The Benn Diaries: 1940-1990

by Benn, Tony

Came back absolutely persuaded that I would lose Bristol and that there would be a Tory landslide. Now, at midnight, having watched a lot of television and seen Heath doing a brilliant party political broadcast and Harold floundering away about the price of petrol, I am going to bed tired, exhausted and rather depressed.

  Saturday 23 February

  Today Enoch Powell made his big Birmingham speech – of which I have only heard the briefest reports – where he began to indicate that he would be recommending people who believed in renegotiation and the sovereignty of Parliament to vote Labour. That is going to be a major issue in this Election. The Common Market has come into its own in the last week. It is the big question because it touches at food prices, at Heath’s misunderstanding of the character of the British people and also at the basic question of the freedom of Parliament and the people. Focusing attention on the Common Market is the main contribution that I have been able to make to Party policy over the last three years.

  Wednesday 27 February

  Later in the day, Hilary arrived from London with a copy of the Evening Standard containing an article by Kingsley Amis describing why he was going to vote Tory, and saying that I was ‘the most dangerous man in Britain’.

  Thursday 28 February

  Polling Day.

  We went to one polling station in Windmill Hill where there was a Young Socialist sitting with his YS badge and his Tony Benn sticker, and a boy taking numbers for the Tories. Later in the evening, we met the same boy in our Labour Committee rooms in Windmill Hill helping us to knock up late voters because he had been persuaded by the Young Socialist that he had gone wrong.

  After that we went and had a meal at the Golden Egg in Clifton. Back to the hotel and I had a quick nap before going back out from 5 to 9.30, doing a final round of major committee rooms. Canvassers were pretty contented. There were thirty cars available in Brislington. The place was absolutely crammed with people, with very little sign of Tory activity.

  At 10 pm we were back at the hotel and we had a couple of hours there. By then the first results were out and it was quite dear that the swing was not uniform, that the Liberals were doing well in Tory seats and knocking the Tories out but not having anything like the same impact in Labour seats. So it all looked quite encouraging.

  At 12.15 we all went to the Brislington School where the count was being held, and found there two complete television crews. The media appeared to have taken charge, with gossip writers, etc, no doubt all waiting for my defeat. Harlech Television had taken the domestic-science room on the ground floor and had a canteen there with a big notice ‘HTV staff only’. Caroline made such a row that we were allowed in for some baked beans and coffee.

  The counting didn’t begin until 1.35 am and it was 4.35 before the result came out. But well before then one could see that I was well in the lead, and in the end the result was dazzling – a majority of 7,914.

  7

  1974–75

  Tuesday 5 March 1974

  A WEEK AGO, I thought I might be out of Parliament altogether and now I am in the Cabinet as a Secretary of State for Industry. I feel I have to keep the hopes of the Left alive and alight. The job is enormous and the press is entirely hostile and will remain so. I have to recognise that in putting forward my proposals to the Cabinet, all will be opposed: but there are four powerful Secretaries of State on the left – myself, Michael Foot, Peter Shore, and Eric Varley – and we are a formidable team.

  Wednesday 6 March

  Frances Morrell, Francis Cripps, my secretary Mary Lou Clarke and my PPS Frank McElhone and I had a long talk about how we would use public ownership in the first instance as an ambulance for failed firms – because British Leyland and one or two other firms are in serious difficulties. Frances and Francis have both been appointed officially as my advisers; they are going to get about £4,000 a year and share a big office on the same floor as me.

  The miners’ strike is over with a settlement of £100 m, twice what the Tory Government offered but still about £25 m below their full claim.

  Thursday 7 March

  At 11.55 I was summoned over to see the PM, who said, ‘About Ministers, I will let you have Michael Meacher as your Parliamentary Under-Secretary and I am giving you Gregor Mackenzie and Eric Heffer as Ministers of State.’ Brian Walden apparently would not accept because he can’t afford to take office and give up his other activities.

