Top 15 Margaret Beckett Quotes

British politician (born 1943)

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Margaret Mary Beckett, Baroness Beckett, GBE, PC (née Jackson; born 15 January 1943), is a British politician. She was a Member of Parliament for more than 45 years, from 1974 to 1979 and 1983 to 2024. A member of the Labour Party, she was the United Kingdom's first female Foreign Secretary, and served as a minister under Prime Ministers Harold Wilson, James Callaghan, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Beckett was Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1992 to 1994, and briefly Leader of the Opposition and acting Leader of the Labour Party following John Smith's death in 1994. A member of the Labour Party, she served as Member of Parliament for Lincoln from 1974 to 1979, and for Derby South from 1983 to 2024. Her 45 years in the House of Commons makes her the female MP in the Commons with the longest service overall (Harriet Harman has longer continuous service) and she was the last sitting MP who served in the Labour governments of the 1970s. Beckett alongside former Labour Party colleague Baroness Harman became members of the House of Lords in 2024.

From: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Alternative Names: Dame Margaret Mary Beckett • Baroness Beckett

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But I’m under no illusions whatsoever that there will be a big screaming queue outside Keir’s door if we win.

It’s this having your own facts. I’ve always believed in evidence-based policymaking, but if the evidence isn’t acceptable no matter how strong it is, that’s uncharted waters. Quite frightening waters.

I never expected that I would ever in my life think: ‘I wonder if there’s somewhere better to live.’ I have thought it once or twice in the last couple of years, which to me is extraordinary.

What people overlook is the impact – not in the sense of: ‘You’ve rejected what we said, how dare you?’ but having to join the euro, having to be in Schengen, not having all the concessions that we had won through successive governments.

I think probably we could have done more to help people to understand what was happening, and why, and that that would have laid a bit of foundation. Whereas support for what was being done was being taken for granted

He said: ‘There’s a simple rule of thumb: if you can’t stop the story, especially if it’s untrue, then the chances are that there’s somebody on your side briefing it.’ And I pretty soon discovered that there was – one of my most admired colleagues

must be my greatest achievement, because so many people who had nothing to do with it tell me it was their greatest achievement

I always resented the people who wrote in and said to new, young women MPs: ‘You ought to be campaigning on X or Y because that’s what a woman politician should do

you had a discussion in shadow cabinet, John would always genuinely want to hear everybody’s point of view. Tony and Gordon not so much, especially if someone was long-winded and not pertinent

I thought that he ought to be able to see that he wasn’t suitable, he wasn’t up to the job. He wasn’t rude, but it had no effect.

I was positive that the Labour party had much too much sense to elect him

Every winter that I remember in my childhood, he was gravely ill and seemed to be nearly dying.

Just because you get married doesn’t mean you don’t need to work.

I was an engineering apprentice when there were 20 of us [women] out of 2,000 – and I was the only woman on my course for a part of it. You would just get used to how bitchy men are.

He said to me: ‘You don’t do intimidation, do you, Margaret?’ And I hadn’t thought about it – haven’t thought about it since, really – but I sort of knew what he meant.