He was the last surviving MP to have been elected during the reign of King George VI (December 11, 1936 - February 6, 1952). He was first elected to Parliament in the Bristol South East by-election on November 30, 1950.
He was the first British Member of Parliament to table a motion condemning Apartheid in South Africa.
Educated at Westminster School and later New College, Oxford, where he studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics.
His younger brother David Julian Wedgwood Benn (Greenock, Renfrewshire, UK 28 December 1928- 2 February 2017 UK) was a broadcaster, writer and Eastern Europe specialist.