British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett speaks about Iraq and other issues at the 138th annual Trades Union Congress Conference in Brighton, England
Following her remarks Brendan Barber moderates a question and answer session.
Margaret Beckett became the first woman Foreign Secretary after the Cabinet reshuffle of May 2006.
Previously she was Secretary of State at Defra where she had overall responsibility for all Departmental issues on the environment, food (including agriculture, horticulture and fisheries) and rural affairs.
Bio
Brendan Barber
General Secretary, Trades Union Congress
Educated at St Mary's College, a grammar school in Crosby. After leaving City University with a BA Hons in social sciences in 1974 he spent a year as a researcher for the Ceramics, Glass and Mineral Products Industry Training Board. In 1975 he got his first job at the TUC as a policy officer. In 1979 he became the head of the TUC's Press and Information Department. In 1987 he became head of the Organisation and Industrial Relations Department and in 1993 he became Deputy General Secretary.
Rt. Hon. Margaret Beckett
Margaret Mary Beckett is a British Labour politician and Member of Parliament (MP) for Derby South. She served in government under Tony Blair, becoming the first woman to hold the office of Foreign Secretary (the second of only three women to have held one of the Great Offices of State). She was Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1992 to 1994 and was briefly its leader in 1994 following the premature death of John Smith.