WI: Tony Benn Still Alive?

RyanF

Banned
Tony Benn, former MP and cabinet minister of the Labour Party died in March 2014 at the age of 88, two years after suffering a debilitating stroke that kept him in hospital for almost a year.

In the almost three years since his death we have seen the ascendency of the left wing of the Labour Party (many of whom would have identified as Bennites before the rise of Jeremy Corbyn) and a lot of sectional fighting within the Party since then.

How might Benn, still alive and able to make public appearances, have effected the internal politics of the Labour Party since 2014? Should Jeremy Corbyn still rise to the leadership and appoint, then sack, Benn's son Hilary as Shadow Foreign Secretary would the elder Benn have made any comments?

Also, would Benn have campaigned for the UK to leave the EU in the referendum last year as he did in the 1970s, and may more Labour left wingers have joined him?
 
I had the pleasure of seeing Benn speak shortly before he died and thought it wasn't the focus of the event he did make it clear that he still favoured leaving the EU. He probably would have helped make Lexit seem less fringe although probably not enough for Corbyn to switch sides, provided he's still leader ITTL. He probably would have been tickled at the Blairites moaning about a lack of party democracy.
 
I do wonder if Benn would have been tempted to reach out to Corbyn and advise him on certain things. That could have interesting effects on Labour, though probably not very much considering how internally focused Corbyn's leadership has been - Benn alone wouldn't be enough to shake him out of that stupor, assuming he even wanted to try.

I think I agree with The Red on the referendum, he probably would have made some comments in favour of Lexit but it wouldn't have changed too much.
 
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