HAPPY BIRTHDAY

PrINCeSS MIChAeL of Kent, 73 (right). The wife of the Queen’s first cousin earned the nickname ‘Princess Pushy’ from her former friend, author Jilly Cooper, who used the term in a profile she wrote in the Mail on Sunday in 1986. Cooper later received an envelope from Kensington Palace containing 30 pieces of silver — the price for which Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus. At Christmas, the Princess apologised after wearing ‘racist jewellery’ — a Blackamoor brooch — to the Queen’s Christmas lunch, attended by Prince harry’s mixed-race fiancée Meghan Markle. MArGAreT BeCKeTT, 75. The Labour politician is the longest-serving woman MP in history at more than 39 years (though not continuous service). She was the first woman to lead the Labour Party (as caretaker leader after John Smith’s death). Beckett is known for copious swearing (told she was to head the Foreign Office, she is said to have exclaimed: ‘F***!’), for drawing doodles of ministers during Cabinet meetings and for her annual three-week caravan break.