The Benn Diaries: 1940-1990 (92 page)

At 11pm Vladimir Derer, Tony Saunois, Joan Maynard, Margaret Beckett and others met in Jo Richardson’s room. The general feeling was that at tomorrow morning’s NEC we should propose a new constitutional amendment based on a division of 40 per cent to the PLP and 30 per cent each to the unions and constituencies, because that was thought the one
most likely to get through. Tony Saunois, the YS representative on the NEC, emerged in the discussions as the most formidable, principled and serious politician, at the age of twenty-five.

However, just as I was going to bed, the phone rang and it was Frances Morrell, and a few minutes later, with Caroline and Melissa in bed, she plonked herself down in the same room and said this had been a terrible sellout. The Left never knew when it had won, we should not give the MPs 40 per cent but should insist on the unions getting 40 per cent because
anything
we put forward would be accepted tomorrow. Pressed and somewhat overpowered by Frances, who was in her full battlegear while I was in my underpants, I conceded that this seemed logical at 1.45 am and so she retired.

Thursday 2 October

When I went downstairs I found Stephen sitting in the hotel lobby with a typewriter, having worked all night on an emergency resolution about Chile.

‘Benn’s a Liar’, ‘Labour in Chaos’, ‘Anarchy Here’, ‘Callaghan Denounces Benn’, and so on, the papers all said. I heard that Callaghan had denounced me at the miners’ dinner, which did cause great offence to the miners because I had been a good Energy Minister.

The National Executive met at 8, and it was dear that Frances, Vladimir, Jon Lansman, Peter Willsman, Victor Schonfield and Francis Prideaux had bullied members of the Executive into agreeing to the new CLPD alternative –40 per cent for the unions and 30 per cent each for the MPs and constituencies. We kicked this around for a bit, and eventually it was carried by 13 votes to 7, which was excellent.

Out of the blue, Jim announced that if this was implemented he would withdraw what he had said about Labour unity, he would open up a campaign and he would recommend to the PLP that they elect their own leader. Neil Kinnock said this was all rather regrettable.

I said, ‘Jim has made a very important statement and I think we should consider it. If he tries to get the PLP to vote for a leader in this way, for which there is no provision in the constitution, either he would fail (and I think he will because most Labour MPs are good loyal members of the Party), or he will succeed and set up a centre party. Either way it would be very bad for us. All these threats do no good.’

So Jim announced, ‘Well, I tell you that the Parliamentary Party will never accept a leader foisted upon them’, and added, ‘I’ll tell you something else, they will never have Tony Benn foisted upon them.’

I said, ‘Jim, you speak for yourself and nobody else.’

So, on that happy note, we went into the Conference. The morning debate was on defence, and passed two unilateralist resolutions overwhelmingly.

Then to the NEC statement agreed this morning on the election of the Leader, and Eric introduced the debate. To cut a long story short, there was a bitter debate, with Tom Jackson of the Post Office Workers accusing the Executive of being a conjuror producing white rabbits out of a top-hat, Andrew Faulds attacking ‘the Right Honourable Anthony Wedgwood Benn’ (inaudibly, since the mike was switched off), and Martin Flannery saying what he thought of Terry Duffy. In the end all the options for the electoral college were defeated, leaving only the principle agreed. Then David Basnett, who had spoken against the NEC constitutional amendment, moved an emergency resolution that we hold a Special Conference in January to resolve the method of electing the Leader of the Party, and that was agreed. So we are back where we started.

Friday 3 October

It has been a watershed of a Conference, of that there is no doubt, and, unlike any other Conference, it will continue to cast its influence over the PLP, over the leadership and over the future of British politics.

Sunday 5 October

The
Telegraph
, the
Sunday Times
and the
Observer
all presented the week entirely from a right-wing point of view – ‘Representative Democracy Threatened’, ‘The Left Tyrannicals’, and so on.

That it was the culmination of years of work to get a democratic Party in which the leadership was more responsive to the rank and file never surfaced at all. The
Sunday Express
raised the question whether the Queen could ask someone who had been made Leader by the Party outside Parliament to form a government.

Caroline has a bad cold. Got on with a bit of work but, having stopped smoking, I am putting on weight.