  At 2 we had the Concorde meeting with David Jones, Deputy Secretary of the Department and Ken Binning, an Under-Secretary, both of whom I knew from my Mintech days. They told me in effect that there was unanimous official advice now throughout Whitehall for the cancellation of Concorde, and they had agreed that it was unsaleable in its present form. My own view is that we should continue with the present Concorde programme. This is one of the most difficult problems I have to tackle and I will have to fight it with tremendous care because it could be a disaster politically for me both in Bristol and personally.

  Monday 11 March

  At 10 o’clock we had a meeting about Norton Villiers Triumph at Meriden. Jack Jones came with Harry Urwin, Bill Lapworth (the Divisional Organiser of the TGWU at Coventry) and Dennis Johnson, the shop stewards’ convenor.

  I agreed that we would make expert advice available to the people in the factory – probably taking on consultants who would work for the shop stewards in preparing a case for viability. Second, if they needed any further information from the company, I would ask Dennis Poore, Managing Director of NVT, to make it available and I may even use my powers to put a director on the board. Third, I would ask Poore to desist from any attempt to harass the co-operative. Foruth, we would try to find some way of getting the bikes to America to meet the summer demand. This was the best I could do and we agreed to a press statement afterwards, stating that ‘I had considered the position sympathetically and was helping the co-operative to get their case put forward in the best possible way’.

  I agreed with my Ministers that I would leave home at 8.30 every morning, meet the press office advisers just after nine, and have a 9.30 ‘prayer’ meeting with advisers and Ministers only.

  Thursday 21 March

  The Government is in an interesting position. Harold depends on Michael, Michael brings with him Jack Jones’s loyalty and that triumvirate is the most important group in the whole Government. I think Roy Jenkins is being bought off. As to the rest, they are less important figures. Harold, of course, thoroughly enjoys this risky political position because it means he can do what he likes; so do the right-wing members of the Cabinet because they can always use the Liberals’ parliamentary strength as an excuse for delaying any programme that they don’t believe in. But this can’t go on for long; there will have to be another Election – September at the latest.

  Went over to the Cabinet at 10.45 and parliamentary affairs was followed by free family planning on the Health Service which Barbara got the Cabinet to agree to. Denis said it would have to come out of her budget.

  Tuesday 2 April

  President Pompidou has died. This is very important for Concorde, because French Ministers will now be unable to move until there is a replacement, so Achille-Fould will probably not come to London next week and the whole Concorde decision will be held up.

  It is now 1.45 in the morning of my forty-ninth birthday. Just going to bed very, very tired with a tremendous weight of work on my shoulders. My goodness me, you don’t have much time for thinking. But as Frances Morrell said to me, all Ministers have problems. Defence has got to make cuts, Crosland has to deal with mortgages, Jim Callaghan has to cope with Europe and Shirley Williams has got to deal with prices. Being a Minister is not an easy job.

  Wednesday 3 April

  Frank McElhone came to see me. The truth is that I have left him out in the cold and he was angry, like my secretary, Mary Lou, who feels isolated. He denounced me for ignoring the PLP, so I told him to fix things up, and he said, ‘I have fixed them up and they have all been cancelled. You are d
evoting yourself to the wrong priorities.’ So I have to placate Mary Lou and Frank; I have got to reallocate my work better so I spend more time with MPs; and I have got to keep the Ministers sweet, particularly Frank Beswick and Eric Heffer. I have got to be a better manager of people and I’m not very good at that, that’s my trouble. I had a knocking from him for forty minutes.

  I came home and there was a birthday cake for me, and then I settled down to my boxes.

  Saturday 6 April

  I wrote a note to Anne Crossman following Dick’s death yesterday. Dick was a remarkable man, immensely intelligent and kind when he wanted to be but, of course, the teacher throughout his life – always preferring conflict, which cleared his mind. He was absolutely unreliable in the sense that he often changed his views, but he always believed what he said, which is something you can’t say of others. He was also capable of being unpleasant and my friendship with him had deteriorated sharply in recent years. At any rate, he will be remembered through his diaries, which will be the best diaries of this period ever published; though I hope my own, if they are ever transcribed, will also turn out to be a reasonable record.

