The House of Lords,formally The Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled,also known as the House of Peers,is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment,heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons,it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London,England.
Katherine Patricia Irene Adams,Baroness Adams of Craigielea is a Scottish Labour peer who served as the Member of Parliament for Paisley North from 1990 to 2005.
The Peerage Act 1963 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that permitted women peeresses and all Scottish hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords,and which allows newly inherited hereditary peerages to be disclaimed.
The leader of the House of Lords is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom who is responsible for arranging government business in the House of Lords. The post is also the leader of the majority party in the House of Lords who acts as the government party chairperson in the house. The role is always held in combination with a formal Cabinet position,usually one of the sinecure offices of Lord President of the Council,Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal or Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Unless the Leader is also a departmental minister,being Leader constitutes the bulk of his or her government responsibilities,but it has never been an independent salaried office. The Office of the Leader of the House of Lords is a ministerial department.
Gillian Patricia Shephard,Baroness Shephard of Northwold,PC,DL,is a British Conservative politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for South West Norfolk from 1987 to 2005. Shephard served as a Cabinet Minister,and is now Chairman of the Association of Conservative Peers.
Betty Boothroyd,Baroness Boothroyd is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for West Bromwich and West Bromwich West from 1973 to 2000. From 1992 to 2000,she served as Speaker of the House of Commons. She is the only woman to have served as Speaker,and one of two living former Speakers of the British House of Commons. She sits,by tradition,as a Crossbench peer in the House of Lords.
Angela Evans Smith,Baroness Smith of Basildon,is a British politician and life peer serving as Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords since 2015. A member of the Labour and Co-operative parties,she was Member of Parliament (MP) for Basildon from 1997 to 2010.
Janet Ray Michie,Baroness Michie of Gallanach was a Scottish speech therapist and Liberal Democrat politician. She served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Argyll and Bute for 14 years,from 1987 to 2001,and then became a life peer in the House of Lords. She was the first peer to pledge the oath of allegiance in the House of Lords in Gaelic.
Edward Watson Short,Baron Glenamara,was a British Labour Party politician and deputy leader of the Labour Party. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Newcastle upon Tyne Central and served as a minister during the Labour governments under Harold Wilson,before being appointed to the House of Lords shortly after James Callaghan became Prime Minister.
Irene Mary Bewick Ward,Baroness Ward of North Tyneside,was a British Conservative politician. She was a long-serving female Member of Parliament (MP),the longest serving female Conservative MP in history. She later became a life peeress in the House of Lords,and had served a total of 43 years in Parliament.
Albert William "Jock" Stallard,Baron Stallard was a British Labour politician. He served as a councillor in St Pancras and Camden,and then as a Member of Parliament (MP). He retired from the House of Commons at the 1983 general election and became a life peer in the 1983 Dissolution Honours.
Ness Edwards was a trade unionist and Welsh Labour Party politician:he served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Caerphilly from July 1939 until his death.
Harold Davies,Baron Davies of Leek,PC was a British Labour Party politician.
The 1986 Newcastle-under-Lyme by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 17 July 1986 for the British House of Commons constituency of Newcastle-under-Lyme.
The representation of women in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom has been an issue in the politics of the United Kingdom at numerous points in the 20th and 21st centuries. Originally debate centred on whether women should be allowed to vote and stand for election as Members of Parliament. The Parliament Act 1918 gave women over 21 the right to stand for election as a Member of Parliament. The United Kingdom has had two female Prime Ministers:Margaret Thatcher (1979–1990) and Theresa May (2016–2019). The publication of the book Women in the House by Elizabeth Vallance in 1979 highlighted the under-representation of women in Parliament. In more modern times concerns about the under-representation of women led the Labour Party to introduce and,decades later,abandon all-women short lists,something which was later held to breach discrimination laws.
Florence Gertrude Horsbrugh,Baroness Horsbrugh,GBE,PC was a Scottish Unionist Party and Conservative Party politician. The historian Kenneth Baxter has argued "in her day... [she] was arguably the best known woman MP in the UK". and that she was "arguably the most successful female Conservative parliamentarian until Margaret Thatcher".
Natalie Jessica Evans,Baroness Evans of Bowes Park,,is a British politician serving as Leader of the House of Lords since 2016. A member of the Conservative Party,she was made a life peer in 2014 and is the first Leader of the House of Lords to serve under two different prime ministers since Lord Shepherd in 1974 and the longest serving lords leader since 1957.
The Father of the House is a title that is bestowed on the senior member of the House of Commons who has the longest continuous service. If two or more members have the same length of current uninterrupted service,then whoever was sworn in earliest,as listed in Hansard,is named as Father of the House.
Aaron Stuart Bell is a British Conservative Party politician who was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Newcastle-under-Lyme in the 2019 general election.
