Tony Benn: a Biography

After 40 years in the House of Commons, Tony Benn remains one of the UK's most controversial politicians. From 1951 to the Gulf War in 1991, Benn has staked out the high moral ground and challenged the Labour leadership to come with him. Benn's inheritance of his father's peerage gave him the first opportunity to battle against the constitution. The government refused to allow him to take his seat in the Commons, but he opposed them with grim tenacity until they changed the law. In the late 1960s he was the country's leading radical, arguing for a more open society. He was alone when he first argued for a referendum over Britain remaining in the Common Market, but within five years a referendum had become national policy, and Benn had achieved his second constitutional change. Jad Adams has won both Royal Television and British Press awards and is the author of "Aids: The HIV Myth".