down so that I could have his seat and be eligible to contest the leadership. I wouldn’t hear of it. It would be manipulative and I wouldn’t contemplate such a thing. But I have never known anyone make such a generous offer before. Neil Kinnock, Roy Hattersley and Peter Shore have indicated that they will stand as leader.