  Tuesday 9 April

  At Cabinet, the question of selling our warships to Chile came up again. Jim Callaghan reported that he had met a group of Labour MPs on the previous evening, half of whom had been in favour of releasing the existing warships. He said it would require legislation to stop the release, and how would you get the Chilean sailors off the ship already doing trials off the English coast, and so on and so on.

  Michael Foot came out very strong against and I said, ‘It is absolutely untrue that it would require legislation. What about the arms embargo against Israel during the recent war? What would we say if we discovered that the Russians had put in an order for some fighters from British Aircraft Corporation? Of course we can do it, it is a decision we are absolutely free to take.’

  I raised the question of the repair and overhaul of Rolls Royce engines at East Kilbride for the Hawker Hunters which we had sold to the Chilean Government I said, ‘This is even worse because these Hawker Hunters may actually be used to strafe guerrillas with bombs.’

  We lost. Only two of us spoke against, Michael Foot and myself. Barbara Castle was silent, so was Peter Shore, perhaps because, as Trade Minister, he was worried about the threat to copper supplies, which might be stopped in retaliation if we don’t go ahead with the deal.

  Wednesday 10 April

  At 5 o’clock I went to the second Cabinet meeting, held for the first time in Harold’s room in the House. Harold made a reference to Marcia and her brother Tony Field and the press allegations of improper land deals. He said he felt he had driven the press into a corner but he continued, ‘I must tell you, there are two other members of the Cabinet, whose names wild horses wouldn’t drag from me, who are being pursued by the press. One has been tailed for five years and on the other they have got a dossier two feet thick. They both would be regarded as being in the leadership stakes if I went So I just want to warn you.’

  This was Harold telling us that if any of us made a move against him, he might take action against the person. It was an extraordinary thing and showed him in the cheapest light because if he really had any information about two people in the Cabinet who were being tailed the decent thing would have been to tell them.

  Northern Ireland came up next and Merlyn Rees reported that the situation was getting extremely serious; the IRA were involving women and using hostages to drive bombs into areas. Under a pledge of the utmost secrecy, we were told it was decided to surround Belfast and prevent any cars entering. This is to be announced soon.

  It was agreed, again under the highest secrecy, that we would begin considering the implications of a total withdrawal. Of course, if that got out, it would precipitate bloodshed but we felt we simply had to do it. Roy took that view. Jim looked very doubtful but thought it needed to be done. Fred Peart, Peter Shore and Willie Ross are 100 per cent pro-Protestant. So the Cabinet would divide on Catholic–Protestant lines in the event of this happening.

  Thursday 11 April

  At 12.15 Sir Antony Part, my Permanent Secretary, came to see me. He hummed and hawed a bit and then said, ‘Minister, do you really intend to go ahead with your National Enterprise Board, public ownership and planning agreements?’ ‘Of course.’

  ‘Are you serious?’ he asked.

  ‘Of course. Not just because it is the policy but because I was deeply associated with the development of that policy.’

  He said, ‘Well, I must warn you, in that case, that if you do it, you will be heading for as big a confrontation with industrial management as the last Government had with the trade unions over the Industrial Relations Act.’

  ‘I am not going to jail any industrialists. I am not going to fine them. We have just got to move forward.’

  ‘I know,’ he said, ‘and I will try to lubricate things, if that’s really what you mean.’

  ‘Well, of course it is. I know I can’t do it now but we have got to move in that direction.’

  Then, blow me down, he put in a paper and tried to get me to agree verbally to a proposal that because of the extra burden on industry, which has reduced their liquidity position, we should allow them to put all wage increases through the Price Commission as an allowable cost which would give an extra £600 million to industry at the expense of the consumer. I said, ‘That is an even more relaxed view of price control than the previous Government agreed.’

  ‘It’s the only way,’ he replied. I refused. ‘You can put your analysis of liquidity to the Treasury if you like, but I won’t accept that.’

  This is the way in which the Department of Industry acts, simply as a mouthpiece for the CBI, and that is what I won’t have.

