Margaret Beckett

The Right Honourable The Baroness Beckett GBE PC
Official portrait, 2020
Foreign Secretary
In office 5 May 2006 – 27 June 2007
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Jack Straw
Succeeded by	David Miliband
Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
In office 8 June 2001 – 5 May 2006
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Nick Brown[a] John Prescott[b]
Succeeded by	David Miliband
Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
In office 8 June 2001 – 27 March 2002
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Nick Brown
Succeeded by	Herself[c]
Leader of the House of Commons Lord President of the Council
In office 27 July 1998 – 8 June 2001
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Ann Taylor
Succeeded by	Robin Cook
Secretary of State for Trade and Industry President of the Board of Trade
In office 2 May 1997 – 27 July 1998
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Ian Lang
Succeeded by	Peter Mandelson
Leader of the Opposition
In office 12 May 1994 – 21 July 1994
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	John Major
Preceded by	John Smith
Succeeded by	Tony Blair
Deputy Leader of the Labour Party
In office 18 July 1992 – 21 July 1994
Leader	John Smith
Preceded by	Roy Hattersley
Succeeded by	John Prescott
Junior ministerial offices Minister of State for Housing and Planning In office 3 October 2008 – 5 June 2009 Prime Minister Gordon Brown Preceded by Caroline Flint Succeeded by John Healey Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Science In office 12 March 1976 – 4 May 1979 Prime Minister Harold Wilson James Callaghan Preceded by Joan Lestor Succeeded by Rhodes Boyson
Shadow cabinet portfolios 1995–1997 Trade and Industry 1994–1995 Health 1992–1994 Commons Leader 1989–1992 Chief Treasury Secretary
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
Incumbent
Assumed office 14 August 2024 Life peerage
Member of Parliament for Derby South
In office 9 June 1983 – 30 May 2024
Preceded by	Walter Johnson
Succeeded by	Baggy Shanker
Member of Parliament for Lincoln
In office 10 October 1974 – 7 April 1979
Preceded by	Dick Taverne
Succeeded by	Kenneth Carlisle
Personal details
Born	Margaret Mary Jackson (1943-01-15) 15 January 1943 (age 81) Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, England
Political party	Labour
Spouse	Lionel Beckett ​ ​ (m. 1979; died 2021)​
Alma mater	Manchester College of Science and Technology (BSc)
Signature
Margaret Beckett's voice Beckett makes a statement on climate change on behalf of the European Commission and Council Recorded 16 November 2005

Margaret Mary Beckett, Baroness Beckett, GBE, PC (née Jackson; born 15 January 1943), is a British politician. She was a Member of Parliament for more than 45 years, from 1974 to 1979 and 1983 to 2024. A member of the Labour Party, she was the United Kingdom's first female Foreign Secretary, and served as a minister under Prime Ministers Harold Wilson, James Callaghan, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Beckett was Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1992 to 1994, and briefly Leader of the Opposition and acting Leader of the Labour Party following John Smith's death in 1994. A member of the Labour Party, she served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Lincoln from 1974 to 1979, and for Derby South from 1983 to 2024. Her 45 years in the House of Commons makes her the female MP in the Commons with the longest service overall (Harriet Harman has longer continuous service) and she was the last sitting MP who served in the Labour governments of the 1970s. Beckett alongside former Labour Party colleague Baroness Harman became members of the House of Lords in 2024.

Beckett was first elected to Parliament at the October 1974 general election for Lincoln and held junior positions in the governments of Harold Wilson and James Callaghan. She lost her seat at the 1979 election, but returned to the Commons in 1983 as MP for Derby South. She was appointed to Neil Kinnock's shadow cabinet shortly afterwards; she was elected Deputy Leader of the Labour Party in 1992, becoming the first woman to hold that role. When John Smith died in 1994, Beckett became the first woman to lead the Labour Party, though only in a temporary capacity—Tony Blair won the election to replace Smith shortly afterward and assumed the substantive leadership.

After Labour returned to power in 1997, and as one of 101 female Labour MPs elected, Beckett became a member of Tony Blair's Cabinet initially as President of the Board of Trade, the first female holder of that office. She later served as Leader of the House of Commons and Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, before becoming Foreign Secretary in 2006, the first woman to hold that position, and—after Margaret Thatcher—the second woman to hold one of the Great Offices of State. Following Blair's resignation as prime minister in 2007, Beckett was not initially given a position by Gordon Brown, Blair's successor; after she had spent a period on the backbenches, Brown appointed her to his cabinet as Minister of State for Housing and Planning in 2008, before she left the government for the last time in 2009.

Beckett stood down at the 2024 general election and was appointed to the House of Lords.

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