 Benn was born in London on 3 April 1925 . Benn 's father William Wedgwood Benn was a Liberal Member of Parliament from 1906 who crossed the floor to the Labour Party in 1928 and was appointed Secretary of State for India by Ramsay MacDonald in 1929 , a position he held until 1931 . William Benn was elevated to the House of Lords with the title of Viscount Stansgate in 1942 – the new wartime coalition government was short of working Labour peers in the upper house . In 1945 – 46 , William Benn was the Secretary of State for Air in the first majority Labour Government . 
