Labour stalwart Tony Benn was given an emotional send off yesterday as figures as diverse as a former IRA commander, hard-right Tory opponents and a television impressionist gathered in Westminster to pay their respects.
Cherie Blair joined leading Labour figures, including leader Ed Miliband, shadow chancellor Ed Balls and shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper in St Margaret’s Church, which was packed to its 750-strong capacity, for the funeral of the former cabinet minister.
But, in a mark of Mr Benn’s influence and standing, the congregation also drew figures from across the political spectrum.
Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, the former IRA commander who is now Northern Ireland’s deputy first minister, joined Conservatives including chief whip Sir George Young, his predecessor Andrew Mitchell, Michael Heseltine and prominent backbencher Bill Cash along with former Liberal leader Lord Steel for the ceremony.
Also among the mourners were Unite union boss Len McCluskey, impressionist Rory Bremner and leading figures from television news, including ITN newsreader Alastair Stewart and the BBC’s Robert Peston.
Outside, hundreds of wellwishers gathered to listen to the service, which was being broadcast on loudspeakers, and frequently cheered and broke into applause as Mr Benn’s family shared memories.
In the moving hour-long service mourners were brought to tears and roused to laughter as his children Stephen, Hilary, Melissa and Joshua, as well as Mr Benn’s brother David recounted tales of family life.
Oldest son Stephen said: “The very last words he heard on this earth was the four of us telling him we loved him.”
David told how his brother had been radicalised during his childhood by his public school education “which he loathed”, and after being outraged by the treatment of black Africans he saw when travelling the world during his time in the forces. The traditional Labour anthem The Red Flag played quietly as members of the Benn family carried the coffin out of the church but, as the hundreds of mourners queued to leave they broke out into a spontaneous rendition of the song.
First elected to parliament in 1950, Mr Benn renounced a peerage to remain in the House of Commons, serving in the cabinets of Harold Wilson and James Callaghan and staging a bitterly divisive battle with Denis Healey for the Labour deputy leadership as the champion of the left in 1981.
He retired in 2001, saying he wanted to “spend more time on politics”.