Heart surgery for ex-Speaker Betty Boothroyd

Jul 20 2009 by Andy Richards, Birmingham Mail

FORMER Speaker of the House of Commons and West Bromwich West MP Baroness Boothroyd is due to undergo open heart surgery today.

A spokesman for Lady Boothroyd, 79, said that her condition – a narrowing of a heart valve – was not believed to be life-threatening, though it could become so without treatment.

As Betty Boothroyd, she served as Speaker from 1992 to 2000 before entering the House of Lords. She was admitted to the Royal Brompton Hospital in London yesterday.