Edward, father of comedian Harry, attended the same exclusive public school as the former Labour minister and insists that despite boasting the contrary he could never have learnt the art of sock darning as a youngster.

“I have noticed that Mr Benn has somehow become a national treasure, a sort of walking listed building or ambulant ancient monument,” writes Edward, 77, in The Oldie.

“Personally I have regarded him as a bit of a hoax ever since I heard him say, on television, ‘When I was a boy I used to darn me own stockings with one of them wooden mushroom things’.

“One should not doubt the word of an ancient monument but I find the idea implausible. The Honourable Anthony Wedgwood-Benn, as he was then, went to Westminster School, and so did I, and we did not darn our own stockings.

Darned they were, possibly by the matron or possibly by a house maid, but not by us.”

Well there’s a surprise – a politician stretching the truth.

***GET MORE CELEBRITY GOSSIP NOW!***