It was the speech he was never allowed to give — but it encapsulated his political beliefs as an opponent of the unelected House of Lords. When Anthony Wedgwood Benn was forced to give up his seat in the House of Commons in 1960 on inheriting his father’s title, he urged the Speaker to let him address MPs on the need to eradicate hereditary peerage — his own especially. He was refused permission but the speech was later published in a book. ‘I am asking that the Stansgate peerage . . . should be allowed to lapse completely and for all time — preserving no privileges for the future,’ Benn wrote. ‘This is the united view of the whole family including my wife, my eldest son, my brother, my mother and was shared by my beloved father.’