Beckett, Margaret (1943-…), a British politician and member of the Labour Party, was foreign secretary of the United Kingdom from 2006 to 2007. She was secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs from 2001 to 2006.
Beckett was born Margaret Mary Jackson on Jan. 15, 1943, in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, England. She was educated in Manchester and Norwich, and at Manchester College of Science and Technology. She continued her education at John Dalton Polytechnic, Manchester, before becoming an engineering apprentice and then a researcher at Manchester University. She trained as a metallurgist (expert on metals) and worked in that field during the 1960’s and early 1970’s. She entered politics after being employed as a researcher on industrial policy at the Labour Party’s headquarters in London.
Margaret Jackson, as she was then known, became a Labour member of Parliament for Lincoln in 1974. She served as parliamentary private secretary to Judith Hart, the minister for overseas development, and then as assistant government whip. Jackson then became a minister in the Department of Education and Science. She lost her seat in Parliament in the 1979 election, when the Conservative Party regained power. That same year, she married Leo Beckett, the chairman of the local Labour Party in Lincoln. For the next four years, Margaret Beckett worked as principal researcher with Granada Television, an independent television company.
Beckett was reelected to Parliament in 1983, representing the Derby South constituency. She held various posts, serving as opposition spokesperson on social security, economic affairs, and parliamentary management and as shadow leader (leader in the opposition party) of the Commons from 1992 to 1994. Between 1992 and 1994, Beckett was also deputy leader of the Labour Party. Following the sudden death of Labour Party leader John Smith in 1994, she served as acting leader from May to July of that year but failed to win the leadership contest that followed.
From 1994 to 1995, Beckett served as shadow secretary of state for health. She was then shadow president of the Board of Trade and shadow secretary of state for trade and industry (1995-1997). In May 1997, she joined the new Labour government as president of the Board of Trade and secretary of state for trade and industry, taking special responsibility for industrial competitiveness and for science and technology. Beckett served as leader of the House of Commons (the lower house of the United Kingdom’s Parliament) and president of the Privy Council (an honorary council appointed by the monarch) from 1998 to 2001.
