Margaret Mary Beckett, born January 15, 1943, in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, is a British politician who served as the United Kingdom's first female Foreign Secretary from 2006 to 2007 and as a Member of Parliament for more than forty five years. Following the 2001 general election she became the first Secretary of State at the newly created Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, formed after the foot-and-mouth disease epidemic to replace the Ministry of Agriculture, and she served until May 2006, when David Miliband succeeded her; during her tenure she rejected proposals to expand nuclear power and represented the government at international climate change conferences.
Facts
Defining ContributionBecame the first Secretary of State at the newly created Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs after the 2001 general election, when DEFRA replaced the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food following the foot-and-mouth epidemic. 1 In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Margaret Beckett (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationLead sentence, birth date
Margaret Mary Beckett, Baroness Beckett (née Jackson; born 15 January 1943) is a British politician
Lead sentence, nationality clause
Margaret Mary Beckett, Baroness Beckett (née Jackson; born 15 January 1943) is a British politician
DEFRA section, appointment paragraph
Following the 2001 general election, Beckett became Secretary of State at the new Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), created after the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) was abolished in the wake of perceived mismanagement of the foot-and-mouth epidemic in 2001.
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