Baroness Boothroyd, first female Speaker of the House of Commons, has died aged 93
The first female Speaker of the House of Commons, Betty Boothroyd, has died aged 93.
Current Speaker of the House Sir Lindsay Hoyle, said: “Not only was Betty Boothroyd an inspiring woman, but she was also an inspirational politician, and someone I was proud to call my friend.
“To be the first woman Speaker was truly ground-breaking and Betty certainly broke that glass ceiling with panache.”
“Betty was one of a kind. A sharp, witty and formidable woman – and I will miss her,” he added.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said she was a “remarkable woman” and an “inspiration” who brought “passion, wit and sense of fairness” to politics. “My thoughts go out to her family,” he said.
Former PM Theresa May said she was “saddened” to hear of the baroness’ death, adding: “Betty was formidable in the chair, but earned the respect and admiration of the whole House. I will always remember her inimitable style, but also her immense personal warmth and kindness.”
Born into a working-class family in Dewsbury in 1929, Baroness Boothroyd was introduced to politics at an early age through her mother’s membership of the women’s section of the Labour Party.
Often taken to rallies where Labour giants including Clement Attlee and Nye Bevan would address large crowds, Baroness Boothroyd would later follow in their footsteps.
But not before the talented dancer’s dreams of taking the West End by storm with dance group the Tiller Girls were cruelly put to an end by just the age of 25 due to a foot infection.
The political stage would soon follow, the journey beginning with a move to London in the early 1950s after getting a job as secretary to two Labour MPs – Barbara Castle and Geoffrey de Freitas.
Baroness Boothroyd twice unsuccessfully stood to become an MP during this decade – finishing fewer than 7,000 votes behind the Conservative candidate in her first attempt in the Leicester South East by-election in 1957.
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Baroness Boothroyd has died aged 93
Following the two knock-backs, Baroness Boothroyd travelled to the United States in 1960 where she worked on John F Kennedy’s campaign after he was elected as the Democratic candidate for president.
Baroness Boothroyd travelled across America with Democratic senator Estes Kefauver before moving on to work for left-wing Republican congressman Silvio Conte.
After two years across the pond, she returned to the UK where she worked as a political assistant to Labour minister Lord Harry Walston.
In 1973, Baroness Boothroyd became an MP herself at the fifth attempt, successfully securing the seat of West Bromwich for the Labour Party.
She is believed to have said this would have been her final attempt at entering Parliament – but won the contest with a majority of more than 8,000 votes.
She became one of 27 female MPs in the House of Commons at the time.
Baroness Boothroyd attempted to become an MP four times before being successful in 1973
Baroness Boothroyd went on to become an assistant government whip for the Labour Party and kept a keen eye on ensuring MPs were in the Commons to vote on key pieces of legislation.
In 1975, she was elected a member of the European Parliament and became a vocal advocate of the common market.
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Baroness Boothroyd’s political influence continued to grow after she was appointed to both the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Speaker’s Panel of Chairmen in 1979.
In 1987, the Labour MP was appointed deputy Speaker of the Commons – a position she would hold until 1992 when Bernard “Jack” Weatherill announced he was stepping down as Speaker.
By this time, Baroness Boothroyd had proven herself to hold great authority and conviction and was persuaded by some Labour colleagues to run to replace him.
Her appointment was contested by Conservative MP John Brooke, but Baroness Boothroyd won a vote by 372 votes to 238.
With the result, Baroness Boothroyd became the first female Speaker of the Commons and the first opposition MP to be elected to the role, having secured overwhelming support from both sides of the House.
Baroness Boothroyd became Speaker in 1992 and stayed in the role for eight years
“Elect me for what I am, and not for what I was born,” she said in her acceptance speech.
During her first time in the chair as Speaker, she was asked by then Burnley MP Peter Pike: “What do we call you?”
“Call me Madam,” she replied – to a packed Commons chamber.
Baroness Boothroyd modernised the role of Speaker, refusing to wear the traditional wig – a decision which was approved by MPs – and closing Prime Minister’s Questions every week with her catchphrase: “Time’s up!”
She stuck to the rules and had a no-nonsense style, quickly becoming a household name as rolling television coverage of the Commons began.
Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh also attended a dinner hosted by Baroness Boothroyd while she was Speaker
Baroness Boothroyd once reminded MPs that her role was “to ensure that the holders of an opinion, however unpopular, are allowed to put across their points of view”.
But she only ever ejected one MP during her time in the role – then DUP leader Ian Paisley who had accused a minister of lying and was subsequently suspended for 10 days.
Baroness Boothroyd insists Labour’s Dennis Skinner walked out of the chamber before he was pushed after he branded a minister a “squirt” in 1992.
She also controversially banned women from breastfeeding during select committee hearings.
Baroness Boothroyd presided over fiery debates on the European Union but described Nelson Mandela’s state visit and parliament address in 1996 as “the most memorable moment of my time as Speaker”.
Mr Mandela had taken her hand before they entered Westminster Hall together for a ceremony.
South Africa’s President Nelson Mandela got a helping hand from Baroness Boothroyd when he visited Parliament in July 1996
Baroness Boothroyd’s term of office coincided with Conservative prime minister Sir John Major’s attempts to defend his slim majority and Labour’s landslide election win in 1997.
Her 1997 re-election was unopposed.
Baroness Boothroyd stood down from her position as Speaker in 2000 after eight years in the chair presiding over MPs with a firm manner and sense of humour.
During this time, she spoke twice in the Indian Lok Sabha, once in the Russian Duma and in most European parliaments.
She also welcomed numerous political figures to Parliament, including former French president Jacques Chirac.
French President Jacques Chirac kissed Baroness Boothroyd’s hand after visiting Parliament in 1996
Ahead of delivering her farewell speech in the Commons, parliamentary staff lined up in a row to clap her out.
Her personal motto as Speaker was “I speak to serve” and she was insistent that it is the task of parliament to control the government of the day.
Baroness Boothroyd had been critical of moves towards a more presidential style, warning in her farewell speech on 26 July that prime ministers “can easily be toppled” and that parliament “is the chief forum of the nation – today, tomorrow and, I hope, for ever”.
Baroness Boothroyd’s motto was: ‘I speak to serve’
In 2001, she was created a life peer, taking as her title Baroness Boothroyd of Sandwell in the West Midlands.
She published her autobiography in the same year.
In 2005, she was given an Order of Merit by Queen Elizabeth II – given to those “who have provided especially eminent service in the armed forces or particularly distinguished themselves in science, art, literature, or the promotion of culture”.
Baroness Boothroyd was bestowed with the Order of Merit by The Queen in 2005
Baroness Boothroyd was not afraid to speak her mind on political matters after her retirement.
In 2018, she dramatically increased pressure on then Speaker John Bercow to honour a pledge to quit later that year.
She said he should step down in mid-parliament as a “courtesy” to MPs and not wait until the next general election.
In April 2019, Baroness Boothroyd spoke during a rally held by The People’s Vote, calling for another Brexit referendum
Baroness Boothroyd was a supporter of the UK remaining in the European Union
While in an interview in 2021, she said PMQs had “deteriorated a great deal in the last few years”, adding: “It’s not the quality that it used to be.”
Speaking as the partygate scandal unfolded, she added: “The prime minister is there to answer questions about what the government is doing, why it is not doing it.
“I don’t say prime ministers have got the answer to every question. Of course, they haven’t. But at least they’ve got to have a stab at it and make an attempt and it is not [happening] these days.”
On her retirement as Speaker, then Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy stated: “As the first woman Speaker, her place in the history books is assured.”
Baroness Boothroyd remains the only female Speaker of the House of Commons in its over 700-year history
On Baroness Boothroyd’s 90th birthday, Tony Blair said he had been “somewhat in awe” of the former Speaker after she had told him off when, as a young MP, he had entered Parliament’s terrace wearing a sweatshirt and jeans.
While Sir John Major said the Dewsbury-born politician had entered “the Pantheon of National Treasures”.
Baroness Boothroyd died unmarried and with no children.
To this day, she remains the only female Speaker of the House of Commons in over 700 years.
Hamas has said it has “submitted its positive response” to the latest proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza to mediators.
