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
New Labour, New Life for Britain The new Leader of the Labour Party, Ed Miliband, completely abandoned the New Labour branding in 2010 after being elected, moving the party's political stance slightly further to the left. He resigned as leader in 2015, and was succeeded by Jeremy Corbyn at the September 2015 Labour Leadership election, who has further distanced the party from brand. During the 1997 campaign, a pledge card with five specific pledges was issued and detailed in the manifesto too. The pledges were: New Labour, New Life for Britain New Labour, New Life For Britain was a political manifesto published in 1996 by the