Heart op for ex-Speaker Betty
Former Speaker of the House of Commons and Black Country MP Baroness Boothroyd was undergoing open heart surgery today.
A spokesman for Lady Boothroyd, aged 79, said the narrowing of a valve in her heart needed treatment to prevent it becoming life-threatening in future.
As Betty Boothroyd, the former West Bromwich West MP served as Speaker from 1992 to 2000 before taking up a seat in the House of Lords.
She was admitted to the Royal Brompton Hospital in London yesterday.
Her spokesman said today: "She is suffering from aortic stenosis, a narrowing of the main heart valve, which will be replaced by an artificial valve.
"Her medical advisers say her condition is not life-threatening at this stage but would become so in a few years without treatment."
Lady Boothroyd will be 80 in October.
She is still affectionately known across the world as "Madam Speaker", even though she stepped down from the role nine years ago.
As the first woman Speaker, her reputation for formidable toughness was mixed with informality on a personal level and a determination to make parliament more accessible to the public.
When she was voted into the chair, she insisted on sitting without the traditional full-bottomed wig and, when asked how she would like to be addressed as Speaker, she replied: "Call me madam."
She presided over a host of reforms to rid the Commons of some its more arcane practices.