The proposal for a 60-day ceasefire was presented by US President Donald Trump, who has been pushing hard for a deal to end the fighting in Gaza, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set to visit the White House next week to discuss a deal.
Mr Trump said Israel had agreed to his proposed ceasefire terms, and he urged Hamas to accept the deal as well.
Hamas’ “positive” response to the proposal had slightly different wording on three issues around humanitarian aid, the status of the Israeli Defence Forces inside Gaza and the language around guarantees beyond the 60-day ceasefire, a source with knowledge of the negotiations revealed.
But the source told Sky News: “Things are looking good.”
A woman cries after her son was killed while on his way to an aid distribution centre. Pic: AP/Jehad Alshrafi
Hamas said it is “fully prepared to immediately enter into a round of negotiations regarding the mechanism for implementing this framework” without elaborating on what needed to be worked out in the proposal’s implementation.
The US said during the ceasefire it would “work with all parties to end the war”.
A Hamas official said on condition of anonymity that the truce could start as early as next week.
An Israeli army tank advances in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel. Pic: AP/Leo Correa
But he added that talks were needed first to establish how many Palestinian prisoners would be released in return for each freed Israeli hostage and to specify the amount of humanitarian aid that will be allowed to enter Gaza during the ceasefire.
He said negotiations on a permanent ceasefire and the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza in return for the release of the remaining hostages would start on the first day of the truce.
Hamas has been seeking guarantees that the 60-day ceasefire would lead to a total end to the nearly 21-month-old war, which caused previous rounds of negotiations to fail as Mr Netanyahu has insisted that Israel would continue fighting in Gaza to ensure the destruction of Hamas.
The Hamas official said that Mr Trump has guaranteed that the ceasefire will extend beyond 60 days if necessary to reach a peace deal, but there is no confirmation from the US of such a guarantee.
Speaking to journalists on Air Force One, Mr Trump welcomed Hamas’s “positive spirit” to the proposal, adding that there could be a ceasefire deal by next week.
Palestinians dispersing away from tear gas fired at an aid distribution site in Gaza. Pic: AP
A girl mourns the loss of her father, who was killed while heading to an aid distribution hub. Pic: AP/Jehad Alshrafi
Hamas also said it wants more aid to flow through the United Nations and other humanitarian agencies, which comes as the UN human rights officer said it recorded 613 Palestinians killed in Gaza within a month while trying to obtain aid.
Most of them were said to have been killed while trying to reach food distribution points by the controversial US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
The spokeswoman for the UN human rights office, Ravina Shamdasani, said the agency was not able to attribute responsibility for the killings, but added that “it is clear that the Israeli military has shelled and shot at Palestinians trying to reach the distribution points” operated by GHF.
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Palestinians carry aid packages near the GHF distribution centre in Khan Younis. Pic: AP/Abdel Kareem Hana
Ms Shamdasani said that of the total tallied, 509 killings were “GHF-related”, meaning at or near its distribution sites.
The GHF accused the UN of taking its casualty figures “directly from the Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry” and of trying “to falsely smear our effort”, which echoed statements to Sky News by the executive director of GHF, Johnnie Moore.
Mr Moore called the UN figures a “disinformation campaign” that is “meant to shut down our efforts” in the Gaza Strip.
Behind the efforts to secure the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release is the remarkable story of one man’s unlikely involvement.
His name is Bishara Bahbah, he’s a Harvard-educated economics professor from Phoenix, Arizona.
In April, his phone rang. It was Hamas.
Since that phone call, Dr Bahbah has been living temporarily in Qatar where he is in direct contact with officials from Hamas. He has emerged as an important back-channel American negotiator. But how?
An inauguration party
I first met Dr Bahbah in January. It was the eve of President Trump’s inauguration and a group of Arab-Americans had thrown a party at a swanky restaurant in Washington DC’s Wharf district.
There was a sense of excitement. Arab-Americans were crediting themselves for having helped Trump over the line in the key swing state of Michigan.
Dr Bahbah negotiating with Hamas for the release of Edan Alexander
Despite traditionally being aligned with the Democrats, Arab-Americans had abandoned Joe Biden in large numbers because of his handling of the Gaza war.
