THE Labour MP Betty Boothroyd was elected as the first woman Speaker of the House of Commons yesterday with the help of 74 Conservative MPs who supported her in preference to Peter Brooke, the former Northern Ireland secretary.
Miss Boothroyd, 62, won the contest with a 372-238 vote - a majority of 134 - on an amendment proposing that her name be substituted for that of Mr Brooke. The amended motion was then carried without a further vote.
MPs on all sides stood and flouted Commons tradition by applauding as she was pulled to the chair with the traditional show of reluctance. Mr Brooke was one of the first to congratulate her.
She becomes the 155th Speaker and the first since the war to be chosen from the ranks of the Opposition party. Her calls of "Order, order" will make hers one of the best known voices in the land.
The Conservatives who voted for Miss Boothroyd, MP for West Bromwich West, included six ministers: Robert Jackson, Peter Lloyd, Anthony Nelson, Michael Forsyth, Allan Stewart and John Redwood. The 16 members of the cabinet who voted all backed Mr Brooke in the complicated Commons procedure.
Of the 20 Conservative women MPs, only four voted for Miss Boothroyd: Edwina Currie, Dame Peggy Fenner, Emma Nicholson and Elizabeth Peacock. Of the new Conservative intake, Stephen Milligan and Phil Gallie supported her.
The carrying of the amended motion prevented further rounds that would have allowed supporters of other potential candidates, who included Dame Janet Fookes and the former ministers Sir Giles Shaw and Terence Higgins, to put their case. The former transport minister Paul Channon had already withdrawn in favour of Mr Brooke, expressing his concern at the "potentially damaging division of Conservative support by the large number of party candidates".
Sir Edward Heath, the new Father of the House, presided as Mr Brooke's supporters were first called to make the case for their man. They were followed by the former Conservative cabinet minister John Biffen, who proposed the amendment to substitute Miss Boothroyd's name, seconded by the Labour MP Gwyneth Dunwoody.
John Major, Tony Newton, the Leader of the House, and Richard Ryder, government Chief Whip, all abstained for fear that their participation would be seen as an encouragement to Conservatives to support Mr Brooke, one of their cabinet colleagues until the post-election reshuffle. The government whips played no part, several of them sitting ostentatiously in the upstairs gallery to underline the point.
Victory for Miss Boothroyd was assured by her record in the chair as deputy Speaker and popularity across the House, the Conservatives' failure to agree among themselves on a single candidate, and fears among some MPs that Mr Brooke might not be enough of a "backbenchers' man". Accepting nomination, she said: "For me, the Commons has never been just a career. It's my life."
When MPs had applauded her to the chair she said, clearly moved: "Before I take the chair I wish to thank the House for the very great honour it has bestowed on me. I pray that I shall justify its confidence and I pledge that I shall do all in my power to preserve the Speakership and its traditions."
The one-time Tiller girl, an MP since 1974 and a former Labour whip, has won respect for her brisk common sense and good humour as a deputy Speaker since 1987. MPs who enquired what to call her when she took over that post were tartly informed "Call me Madam". The new Madam Speaker takes over from Bernard Weatherill, who was Speaker from June 1983 until March this year when Parliament was dissolved.
Miss Boothroyd, as Speaker-elect, will go to the Lords today to report that she has been elected for "Her Majesty most readily to approve and confirm her as the Speaker". She will then return to the Commons as fully fledged Speaker.
Mr Major congratulated her and said: "You have become our Speaker-elect because this House trusts you, it believes you enjoy in abundance the qualities necessary to protect and sustain the House and to safeguard its rights. The fact that it was a contested election adds, I believe, to your success."
Neil Kinnock, the Labour leader, said: "If in any part of the House there was any form of reservation, surely it must have been removed entirely by the way in which, at the point of your election, you stood there, at a time when you could have been expected to be overwhelmed with a certain emotion, and gave instructions that the mace should be put in its appropriate position. That's what my children would call 'very cool'!"
