Margaret Beckett Margaret Beckett Dame Margaret Mary Beckett (; born 15 January 1943) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Derby South since 1983. She was the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party under John Smith from 1992 to 1994, and briefly served as Leader of the Labour Party after Smith died suddenly. She later served in the Cabinet under Prime Minister Tony Blair in a number of roles, becoming Britain's first female Foreign Secretary in 2006. Beckett was first elected to Parliament in 1974 for Lincoln and held junior positions in the governments
Labour Party leadership of Jeremy Corbyn theatrical nature of Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs), Corbyn invited members of the public to submit questions for his first PMQs as opposition leader. Appointments in his first Shadow Cabinet included Burnham (Shadow Home Secretary), John McDonnell (Shadow Chancellor), Hilary Benn (Shadow Foreign Secretary) and Angela Eagle (Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills). Corbyn also promoted several female backbenchers, forming a Shadow Cabinet that for the first time had a greater number of women than men. Under Corbyn's leadership the Labour Party has shifted ideologically to the left and away from the centre-ground of previous leaders, such as