  Sunday 14 April

  Judith Hart rang me up to say she had been very worried by Eric’s speech about warships for Chile because it had put her in a difficulty and she wondered whether she should make a statement, or resign. I told her to keep quiet, say nothing and leave it. Since I find myself saying to other people what Frances says to me, perhaps it would be better if I took my own advice and kept quiet.

  Friday 3 May

  Went over to Transport House and Jack Jones and the TGWU gave me, on loan, a beautiful old banner, ‘The Workers’ Union’, about nine feet by nine feet. I’ll have to give it back if there is a change of government.

  Jack asked about Meriden and I said, ‘I saw them and have told them to prepare a case against what officials are advising.’

  He said, ‘I know that and I appreciate it. What can I do to help?’

  ‘You can press Denis Healey, Harold and Michael Foot at the critical moment when it comes before Ministers.’

  Back to the office to see the Russian Ambassador, Mr Lunkov. I was just in the process of hanging up my banner and he took a lot of interest in it. My office is getting to look more and more messy, like my basement office at home.

  Thursday 9 May

  Peter Shore and I had a drink in the office and we talked a little bit about the EEC. He said that Helmut Schmidt, who is likely to succeed Willy Brandt as Chancellor, is much more Atlantic-orientated. He is a great friend of Giscard d’Estaing and the whole Community would take a very different direction than it had when Germany had been led by Brandt and France by Pompidou.

  It is astonishing, the number of heads of state that have fallen recently. Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister, fell today and there is going to be an Election there. Brandt’s resignation is an extraordinary one because it now contains a hint of scandal: an East German spy, Gunter Guillaume, had been to Norway on holiday with Brandt and has taken compromising photographs of him.

  Sunday 12 May

  Frances said this afternoon that she was convinced that the Department of Industry was sabotaging my industrial proposals. I feel the same. Sir Antony Part is making no progress, they just turf back things I want with their objections and I then have to force them to carry
out my wishes – as I had to do with Meriden, with all the European questions, and so on. Frances says that on the planning agreements, the National Enterprise Board and the Industry Act, the officials are simply skating over the really difficult questions so they are never explored properly. It is as if I’m trying to swim up the Niagara Falls.

  Monday 13 May

  I had a sandwich lunch and asked Antony Part his view of whether there would be a slump. He said there might be. Then he added, ‘We’re reaching the point of the crossing of the Rubicon and your speech about workers’ control will lead to tremendous opening of fire on us because industrialists fear you are going to establish it.’

  ‘I am not trying to cross any Rubicon, I am sitting on the banks of the Rubicon, waiting for consultation before I proceed but if they cross the Rubicon and attack me that is a very different thing.’

  Sunday 19 May

  My relations with Harold are absolutely rock bottom. Tomorrow night there is a dinner at Number 10 for Academician Kirillin, and Harold hasn’t invited me, though I am one of the principal Ministers (not that I want to go particularly). But I will have to consider how to improve my relations with him. He really does think that my public statements about ‘open government’ and so on, are destroying the Labour Party, whereas I think it is the only hope.

  Monday 20 May

  Dinner at Number 10 for Kirillin. I had queried the fact that I hadn’t been invited so Harold put me back on his guest list. Harold spoke, beginning with a long, detailed description of all the negotiations with the Russians, describing dates, places, times, projects, what had happened. It was a display of his virtuosity of memory – amusing, though a bit egocentric.

  As they were leaving, Peter Shore, Harold and myself stood on the steps of Number 10. It was a beautiful warm May evening and there were a few people watching from the other side of the road. Harold described how the Foreign Office had tried to get round the Cabinet proposals on the Chilean aircraft contract. He reminded us of a Ministry of Works memorandum to Attlee saying, ‘We have read the Cabinet’s proposals.’ Attlee replied, ‘The Cabinet does not propose, it decides.’ So he has had a great fight with the Foreign Office and he is making a statement tomorrow on the Chile situation, which will be total victory. It couldn’t be better. The Rolls Royce engines will not be overhauled and that is it.