 Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn ( 3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014 ) , originally known as Anthony Wedgwood Benn or Wedgie Benn , but later as Tony Benn , was a British politician who was a Member of Parliament ( MP ) for 47 years between the 1950 and 2001 general elections and a Cabinet minister in the Labour governments of Harold Wilson and James Callaghan in the 1960s and 1970s . Originally a " moderate " , he was identified as being on the party 's hard left from the early 1980s , and was widely seen as a key proponent of democratic socialism within the party . 
