Labour’s first female general secretary Margaret McDonagh has died at the age of 61, the party confirmed this morning.
Baroness McDonagh was described by Sir Keir Starmer as an ‘absolutely essential part of the 1997 Labour landslide’ and a ‘tireless champion for women’.
Having served as deputy general secretary in 1997, she held the position of Labour’s general secretary from 1998 to 2001. She later went on to work as a management consultant and co-president of the Labour Party Irish Society. She was made a life peer in 2004 and sat on the Labour benches in the House of Lords.
