British politician Betty Boothroyd, Baroness Boothroyd, OM, PC, served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for West Bromwich and West Bromwich West from 1973 to 2000. She passed away on February 26, 2023.
When did Betty Boothroyd become Speaker?
She held the position of Speaker of the Commons from 1992 until 2000. She was the only woman to hold the office of Speaker. According to custom, she sat as a Crossbench peer in the House of Lords.
Boothroyd served as the secretary to Labour MPs Barbara Castle and Geoffrey de Freitas from the middle to the end of the 1950s. She visited the United States in 1960 to see the Kennedy campaign.
She then started working in Washington, D.C. During 1960 and 1962, she served as Silvio Conte’s legislative aide. She continued her work as a political assistant and secretary for several senior Labour politicians upon her return to London, including Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Harry Walston.
In 1965, she was elected to a seat on the Gibbs Green ward of the Hammersmith Borough Council, where she served until 1968.
