Baroness Knight passes away after 50 years in Parliament
Tributes have been paid to Baroness Knight of Collingtree after she passed away last week at the age of 98, having served 50 years in Parliament as both an MP and peer. The Conservative MP for Birmingham Edgbaston from March 1966 until her retirement in April 1997, Knight was ennobled in the same year, retiring from the Lords in 2016.
Selected following the death of the incumbent Conservative MP Edith Pitt, Knight was one of only seven women MPs elected in the 1966 general election and became the first elected woman
MP to follow another woman MP. When Knight retired in 1997, her seat was then held by a third woman MP, albeit a Labour one, Gisela Stuart.
A prominent family and pro-life campaigner, opposing the Abortion Act of 1967, Knight was known for her controversial views, including her support of white South Africa during apartheid. She was instrumental in the passing of Section 28 in 1998 which prohibited local authorities from “promoting” homosexuality in schools. She also later voted against the introduction of gay marriage in 2013.
Section 28 was repealed by the Blair government in 2000 – Knight later expressed her regret “if the law hurt anyone” during an interview in 2018.
A full tribute to Baroness
Knight will follow in the next edition of the magazine.