UK'S FIRST FEMALE COMMONS SPEAKER DIES AT 93

Feb 28, 2023

By Andy Johnson

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The British Parliament at Westminster has has produced some colourful speakers but few more colourful than Betty Boothroyd, the first female speaker of the U.K. House of Commons.

She was named speaker in 1992, when there were just 60 women out of the 651 MPS in the house, and served until 2000.

She was responsible for riding herd on MPs, often with repeated shouts of “Order, order,” leading her to be frequently compared with a school principal.  Her performance turned the weekly Prime Minister’s Question Period into must see TV.

The current speaker says Boothroyd broke the glass ceiling with panache; calling her a “sharp, witty and formidable woman,” with a no-nonsense style.

Betty Boothroyd has died at a hospital in Cambridge at the age of 93.

No cause was specified .

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