Margaret Beckett

The Right Honourable Dame Margaret Beckett GBE MP
Official portrait, 2020
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
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 Parliament for Derby South
Incumbent
Assumed office 9 June 1983
Preceded by	Walter Johnson
Majority	6,019 (14.2%)
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
Website	Official website
Margaret Beckett's voice Beckett makes a statement on climate change on behalf of the European Commission and Council Recorded 16 November 2005

Dame Margaret Mary Beckett GBE (née Jackson; born 15 January 1943) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Derby South since 1983. A member of the Labour Party, she became Britain's first female Foreign Secretary in 2006 and served in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Tony Blair throughout his tenure. Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1992 to 1994, Beckett briefly served as Leader of the Opposition and Acting Leader of the Labour Party following John Smith's death in 1994.

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 House of Commons in 1983, this time representing Derby South. She was appointed to Neil Kinnock's Shadow Cabinet shortly afterward; 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, although Tony Blair won the election to replace Smith shortly afterward and assumed the substantive leadership.

After Labour returned to power in 1997, Beckett became a member of Tony Blair's Cabinet initially as President of the Board of Trade. 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 new Prime Minister Gordon Brown; 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 holds the record for the female MP with the longest service overall (Harriet Harman has longer continuous service) and, is the only sitting MP who served in the Labour governments of the 1970s. On 26 March 2022 Beckett announced that she would stand down at the next general election.^[1]

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