Irene Ward

British Conservative Party politician

Irene Mary Bewick Ward, Baroness Ward of North Tyneside, (23 February 1895 – 26 April 1980) was a British Conservative Party politician. She was a long serving female Member of Parliament (MP), the longest serving female Conservative MP in history. She later became a life peeress in the House of Lords, and had served a total of 43 years in Parliament.

Ward was educated privately and at Newcastle Church High School. She contested Morpeth in 1924 and 1929 without success and was elected to the House of Commons in 1931 for Wallsend, defeating Labour's Margaret Bondfield. A strong advocate for Tyneside industry and social conditions, she lost her seat in the 1945 general election, which Labour won by a landslide. In 1950, Ward returned to Parliament for Tynemouth, again defeating a female incumbent, Grace Colman. An active backbencher, she introduced the bill that became the Rights of Entry (Gas and Electricity Boards) Act, 1954. She promoted a Bill to pay pocket money to the elderly living in institutions. She also campaigned for Equal Pay for women in general, and for Florence 'Jean' Winder, the only woman reporter for Hansard, in particular. Ward worked with Charlotte Bentley who led the "National Association of State Enrolled Assistant Nurses". Her private member's bill passed through parliament to remove the demeaning word "assistant" from the State Enrolled Nurses's job title. This was the Nurses (Amendment) Act, 1961 and the following year there followed the Penalties for Drunkenness Act, 1962. She served on the Public Accounts Committee from 1964. She is remembered for being a fierce character in the House of Commons who was not shy of argument, openly expressing strong disagreements with ministers in her own party when she felt it necessary. She is remembered in some quarters for an incident which caused amusement on both sides of the House when she threatened to "poke" the then Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Having received an evasive answer to a parliamentary question, she responded with the words: "I will poke the Prime Minister. I will poke him until I get a response." Another incident took place in 1968 when the Labour government, who then had a large majority, started passing large amounts of important legislation by making the House sit into the early hours of morning and making several bill committees sit simultaneously. During a division, Ward stood in front of the mace to prevent the tellers from giving the result on a finance bill. She furiously remarked to the Speaker that "Parliament is turning into a dictatorship, and I protest about it." Ward refused to relent and was escorted out the chamber by the serjeant at arms. She quipped: "Do you want my right or my left arm?" Ward retired from the Commons in February 1974, having served a total of almost 38 years. She was the longest serving female MP until that record was broken by Gwyneth Dunwoody in 2007. Aged 79 at her retirement, Ward was at that time also the oldest ever serving female Member of Parliament and the oldest ever woman to be re elected, records not broken until Ann Clwyd achieved both in 2017. Brian Harrison recorded an oral history interview with Ward, in July 1977, as part of the Suffrage Interviews project, titled Oral evidence on the suffragette and suffragist movements: the Brian Harrison interviews. In it she recalls her work with the Red Cross in the First World War, her early days in politics and her further Conservative career. Ward was chairwoman of the Committee on woman power investigating both the possibilities and problems of women’s war work between 1940 and 1945.

She was created a life peer as Baroness Ward of North Tyneside, of North Tyneside in the County of Tyne and Wear, on 23 January 1975. Ward was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1929 and promoted to Dame Commander (DBE) in 1955, and was appointed a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 1973.