Betty Boothroyd
British politician (1929–2023)
Betty Boothroyd, Baroness Boothroyd (8 October 1929 – 26 February 2023), was a British politician who served as a member of Parliament (MP) for West Bromwich and West Bromwich West from 1973 to 2000. A member of the Labour Party, she served as Speaker of the House of Commons from 1992 to 2000. She was previously a Deputy Speaker from 1987 to 1992. She was the first and as of 2026, the only woman to serve as Speaker. Boothroyd later sat in the House of Lords as, in accordance with tradition, a crossbench peer.
Early life
Boothroyd was born in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, in 1929, as the only child of Ben Archibald Boothroyd (1886–1948) and his second wife Mary (née Butterfield, 1901–1982), both textile workers.
Boothroyd was educated at council schools and went on to study at Dewsbury College of Commerce and Art (now Kirklees College). Boothroyd joined the Labour Party as a teenager. She attended Labour League of Youth rallies in Huddersfield, Leeds and Wakefield to listen to speeches by Labour politicians Clement Attlee, Jennie Lee, Aneurin Bevan and Alice Bacon.
Boothroyd's first job was at Bickers department store in Dewsbury.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q333722. VIAF identifies the subject as 79425443. The Library of Congress control number is n96103172. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1929, 2023, 1973 and 2000.
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This entry incorporates text from “Betty Boothroyd” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.