From 1946 to 1952, she worked as a dancer, as a member of the Tiller Girls dancing troupe,[5] briefly appearing at the London Palladium.

[6] During the mid-to-late 1950s, Boothroyd worked as secretary to Labour MPs Barbara Castle[7] and Geoffrey de Freitas.

When she returned to London, she resumed her work as a secretary and political assistant to various senior Labour politicians including Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Harry Walston.

[10][11] Running for the Labour Party, Boothroyd contested several seats – Leicester South East in 1957, Peterborough in 1959, Nelson and Colne in 1968, and Rossendale in 1970 – before being elected Member of Parliament (MP) for West Bromwich in a by-election in 1973.

[20][21] She was keen to get young people interested in politics, and in the 1990s appeared as a special guest on the BBC's Saturday morning children's programme Live & Kicking.

"[3] On 12 July 2000, following Prime Minister's Questions, Boothroyd announced to the House of Commons she would resign as Speaker after the summer recess.

[26][27] On 15 January 2001, she was created a life peer, taking as her title Baroness Boothroyd of Sandwell in the County of West Midlands.

[32] She was Patron of the Jo Richardson Community School in Dagenham, East London, and President of NBFA Assisting the Elderly.

In January 2011, Boothroyd posited that Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg's plans for some members of the upper house to be directly elected could leave Britain in constitutional disarray: "It is wantonly destructive.

[36] In April 1995, whilst on holiday in Morocco, Boothroyd became trapped in the Atlas Mountains in the country's biggest storm in 20 years.

[3][41] Her funeral was held on 29 March at St George's Church, Thriplow, Cambridgeshire; she had lived in the village in her later years.

[42] Hoyle, the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak and Leader of the Opposition Keir Starmer were among those in attendance,[43][15] and her close friend, actress Dame Patricia Routledge, sang.