HOW BETTY KEPT PEACE IN THE COMMONS
When Betty Boothroyd became Speaker of the House of Commons, she broke no less than six centuries of tradition.
The first female Speaker, she went on to make a tremendous success of the role. What was her secret? A winning combination of straight-talking Yorkshirewoman, combined with a sprinkling of showbiz glamour.
Before politics, Betty had worked as a dancer, and was a member of the Tiller Girls dancing troupe.
She took to her new role in the spotlight with ease, and made controlling more than 600 unruly MPs look simple.
On taking the role, there was a lot of debate about whether or not she should wear the traditional Speaker’s wig.
She decided against doing so, but said future Speakers could decide for themselves.
In her eight years in the post, Betty became, in Tony Blair’s words, a “national treasure”.
Her warmth, good humour and ability to put even the most rowdy of MPs in their place made her a natural for the role.
She was never afraid to stand up to the powerful, either.
When former PM Blair halved the number of Prime Minister’s Questions sessions, she doubled the number of questions the Leader of the Opposition could ask.
She insists, though, that she never minded the rowdiness of the House of Commons, or that MPs could become argumentative.
“I never wanted a morgue,” she says.
“I went to many parliaments around the world where someone made a speech and then there was silence – no intervention and no debate. That was never what I wanted during my time as Speaker.”
She took charge of many furious debates between Blair and Major.
But when MPs became too noisy or difficult to control, she had a way of dealing with them.
“I’d put my foot down – like with children!” she recalls.
Her ability to laugh at herself helped her in tricky situations.
When Sinn Fein’s MPs Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams wanted the full use of Commons facilities, despite refusing to swear Parliament’s Oath of Allegiance, she stood firm and the case ended up in court. Her stance was upheld and, on being asked what to tell the waiting press outside, she suggested: “The fat old girl in there is immovable.”
On standing down as Speaker in 2000, Betty took Parliament by surprise.
When MPs expressed regret, she urged them to be happy for her.
Betty went on to sit in the House of Lords.
Baroness Boothroyd of Sandwell, as she became, remains as straight-talking as ever.