Margaret Beckett became Labour’s first female leader in 1994. Her announcement yesterday that she will retire at the next general election is understandable, even if we in the parliamentary Labour party wish it weren’t true.
Her tenure as leader was short, given that she stepped into the role ex-officio as John Smith’s deputy after his devastating death and then handed over to Tony Blair. But for a generation of women and men, she has not only smashed through glass ceilings but also been the steady voice at times of crisis, the holder of the greatest offices our party and our country can bestow and a political survivor with great intellect and skill. In government, as leader of the house, she was often drafted in for media duties, by virtue of being the person most able to get excitable journalists to calm down.
