 I'm delighted to be sitting here in the House of Commons with this portrait of my father, Tony Benn, with the artist Andrew Tiffed. Now this was commissioned by the Works of Art Committee of the House of Commons 15 years ago and it hangs in Caulk Cullis House. Now Andrew, what are your memories of the first sitting? Well it was a long time ago, I know, 15, 16 years ago. It was at the time of Sir Patrick Cormac who initiated the project. I had a call from Malcolm Hough, the curator here. He said it was going to be Tony Benn and we were all delighted because I was still living at home then with my mum and dad. They were delighted because they were lifelong socialists themselves and I thought it was a great thing. So I'd been working professionally probably for about four years, three years probably. I was quite nervous and then we shook hands. We went through to the room in the front where this picture is still in the basement in the front there. We just sat there and started talking about the painting and the composition and what we thought might go into it. I took my portfolio with me because at this point you didn't know who I was or what work I did. When I did my MA I did a lot of painting in the black country steel industry. It was about the deindustrialisation of the West Midland steel industry and I showed you the paintings that I'd done. I think we kind of hit it off from there because it was sort of similar territory. I was looking around and I saw straight ahead that the lighting was really good. It was a fluorescent beam on the roof and it was a nice soft light. I was looking at the shelf and I thought that was an interesting background to put some props on. At this point I hadn't really thought I was going to put loads of props in it or anything. I was just coming down to see what it was like. So we had a chat about the picture and then we walked upstairs and we went upstairs and we were looking for little objects that we could put in. We went into another room and there were lots of plates there, commemorative political plates, which were quite good, so we bought some of those there. Of course the chair was upstairs as well and I thought that would look really good. Of course I was always interested in chairs and sitters and the relationship between chairs and sitters. Of course we called people sitters. I think it was a further two sittings that we had and no photographic sittings. Then I started the painting afterwards. Now Dad, what do you recall about the first time you met Andrew? Well I remember getting an invitation to have the portrait painted and it was a bit embarrassing because I had been in Parliament at 40, 50 years by then but still even so to be painted in Parliament. Then I heard that Andrew was a very talented artist and I heard this from another MP who knew him anyway later and he arrived and exactly as he said we wandered round and he made the very important point. He said if we paint the picture, the things in the picture ought to be associated with your life in some way. So that's how all these objects came to be picked. There's a picture on the top left of the family and you are in the right of that at the front wearing the wrong colours. Then in the middle is a painting sent to me by a primary school in Bristol and then there's something that was prepared for me when I left Bristol in 1953 I think. Must have been earlier than that. Then on the shelf below there's a miner and then a miner's lamp and then some of the books that I wrote and then don't try, what was it? It says please don't knock. We are busy. We're all working for a backing band. That was my dad's election poster in 1910 in the election. A liberal wasn't it? He was a liberal at that time, he was, yes indeed. Then there's a picture of Caroline and then there's the transport and general workers union badge. Then there's Karl Marx. I thought he should be in the picture and he would do the House of Commons good to have him there and in front of there are my RAF wigs and then a big plate for the miner's strike and then Keir Hardie and I was sitting in Keir Hardie's chair which a man in Wales sent me or told me he would be happy to give me so I went there and collected it and then in the front there's a briefcase. I had first North Sea oil. The blood that threw me out of the House of Commons on the ground it was blue and I was disqualified. A mouth bar, a red box and then the other side the gramophone and a couple of pipes and a tape recorder and then the thing that I noticed afterwards when you look at the shoelaces one of them are round shoelaces and the others are flat so that he picked up that my shoelaces were not a perfect pair and I didn't think any Doc Martens have ever had such wonderful treatment as those have. Andrew, as you described the process of that first visit did you arrive with a view about what the composition might look like? It was just a case of responding to what we saw early and it was almost like I wanted it to be a narrative portrait so that people could read into it and look at things and they reflect and reinforce your identity. I think it's a little bit like the Holbein painting in the National Gallery of the Ambassadors. It's that kind of idea where you've got all the objects and the way that they reflect and reinforce the sitter's identity. You even got the fact that one of my buttons was broken. That's half a button. That was your motto. Dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand alone. Dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand alone. That's on the picture. Dare to have a purpose, dare to make it known. Dare to have a purpose, dare to make it known. You know the RAF wings? Were they your brothers or were they yours? Which? They were my actual wings. I took them off my uniform and I had it separate there. That was the day I think until getting into Parliament. Probably I was most proud of, was going there in 1945 and getting my wings. Now, dad, this picture was done 15 years ago. If it was being painted today, are there any objects that you want to have in the picture? Well, it's a very good question now. I thought a lot about the ones that are there now. I think the diaries were probably there. Because there are now 10. The last volume is coming out in the summer of 2013. So I suppose you might have the diaries in. I've got more grandchildren, so I'd have to have pictures of them and some of them with their wives as well. Andrew, looking at this picture now 15 years on, is there anything that you might change? I said I'd put your full address on the bottom there, but your address was there. My dad says you want to wash that out, because they'll never be able to put it up. Anyway, because people will be writing to Tony all the time. The fact that it was a William Morris lamp as well, because it's linked with socialism. The fact that the door slightly opened as well has always intrigued people. There was never any mystery behind it, but that was just the way it was when I came in. The structure of the composition is an H shape. So it's kind of like a strong vertical, and then you've got the vertical there, and then the shelf is the middle section. And because that's such a strong line going across the centre, I've put Tony's eyes right on that horizontal line. So it brings more focus and attention onto Tony's face. I've got John Wesley there. I'm trying to have the banner with my name on it. Wesley and Marks have always seemed to be very symbolic figures for the history of the Labour Party. I think that's Robbie Burns as all that, isn't it? That's Robbie Burns, yes. And there's Marks on the extreme right, yes. As an artist, it's difficult to write your own work, I think, but it's definitely still one of my very best ones. And definitely the one that's most fondly remembered, probably because I think sometimes it depends what the theatre is as well. I've done portraits of other people, which I think are quite successful paintings, but for whatever reason people don't know what they're in the theatre, and they haven't been that accessible or successful in other people's eyes. Because Tony Burns has become such a very important national figure. I mean, everybody that contacts me, they almost gaws when I say I'll paint it Tony, but then I go, ah, that must be brilliant. So I think a lot of it is then. It's not just me, it's who Tony is, I think. But certainly it's the most, the one that I get asked most about is this painting. And what do you think about it now as you look at it now? Close up? I'm very fond of it, and I've got copies of it at home, pictures on the wall of it, photographs of it. And of course I've seen it here many times, and where it's going to be here was interesting to me, because as I was opposite Mrs Thatter, then I moved around the corner and reorganised them. But then a lot of people saw it and liked it and used to comment on this, I've seen your picture at the House of Commons. So I have a great feeling of affection for it. Can I say, as the son of the subject, I think it's absolutely fabulous. Thank you. As I said to you earlier, it's like looking back at the lost parts of my life. Well Dad, Andrew, thank you very much indeed. Thank you. Thank you. A brilliant piece of work. Thank you. Absolutely brilliant.