Betty Boothroyd

Baroness Betty Boothroyd, the first woman to hold the role of House of Commons Speaker, has died aged 93, prompting tributes to her "no nonsense" styl...

"She was my idol as a small child and the reason I got interested in politics," Nichols wrote. She was stern but winsome, she cared about doing things properly (but could be naughty) and loved mentoring newbies. With fairness, firmness, flair and fun". "Thank you, sister for your huge contribution to British political life." "Betty was one of a kind. Labour Women's Network remarked on Boothroyd's 50 years of service in Westminster.

First female speaker of the House of Commons was 'one of a kind', says Sir Lindsay Hoyle.

I’ve only seen her once in Westminster and was too awestruck to even introduce myself, and now I’ll never have that opportunity.” “Betty was a dedicated and devoted public servant who will be dearly missed by all who knew her. She made the role her own, with a wit and style that will never be replicated. But from my point of view, it was heartening to hear a northern voice speaking from the chair. “Betty was one of a kind. [Lady Boothroyd](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/gallery/2023/feb/27/betty-boothroyd-a-life-in-pictures), a former Labour MP, was speaker from 1992 until her retirement in 2000, and was the first person to be elected to the role after the Commons debates started being permanently televised in 1989.

Boothroyd became the Commons' first ever female speaker in 1992. People's Vote Campaign Holds 'Wind Is Changing On Brexit' Event.

She occasionally intervened in contemporary politics, calling for a second referendum on Brexit in 2019 and speaking out against Boris Johnson’s government as the She described then-South African President Nelson Mandela’s historic state visit and address to parliament in 1996 as “the most memorable moment” of her time in the Speaker’s Chair. Boothroyd broke around 700 years of British political tradition when she was elected Commons speaker in 1992.

She could defuse a dangerous or tense situation in the Chamber, and transform the snarls of MPs into gusts of laughter.

She was awarded an Order of Merit in the spring of 2005. Of all her attributes for the chair, her voice was an important feature. Lady Boothroyd was the second woman (and first Labour woman) to be voted a deputy speaker in July 1987. She was even popular with those who occasionally proved troublesome in the House. She joined the Labour League of Youth at the age of 16 but her first instinct was to be a dancer. Once she warned High Court judges not to interfere in the way Parliament handled the Maastricht Treaty when the Bill was passing through its tumultuous parliamentary procedures. Lady Boothroyd described the selection of Michael Foot as leader as “a disaster” – which in electoral terms proved to be accurate. Lady Boothroyd led the women’s section of the executive with 4.8 million votes in 1983, and the same year she said that every male chauvinist was “some woman’s son misshapen by her”. The voting was 372-238 – a majority of 134 – over Peter Brooke, the former Northern Ireland Secretary. But this did not detract from the authority she exuded – her silver-grey hair and no-nonsense approach to the task made her a formidable and imposing Speaker. But her first love was politics – and she quit the dance studios. But she continued to hanker after her Labour roots, even when she was Speaker.

Betty Boothroyd, the trailblazing first female Speaker in Britain's House of Commons, has died aged 93, drawing tributes from across parliament for her ...

Lady Boothroyd became the first woman to be elected speaker in the more than 700-year history of the role in April 1992, staying on until October 2000. She ...

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Tributes pour in from across the political spectrum for the UK's Boothroyd, who served as speaker from 1992-2000.

The UK voted to leave the bloc in a close-run 2016 referendum. Betty Boothroyd, Speaker of the House of Commons 1992 – 2000. “It was still a thrill to see her around the Commons until recently. A strong northern, female and working class voice at the heart of Parliament. Betty was one of a kind. “She stuck by the rules, had a no-nonsense style, but any reprimands she did issue were done with good humour and charm.

First female speaker of the Commons known for her brisk, good-humoured style, and as a shrewd political tactician.

It was a post she was invited to accept because of her support for the universal right to adult education. She was judicious about the use of her considerable political authority as a member of the Lords, but campaigned against Brexit. On her return to London in 1952, she joined the research department at the Labour party’s headquarters, Transport House, as a secretary. “To err is human, but Erskine May is divine” she once said in response to a recalcitrant MP who was challenging the parliamentary rule book. She brought a pizzazz to the speaker’s role, declining to wear the traditional full-bottomed wig, thus appearing attractively stylish and modern, in contrast to her predecessors. She had been a singer and dancer “hoofing it” with a teenage jazz band, the Swing Stars, entertaining servicemen under the auspices of Ensa, when she successfully auditioned for the Tiller Girls in London. Betty joined the Labour League of Youth at 16 and was a member of its national consultative committee when the Attlee government fell in 1951. When she was ill at home for a fortnight, her father used his lunch hour to walk to her school every day to collect her homework. She was, famously, a former member of the Tiller Girls dancing troupe but she was also a working-class northerner, born and raised in the Yorkshire mill town of Dewsbury, the only child of parents who had both started work at the age of 13. She played a leading part behind the scenes as a rightwing party loyalist in the power struggles within the party during the 1970s and 80s. Her parents, Archibald and Mary, were members of the Labour party and the Textile Workers’ Union on which they relied for the protection of their jobs in the heavy woollen industry in the old West Riding. She was a successful and popular speaker who acquired international fame for her brisk, good-humoured style and for the warmth and wit she exuded, along with a whiff of glamour.

Betty Boothroyd mastered an often unruly Commons with a mixture of charm, wit and, when necessary, a rod of iron. I doubt we shall see her like again.

I was privileged to enter the House when Betty was speaker. I was fortunate to know her. From high kicking on the theatrical stage to reigning over the tumultuous stage of the mother of parliaments is quite a journey but Betty Boothroyd took it all in her impressive stride.