Betty Boothroyd, Baroness Boothroyd, OM, PC is a British politician, who served
as a Labour Member of Parliament for West Bromwich and West Bromwich West
from 1973 to 1992. From 1992 to 2000, she served as Speaker of the House of
Commons. She was the first, and to date only, female Speaker. She currently sits
as a Crossbench peer in the House of Lords.
Early life Boothroyd was born in Dewsbury,
Yorkshire, in 1929, to Archibald and Mary Boothroyd, textile workers. She was
educated at council schools and went on to study at Dewsbury College of Commerce
and Art. In the 1940s, she worked as a dancer, as a member of the Tiller Girls
dancing troupe. During the late 1950s, she worked as
secretary to the Labour MP Geoffrey de Freitas. In 1960, she travelled to the
United States to see the Kennedy campaign. She subsequently began work in
Washington as a legislative assistant for an American Congressman, Silvio
Conte, between 1960 and 1962. When she returned to London she continued her
work as secretary and political assistant to various senior Labour
politicians. In 1965, she was elected to a seat on Hammersmith Borough Council,
in Gibbs Green ward, where she remained until 1968.
Member of Parliament Running for the Labour Party, she
contested several seats – Leicester South East in 1957, Peterborough in
1959, Nelson and Colne in 1968, and Rossendale in 1970 – before being
elected Member of Parliament for West Bromwich in a by-election in 1973.
Boothroyd's career then flourished. In 1974, she was appointed an assistant
Government Whip and she was a Member of the European Parliament from 1975–1977.
In 1979, she became a member of the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs,
until 1981, and of the Speaker's Panel of Chairmen, until 1987. She was also a
member of the Labour Party National Executive Committee from 1981–87 and the
House of Commons Commission from 1983–87.
= Deputy Speaker and Speaker= She became a Deputy Speaker in 1987. In
1992 she was elected Speaker, being the first woman ever to hold the position.
There was some debate as to whether or not Boothroyd should wear the
traditional Speaker's wig upon her election. She chose not to but also
stated that any subsequent Speakers would be free to choose to wear the wig.
In 1993, the Government won a vote on the Social Chapter of the Maastricht
Treaty due to her casting vote. However, it was subsequently discovered that her
casting vote was not required, as the votes had been miscounted and the
Government had won by one vote. She was keen to get young people interested in
politics, and in the 1990s even made an appearance as a special guest on the
BBC's Saturday morning children's programme Live & Kicking.
On 12 July 2000, she announced in a statement to the House of Commons that
she would resign as Speaker after the summer recess. Both Prime Minister Tony
Blair and former Prime Minister John Major described her as an "outstanding
Speaker". Blair added that she was "something of a national institution".
She resigned as Speaker and as an MP on 23 October 2000.
= Life Peerage and recent activity= Boothroyd was chancellor of the Open
University from 1994 until October 2006 and has donated some of her personal
papers to the University's archives. She is an Honorary Fellow of St Hugh's
College, Oxford. In March 1995, she was awarded an Honorary Degree from the Open
University as Doctor of the University. Boothroyd has also been given an Award
of Doctor of Civil Law honoris causa by City University London.
On 15 January 2001, she was created a life peer, taking as her title Baroness
Boothroyd, of Sandwell in the County of West Midlands, and her autobiography was
published in the same year. In April 2005, she was appointed to the Order of
Merit, an honour in the personal gift of the Queen.
Two portraits of Boothroyd are part of the parliamentary art collection.
Boothroyd is a Vice President of the Industry and Parliament Trust and the
Patron of the Jo Richardson Community School in Dagenham, East London,
England, as well as being President of NBFA Assisting the Elderly.
Boothroyd in January 2011 posited that Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg's plans
for some members to the upper house to be directly elected could leave Britain
in constitutional disarray: "It is wantonly destructive. It is destruction
that hasn’t been thought through properly". Boothroyd said she was
concerned that an elected Lords would rival the Commons, risking
power-struggles between the two. Personal life
Never married and without children, Boothroyd has remained physically
active, taking up paragliding while on holiday in Cyprus in her 60s. She has
described the hobby as both "lovely and peaceful" and "exhilarating". She has
long held an interest in lighting and became an Honorary Fellow of the Society
of Light & Lighting in 2009. Footnotes
See also Speaker of the British House of Commons
election, 1992 References
Betty Boothroyd: The Autobiography. Publisher: Century. ISBN 0-7126-7948-0
External links Archives Hub – Papers of Betty Boothroyd
Brief biography by BBC News, October 2000
Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Betty Boothroyd
Offices held