CHURCHILL TO ASSIST M.P. TO RENOUNCE TITLE

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27641, 23 April 1955, Page 7

CHURCHILL TO ASSIST M.P. TO RENOUNCE TITLE

(Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, April 22. Sir Winston Churchill will support efforts by Mr Anthony Wedgewood Benn, a young Labour member of Parliament, to avoid going to the House of Lords—and “political extinction”— on the death of his father, it was disclosed last night. A letter from Sir Winston Churchill is expected to be read in the House of Lords on April 26 by Viscount Stansgate, the 77-year-old father of 29-year-old Mr Wedgewood Benn. Lord Stansgate will move the second reading of a bill which would permit his son to renounce the title on Lord Stansgate’s death and remain a commoner.

Sir Winston Churchill, who has been described as the “greatest commoner of them all,” once wrote: “It is a terrible thing for a father to doom his son to political extinction, which must happen if he has not had time to make his way in the House of Commons.”

Mr Wedgewood Benn's American wife. Caroline. who would remain “Mrs” instead of becoming a full peeress of the realm under the bill, publicly announced recently that she fully supported her husband’s aim to remain a commoner. Because of the election set for May 26 it is now too late for the bill to become law this Parliament.