Rishi Sunak leads tributes at funeral of first female Commons Speaker Betty Boothroyd
The PM said 'Parliament stands taller because of her service'.
Rishi Sunak paid tribute to the ‘remarkable’ Betty Boothroyd at her funeral today.
The first female Speaker of the House of Commons, who died aged 93 last month, was laid to rest at St George’s Church in Thriplownear, Cambridgeshire.
Both the prime minister and Sir Keir Starmer attended the service, leaving their deputies, Dominic Raab and Angela Rayner, to stand in for them at PMQs.
Mr Sunak told the service: ‘Today we come together from across the political spectrum to remember one of our greatest speakers – the remarkable Betty Boothroyd.
‘Parliament stands taller because of her service.’
Baroness Boothroyd trampled on more than 700 years of sexist tradition, which saw only men elected as speakers, when she took on the role from April 1992 to October 2000.
She then entered the Lords as a crossbench peer in January 2001.
Current Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle paid his respects when the baroness’s death was announced.
He said in a statement: ‘To be the first woman speaker was truly ground-breaking and Betty certainly broke that glass ceiling with panache.
‘She was one of a kind. A sharp, witty and formidable woman – and I will miss her.’
Sir Lindsay, from Lancashire, revealed he had a ‘friendly rivalry’ with Baroness Boothroyd, from Yorkshire.
‘But from my point of view, it was heartening to hear a Northern voice speaking from the Chair,’ he said.
‘She stuck by the rules, had a no-nonsense style, but any reprimands she did issue were done with good humour and charm.’
Flags flew at half mast in Westminster after news of the ‘trailblazer’ politician’s death, with MPs holding a minute’s silence in her memory.
Baroness Boothroyd was elected Labour MP for West Bromwich West in 1973 – becoming one of just 27 female MPs in the Commons at the time.
She was appointed deputy speaker in 1987, holding the position until 1992, when Bernard Weatherill announced he was quitting as Speaker, paving the way for her promotion.
In her acceptance speech, she called on MPs to ‘elect me for what I am and not for what I was born’.
During her first time in the chair, then Burnley MP, Peter Pike, asked her: ‘What do we call you?’
‘Call me Madam,’ was her swift riposte.
The baroness, who became a crossbench peer in the Lords in January 2001, attributed her famously deep voice to smoking ‘about a packet a day’.
She was born to mill worker parents in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, and worked as a professional dancer in West End pantomimes before going into politics.
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