Sunday 12 October

We had guests at 8 – Norman Atkinson, Geoff Bish, Chris Mullin, Frances Morrell, Vladimir Derer, Tony Banks, Audrey Wise, Martin Flannery, Jo Richardson, Reg Race, Ken Coates, Stuart Holland and Julie Clements. There was some discussion as to whether we might have witnessed a real split in the Party. Sixty MPs have demanded that the PLP maintain the right to elect its own leader, and it looked as if they were calling for Callaghan to go.

Jo Richardson then proposed that if Michael Foot stood no one else should. Stuart Holland agreed.

Chris Mullin turned to me and asked, ‘Tony, are you going to stand? You shouldn’t. You have nothing to gain from standing, and everything to gain by abstaining.’

At some stage I was asked to speak. I said, ‘First of all, this is a political and
not a personal question. I have consulted my GMC and have made no commitment. Leaving aside the split question, we must see this in the wider context.’ I thought the correct strategy was for us to challenge the leadership, the deputy leadership and the Shadow Cabinet appointments. I went on, ‘The Party needs a strong leader now, and if the Left abstains there will be continued personal conflict with the left leader-in-waiting, and the incumbent will win in the electoral college. I don’t think I could fight and win the college if I abstained now.’

But the unanimous view was that I shouldn’t stand yet. After the discussion, I drafted a couple of resolutions, one for the NEC and one for the PLP.

Just to sum up the evening. First of all, it was a meeting of the Left in strength, and very formidable they are, but they were unanimous that I shouldn’t stand and I am bound to take that seriously. I am in no hurry, and I have lots of meetings in which I can talk about the issues. But they were strong and firm, and dearly the view that Frances Morrell, Victor Schonfield, Dennis Skinner and others put forward earlier was right, so I simply bowed to the will of the majority.

Wednesday 15 October

To Coventry for a union meeting, and at the station I heard the news that Jim Callaghan had resigned. The media had all got in their taxis and cars and arrived at the station. Caroline had advised me simply to say, ‘Although I have had many personal differences with Jim Callaghan, I feel that in the hearts of many people will be a desire to say thank you for his personal contribution; as to the future, nothing must be done that divides the Parliamentary Party from the Party in the country.’ I said that several times.

Got home at 6, and on the news it was announced that Michael Foot had decided not to stand. I had a word with Eric Heffer, who said, ‘Now look, I have consulted Doris’ (very important, because Eric takes a lot of notice of his wife, quite properly) ‘and if Michael Foot is not going to stand, and if there are no candidates other than Silkin and Healey, you and I should stand for the leadership and deputy leadership.’

Monday 20 October

At 5 Michael Foot declared. Then a couple of hours later we heard that Peter Shore was going to stand, so we have now got Healey, Foot, Shore and Silkin. Silkin will do badly. Michael gave the extraordinary reason that he had decided to stand because of the pressure of advice and because his wife would divorce him if he didn’t. I think Foot has a good chance of beating Healey. So the whole thing looks shabby and calculating.

Sunday 26 October

The clocks went back so we had an extra hour in bed.

Caroline, Hilary and I went to Hyde Park for the CND march and rally. It was a fantastic day. I am not a descriptive writer but everything about it was thrilling. There were fourteen columns – the national column first, then Scotland and Wales, then East Anglia, and so on, right the way through. There was a huge balloon in the sky shaped like a hydrogen bomb with a mushroom cloud, and there was a children’s puppet theatre. It had this element of gaiety and festivity about it, and there were tens of thousands of young people. I would think there were 100.000 in total.

Fenner Brockway, another old peace campaigner, spoke with amazing strength – he’s ninety-three. I gave him a hug, I was so proud of him. The speakers were introduced by Lord Jenkins, Bruce Kent and Neil Kinnock. Sister Mary Byrne, the nun, upset the crowd by mentioning abortion.

Thursday 30 October

I voted last night for Michael Foot as Leader of the Party.

Friday 31 October

To Bristol to the Wills tobacco factory to meet the shop stewards. The President of the Tobacco Workers’ Union was also present. Their joint complaint was that I had approved a resolution calling for the banning of cigarette advertising and they were angry with me, but it was really that they were terrified that the cigarette industry was running down, that Imperial Tobacco might be pulling out of Bristol. We calculated that there were about 35,000 people in Bristol who individually or in families derive their income from cigarette manufacture.