I’d reported from Michigan weeks earlier and been struck by the overwhelming support for Trump. The vibe essentially was ‘it can’t get any worse – we may as well give Trump a shot’.
Mingling among diplomats from Middle Eastern countries, wealthy business owners and even the president of FIFA, I was introduced to an unassuming man in his late 60s.
We got talking and shared stories of his birthplace and my adopted home for a few years – Jerusalem.
Dr Bahbah and Trump
He told me that he still has the deed to his family’s 68 dunum (16 acre) Palestinian orchard.
With nostalgia, he explained how he still had his family’s UN food card which shows their allocated monthly rations from their time living in a refugee camp and in the Jerusalem’s old city.
Dr Bahnah left Jerusalem in 1976. He is now a US citizen but told me Jerusalem would always be home.
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Will Trump achieve a Gaza ceasefire?
He echoed the views I had heard in Michigan, where he had spent many months campaigning as the president of Arab-Americans for Trump.
He dismissed my scepticism that Trump would be any better than Biden for the Palestinians.
We exchanged numbers and agreed to meet for lunch a few weeks later.
A connection with Trump
Dr Bahbah invited two Arab-American friends to our lunch. Over burgers and coke, a block from the White House, we discussed their hopes for Gaza under Trump.
The three men repeated what I had heard on the campaign trail – that things couldn’t get any worse for the Palestinians than they were under Biden.
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Gaza deaths increase when aid sites open
Trump, they said, would use his pragmatism and transactional nature to create opportunities.
Dr Bahbah displayed to me his own initiative too. He revealed that he got a message to the Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, to suggest he ought to write a personal letter of congratulations to President Trump.
A letter from Ramallah was on the Oval Office desk on 6 November, a day after the election. It’s the sort of gesture Trump notices.
It was clear to me that the campaigning efforts and continued support of these three wealthy men had been recognised by the Trump administration.
They had become close to key figures in Trump’s team – connections that would, in time, pay off.
There were tensions along the way. When Trump announced he would “own Gaza”, Dr Bahbah was disillusioned.
And then came the AI video of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sunning themselves in a Gazan wonderland.
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President shares ‘Trump Gaza’ AI video
“It is provocative and unacceptable,” he told me just after the president posted the video in February.
Trump must have thought it was funny, so he posted it. He loves anything with his name on it.”
Then came the Trump plan to resettle Palestinians out of Gaza. To this, he released a public statement titled Urgent Press Release.
“Arab-Americans for Trump firmly rejects President Donald J Trump’s suggestion to remove – voluntarily or forcibly – Palestinians in Gaza to Egypt and Jordan,” he said.
Letter from Abbas to Trump. Pic: Bishara Bahbah
He then changed the name of his alliance, dropping Trump. It became Arab-Americans for Peace.
I wondered if the wheels were coming off this unlikely alliance.
Was he realising Trump couldn’t or wouldn’t solve the Palestinian issue? But Dr Bahbah maintained faith in the new president.
“I am worried, but at the same time, Trump might be testing the waters to determine what is acceptable…,” he told me in late February as the war dragged on.
“There is no alternative to the two-state solution.”
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He told me that he expected the president and his team to work on the rebuilding of Gaza and work to launch a process that would culminate in the establishment of a Palestinian state, side by side in peace with Israel.
It was, and remains, an expectation at odds with the Trump administration’s official policy.
The phone call
In late April, Dr Bahbah’s phone rang. The man at the other end of the line was Dr Ghazi Hamad, a senior member of Hamas.
Dr Bahbah and Dr Hamad had never met – they did not know each other.
But Hamas had identified Dr Bahbah as the Palestinian-American with the most influence in Trump’s administration.
Dr Hamad suggested that they could work together – to secure the release of all the hostages in return for a permanent ceasefire.
Hamas was already using the Qatari government as a conduit to the Americans but Dr Bahbah represented a second channel through which they hoped they could convince President Trump to increase pressure on Israel.
There is a thread of history which runs through this story. It was the widow of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat who passed Dr Bahbah’s number to Dr Hamad.
In the 1990s, Dr Bahbah was part of a Palestinian delegation to the multilateral peace talks.
He became close to Arafat but he had no experience of a negotiation as delicate and intractable as this.
