I remember one of my north‑east colleagues saying firmly in… - Margaret Beckett

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I remember one of my north‑east colleagues saying firmly in the tearoom one afternoon that there wasn’t a woman in the parliamentary party who was fit to be in the shadow cabinet

Margaret Beckett

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About Margaret Beckett

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.

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Alternative Names: Dame Margaret Mary Beckett • Baroness Beckett

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Additional quotes by Margaret Beckett

I remember when I was at college, at some do or another, people were passing round the bottle and I was – like everyone else – swigging out of it. And somebody was saying: ‘Oh no no no, you’re not somebody who should ever be seen swigging out of a bottle.’ It was the same sort of reaction,” she says, with a hint of satisfaction. There is a stubborn streak in Beckett, a dogged refusal to be pigeonholed or cowed, that has underpinned an extraordinary half-century in politics.

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

There’s nobody there when you go home, which is the experience of everybody who is widowed,” she says. “It’s there not being anyone to do the zip up or catch that awkward necklace – and I’m starting to get a bit of rheumatism in my hands.

I remember one of my north‑east colleagues saying firmly in the tearoom one afternoon that there wasn’t a woman in the parliamentary party who was fi… - Margaret Beckett

About Margaret Beckett

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