Monday 10 November

To a TULV dinner at St Ermine’s Hotel. When Michael Foot came in, everybody rose and cheered, and he said, ‘I want a double whisky and another double whisky. What I want to say is that I have got to go and record a programme, so do forgive me. But we will beat the Tories, we’ll fight them on jobs and on nuclear weapons.’

He looked cheerful, and anyone who becomes Labour Leader becomes a little bit different. They step outside the mainstream, and now Jim Callaghan has dropped back into normality, as Harold Wilson has. Of course, an ex-leader still has a certain something, but they lose that magic power. With a new suit and a haircut, Michael already looked a bit different.

Tuesday 11 November

I heard tonight that the new electoral boundaries in Bristol will produce only four constituencies – North, East, South and West – and that means I will have to fight either Mike Cocks for the Bristol South nomination or Arthur Palmer, who will probably go for Bristol East. I must confess I am very uncertain about it, but clearly one seat will be winnable; I think probably
East and South will be Labour, and North and West, Tory. I’ll have to mend some fences with the Bristol Labour leaders, otherwise there will be pressure to see I don’t get in. I just won’t worry about it.

Saturday 22 November

Caught the train to Newcastle for a book-signing of the Penguin paperback of
Arguments for Socialism
. A man came up at the station, produced a little plastic ID card and told me he was a police inspector. He said they had had a threat that I was going to be killed today when I visited a particular bookshop so wherever I went I would find plainclothes policemen and policewomen.

Thursday 4 December – Trip to United States

Up earlyish and caught the tube to Heathrow for the conference in Washington on ‘Eurosocialism and America’ arranged by the Democratic Socialist Organising Committee.

I was met at Dulles airport by the Ambassador and driven to the Capitol Hilton Hotel. As soon as I got in, I rang the Whips’ Office and heard the result of the Shadow Cabinet elections.

Denis Healey’s place was filled by Neil Kinnock and David Owen’s by Gerald Kaufman. Neil Kinnock was lowest with 90 votes and I was the runner-up with 88, so I didn’t get on. In a way, I am quite pleased because I think it would be wrong to be on at this moment. I certainly shan’t accept a Front Bench job from Michael Foot because, if the PLP prefer Bill Rodgers and Roy Hattersley and Eric Varley to me, that’s for them.

I rang Caroline. Then the phone in my hotel room went continuously – the
Daily Mirror
, the
Western Daily Press
, the
Daily Mail
, the
Daily Telegraph
. I simply said, ‘No comment.’

Sunday 7 December

Woke at 6 and turned on the television and for one hour I listened to a man called Pat Robertson, who runs a right-wing born-again Christian evangelical movement. It was such a hair-raising programme that it undid all the optimism that I had begun to feel when I came to this conference. This guy Pat Robertson, who looked like a business executive of about forty-five with one of those slow, charming American smiles, was standing there with a big tall black man beside him, his sidekick, and he talked continuously about the Reagan administration, about the defeat of the liberals, about Reagan’s commitment to the evangelical movement. He had a blackboard showing what in the nineteenth century ‘liberal’ meant. He then wiped that from the blackboard and said that today the liberals are Marxists, Fascists, leftists and socialists.

Then he showed an extract of Reagan saying, ‘We want to keep big government out of our homes, and out of our schools, and out of our family
life.’ He went on and on for an hour like this. At the end, he said, ‘Let us pray’, and, his face contorted with fake piety, pleaded with Jesus to protect America, ‘our country’.

I couldn’t switch it off. It was so frightening, the feeling that we are now entering a holy war between that type of reactionary Christianity and Communism. It is a thoroughly wicked and evil interpretation of Christianity.

I checked out from the hotel and went into the conference to hear François Mitterrand give the keynote speech. I have heard him on a number of occasions and I find him rather boring and platitudinous, but today he was excellent. He made a most sensitive speech about the development of socialism, beginning in a very human way by showing a picture of the fist holding the rose and describing how it had developed. He went on to talk about economic and political democracy and traced the ideas of democracy through to the rights of man, together with the principles of the French Revolution, liberty, equality and fraternity. It went down extremely well.