Betty Boothroyd

Infobox_Politician


name =The Rt Hon Baroness Boothroyd
| caption =
birth_date =birth date and age|1929|10|8
birth_place =Dewsbury, Yorkshire, England
office = Speaker of the House of Commons
term_start = 27 April 1992
term_end = 23 October 2000
predecessor = Bernard Weatherill
successor = Michael Martin
party = N/A (Labour to 1992)

Betty Boothroyd, Baroness Boothroyd, OM, PC (born October 8, 1929 in Dewsbury, Yorkshire), is a British politician and was the first female Speaker of the House of Commons.

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 enjoyed a career as a dancer, as a member of the "Tiller Girls" dancing troupe in her younger years.

Boothroyd contested parliamentary seats at Leicester South East (1957 by-election) and Peterborough (1959) before travelling to the United States in 1960 to witness 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

She entered Parliament as the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) 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 (MEP) 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 (NEC) from 1981-1987 and the House of Commons Commission from 1983-1987.

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. She was not the first woman to sit in the Speaker's Chair, however; that honour fell to Betty Harvie Anderson, a Deputy Speaker from 1970 to 1973. There was some debate as to whether or not Boothroyd should wear the traditional Speaker's wig upon her election. In the end she did not, and the tradition was abolished as a result. In 1993, the Social Chapter of the Maastricht Treaty was defeated on her casting vote. [cite news |first= |last= |title=Madam Speaker's career |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/830814.stm |publisher=BBC News |date=12 July 2000 |accessdate=2008-06-30 ]

Retirement and Life Peer

Boothroyd stepped down in 2000, and resigned as an MP, being succeeded by Michael Martin as Speaker.

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 2001 she was created a Life Peer, taking as her title Baroness Boothroyd of Sandwell in the West Midlands, and her autobiography was published in the same year. In April 2005 she was appointed to the Order of Merit, an honour which is still in the personal bestowal of the Queen.

Betty Boothroyd is also the Patron of the Jo Richardson Community School in Dagenham, Essex, England.

Personal life

She is unmarried and has no children. She has remained physically active, taking up paragliding while on holiday in Cyprus in her sixties. She has described the hobby as both "lovely and peaceful" and "exhilarating".

Footnotes

References

*"Betty Boothroyd: The Autobiography". Publisher: Century (4 Oct 2001). ISBN-10: 0712679480

External links

* [http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk/news/boothroyd.html Archives Hub - Papers of Betty Boothroyd (Biography)]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/830452.stm Brief biography by BBC News, October 2000]

Offices held