Tony Benn served as member of parliament for both Bristol South East and Chesterfield, in a parliamentary career that lasted from 1950 until 2001. Benn's transformation from technocrat in the 1960s to left-wing iconoclast in the 1980s is one of the most important in the history of the Labour Party. 

Benn proved a major source of inspiration for Jeremy Corbyn, but has become a hate figure for those in Labour closer to the centre ground of British politics, who regarded him as an electoral landmine. 

My guest for this conversation is Tom Clark, contributing editor at Prospect Magazine and senior fellow at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.