Joseph Edward Benton (born 28 September 1933) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bootle from 1990 to 2015.

Allan Roberts died on 21 March after a long battle with cancer; Benton was on the shortlist to follow him but lost out to Mike Carr who won the by-election on 24 May.

He was elected comfortably on 8 November, obtaining 78% of the vote and nearly ten times that of his nearest rival, the Conservative James Clappison.

He was also one of fifteen Labour MPs to oppose the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill which equalised the age of consent for homosexual and heterosexual sex.

[2] Subsequently, in May 2013 the MP voted against the bill’s third and final reading,[3] opposing the legalisation of same-sex marriage within England and Wales.

[5] On 21 June 2014, Pope Francis conferred a Knighthood of the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St Gregory the Great (KSG) upon Benton in recognition for the contribution he has made to ecclesiastical and civic life on a local and national level.