Tributes to Baroness Boothroyd

Charlotte Nichols Excerpts

Tuesday 28th February 2023 Commons Chamber

[Charlotte Nichols (Warrington North) (Lab)]

I rise to speak in tribute to a person who, more than anyone else, has had a profound impact on my life. I absolutely idolised Betty Boothroyd as a young child. Pre-1997, I remember that there were more Members called John or Jonathan than there were female MPs. As a young girl of four or five years old, it was absolutely transfixing watching Betty Boothroyd on television, not only because she was the first, and to date only, female Speaker of the House, but because of the way that she commanded this Chamber of often braying, oafish men and because of the respect that they held her in. I found her charisma magnetic and I loved her wit.

I used to come home from school and want to watch Betty Boothroyd on television. Although I had little concept at that time about politics or what her job actually was, she was a character I was obsessed with. At my nursery, children were allowed to go in fancy dress on their birthday and I had demanded that my parents allow me to dress as Betty Boothroyd. So there is a picture of me on my fourth birthday dressed as Betty Boothroyd to go to nursery. As I said, she was an idol.

Watching Betty Boothroyd when I was growing up, and wanting to understand more about the job that she did, was what got me interested in politics in the first place. She had an impact on not just me but, I am sure, young girls up and down the country, who will have seen her as a role model. She smashed through the glass ceiling and did it with wit, style and charisma, which was absolutely magical. I also saw the play that my right hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull North (Dame Diana Johnson) referred to at the Royal Exchange Theatre, although sadly not on the same night as Betty. It really captured that camp and that performance that made her beloved up and down the country.

I never actually met Betty Boothroyd. On one occasion, when I was a newly elected MP, she came into the Tearoom and I saw her and welled up. I was so starstruck by seeing this woman in the flesh who had had such a profound impact on my life that I could not get anything out—I could not even introduce myself to say hello. Yesterday, when I heard the news, I knew that I would now never get that opportunity.

What I have taken away from the tributes that I have heard today from people who had a personal relationship with her is that she would probably have loved it if I had told her that story. It is important for all of us, when we get the opportunity to meet our heroes, to say hello and tell them how much they mean to us, because we never know when we are next going to get that opportunity or if, as in my case, we will ever get it. I hope that her friends and family, and all the people listening to these tributes, know how much she meant to me and to everyone in this House and around the country.