- guardian.co.uk,
- Wednesday July 12 2000 17:27 BST
Famous as a former dancing girl, Ms Boothroyd became the first woman speaker in 1992 and was proficient at bringing wayward politicians into line with a Yorkshire quip or a barked command. Her reputation for formidable toughness was mixed with informality on a personal level and a determination to make parliament more accessible to the public.
When the House voted her into the chair, she insisted on sitting without the traditional full-bottomed wig and asked how she would like to be addressed as speaker, she replied instantly: "Call me madam."
Ms Boothroyd, now 70, presided over a host of reforms to rid the Commons of some its more arcane practices. In her Palace of Westminster quarters she regularly held receptions to show visitors how parliament worked.
Betty Boothroyd was born on October 8, 1929, the daughter of textile workers, in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, where she attended council schools, followed by a spell at Dewsbury technical college of commerce and art.
She worked as a professional dancer from 1946 to 1948 and appeared in pantomime in London's West End as a member of the Tiller Girls' chorus line.
But politics soon succeeded showbusiness in her life and in 1950 she contested a seat on Dewsbury council and was elected to Hammersmith borough council in 1965.
Ms Boothroyd battled her way into the House of Commons, unsuccessfully contesting four parliamentary seats before being elected to West Bromwich in 1973.
As an active Labour backbencher, proudly on the right of the party, she was scornful of intractable leftwingers as well as being the scourge of infiltrating militants throughout the 1970s and early 1980s.
She became an assistant government whip and was voted on to Labour's executive. She became the first Labour woman to be voted a deputy speaker in July 1987.
She was elected Speaker in April 1992. The voting was 372-238 - a majority of 134 - over Peter Brooke, the former Conservative Northern Ireland secretary. In a unique four-way contest, her vote was boosted by 74 Conservative MPs.
Ms Boothroyd describes herself as "pleasantly plump" and has no inhibitions about what she eats. "I just like good food, beef steaks, and I enjoy the House of Commons chips. They are terrific."
She also attributes what she described as her "lovely deep voice" to smoking - "about a packet a day".
She has never married and once insisted that although she was a loner she had never been lonely.