The first step was to build trust. Dr Bahbah contacted Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy.
Witkoff and Bahbah had something in common – one a real-estate mogul, the other an academic, neither had any experience in diplomacy. It represented the perfect manifestation of Trump’s ‘outside the box’ methods.
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But Witkoff was sceptical of Dr Bahbah’s proposal at first. Could he really have any success at securing agreement between Israel and Hamas? A gesture to build trust was necessary.
Bahbah claims he told his new Hamas contact that they needed to prove to the Trump administration that they were serious about negotiating.
Within weeks a remarkable moment more than convinced Dr Bahbah and Witkoff that this new Hamas back-channel could be vitally important.
On 12 May, after 584 days in Hamas captivity, Israeli-American Edan Alexander was released.
We were told at the time that his release was a result of a direct deal between Hamas and the US.
Israel was not involved and the deal was described by Hamas as a “good faith” gesture. Dr Bahbah sees it as his deal.
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Doctors on the frontline
Direct talks took place between Dr Bahbah and five Hamas officials in Doha who would then convey messages back to at least 17 other Hamas leadership figures in both Gaza and Cairo.
Dr Bahbah in turn conveyed Hamas messages back to Witkoff who was not directly involved in the Hamas talks.
A Qatari source told me that Dr Bahbah was “very involved” in the negotiations.
But publicly, the White House has sought to downplay his role, with an official telling Axios in May that “he was involved but tangentially”.
The Israeli government was unaware of his involvement until their own spies discovered the backchannel discussion about the release of Alexander.
Since that April phone call, Dr Bahbah has remained in the Qatari capital, with trips to Cairo, trying to help secure a final agreement.
He is taking no payment from anyone for his work.
As he told me when we first met back in January: “If I can do something to help to end this war and secure a future for the Palestinian people, I will.”
It is one of the most notorious and secret places in Iran.
Somewhere foreign journalists are never allowed to visit or film. The prison where dissidents and critics of Iran’s government disappear – some never to be seen again.
But we went there today, invited by Iranian authorities eager to show the damage done there by Israel.
Evin Prison was hit by Israeli airstrikes the day before a ceasefire ended a 12-day war with Iran. The damage is much greater than thought at the time.
We walked through what’s left of its gates, now a mass of rubble and twisted metal, among just a handful of foreign news media allowed in.
A few hundred yards in, we were shown a building Iranians say was the prison’s hospital.
Behind iron bars, every one of the building’s windows had been blown in. Medical equipment and hospital beds had been ripped apart and shredded.
Debris scattered across what Iran says was the prison hospital
It felt eerie being somewhere normally shut off to the outside world.
On the hill above us, untouched by the airstrikes, the buildings where inmates are incarcerated in reportedly horrific conditions, ominous watch towers silhouetted against the sky.
Evin felt rundown and neglected. There was something ineffably sad and oppressive about the atmosphere as we wandered through the compound.
The Iranians had their reasons to bring us here. The authorities say at least 71 people were killed in the air strikes, some of them inmates, but also visiting family members.
Authorities say this building was the visitor centre
Iran says this is evidence that Israel was not just targeting military or nuclear sites but civilian locations too.
But the press visit highlighted the prison’s notoriety too.
Iran’s critics and human rights groups say Evin is synonymous with the brutal oppression of political prisoners and opponents, and its practice of hostage diplomacy too.
British dual nationals, including Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe were held here for years before being released in 2022 in exchange for concessions from the UK.
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Inmates are held in building on a hill above, which has been untouched by airstrikes
Interviewed about the Israeli airstrikes at the time, Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe showed only characteristic empathy with her former fellow inmates. Trapped in their cells, she said they must have been terrified.
The Israelis have not fully explained why they put Evin on their target list, but on the same day, the Israeli military said it was “attacking regime targets and government repression bodies in the heart of Tehran”.
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The locus of their strikes were the prison’s two entrances. If they were trying to enable a jailbreak, they failed. No one is reported to have escaped, several inmates are thought to have died.
The breaches the Israeli missiles made in the jail’s perimeter are being closed again quickly. We filmed as a team of masons worked to shut off the outside world again, brick by brick.
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