Betty Boothroyd Autobiography: The Autobiography

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From 1992 to 2000, she served as Speaker of the House of Commons. She was the first, and to date only, female Speaker of the House of Commons. [1] She sat, by tradition, as a Crossbench peer in the House of Lords. After two years across the pond, she returned to the UK where she worked as a political assistant to Labour minister Lord Harry Walston.

BaronessBoothroydonherofficialportraitasCommonsSpeakerbyAndrewFesting". Archived from the original on 8 November 2019 . Retrieved 31 March 2019 – via YouTube. Baroness Boothroyd once reminded MPs that her role was "to ensure that the holders of an opinion, however unpopular, are allowed to put across their points of view". Betty Boothroyd: To Parliament and beyond". BBC Online. 24 October 2001 . Retrieved 21 January 2009. Running for the Labour Party, Boothroyd 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 (MP) for West Bromwich in a by-election in 1973. [10] She represented the constituency for 27 years. The Conservative MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, Simon Clarke, described Boothroyd as a “magnificent parliamentarian”, and said it was “a thrill to see her around the Commons until recently”.

She is believed to have said this would have been her final attempt at entering Parliament - but won the contest with a majority of more than 8,000 votes.

LordsfailtofindhouseroomforLadyBoothroyd'screst". The Daily Telegraph. 28 January 2001. Archived from the original on 21 February 2019 . Retrieved 15 February 2019. Hoyle said: “Not only was Betty Boothroyd an inspiring woman, but she was also an inspirational politician, and someone I was proud to call my friend.Honorary graduates chronological". City, University of London. Archived from the original on 14 September 2013 . Retrieved 29 July 2017. Boothroyd was made an Honorary Fellow of the Society of Light and Lighting (Hon. FSLL) in 2009, [30] [31] and she was an Honorary Fellow of St Hugh's College, Oxford, and of St Edmund's College, Cambridge. [32] She was Patron of the Jo Richardson Community School in Dagenham, East London, and President of NBFA Assisting the Elderly. She was, for a period, Vice President of the Industry and Parliament Trust. Baroness Boothroyd went on to become an assistant government whip for the Labour Party and kept a keen eye on ensuring MPs were in the Commons to vote on key pieces of legislation.