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The Right Honourable Margaret Mary Beckett (born '''Margaret Mary Jackson''', January 15 , 1943 ) is a British Politician . She is Labour MP for Derby South and has been Secretary Of State For Environment, Food And Rural Affairs since June 2001. BACKGROUND Margaret Jackson was born in 1943 in Ashton-under-Lyne to an English Carpenter father and an Irish Catholic mother. Her sister is a Nun . She was educated at the Notre Dame High School For Girls in Norwich , The University Of Manchester Institute Of Science And Technology , where she qualified as a Metallurgist ; and The John Dalton Polytechnic . In 1961 , Jackson joined Associated Electrical Industries as a student apprentice in metallurgy. She joined the Transport And General Workers Union in 1964 and remains a member over 40 years later. She joined the University Of Manchester in 1966 as an experiment officer in its metallurgy department. In 1970 Jackson went to work for the Labour Party as a researcher in Industrial policy. In 1973 , she was selected as Labour candidate for Lincoln which the party wanted to win back from dissident ex-Labour MP Dick Taverne . Jackson lost to Taverne at the February 1974 General Election by 1,297 votes. After the election she went to work as a researcher for Judith Hart . Harold Wilson called another general election for the October, and Jackson again went to fight Taverne at Lincoln in the October 1974 General Election . This time Jackson was elected, albeit by just 421 votes. Almost immediately after her election she was given a job as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to her old boss, Judith Hart who was now the Minister For Overseas Development . Harold Wilson gave her a job as a Whip in 1975 , and she was promoted in 1976 by James Callaghan as the Parliamentary Under Secretary Of State at the Department Of Education And Science , replacing Joan Lestor who had resigned in protest over spending cuts. She remained in that position until she lost her seat at the 1979 General Election . The Conservative candidate Kenneth Carlisle gained the seat by 602 votes, the first time the party had won the seat since 1935 . She married Lionel Beckett, a local party official at Lincoln, shortly after her defeat, but they have no children. She joined Granada Television in 1979 as a researcher. Out of Parliament, and now Margaret Beckett, she won election to Labour's National Executive Committee in 1980 , and outspokenly supported left-winger Tony Benn for the Labour deputy leadership in 1981 against Denis Healey . She was the subject of a vociferous attack from Joan Lestor at the conference. Beckett was chosen to fight the parliamentary seat of Derby South after the retirement of the right winger Walter Johnson. At the 1983 General Election she came very close to losing the seat but came out victorious by just 421 votes. Returning to the House Of Commons , Margaret Beckett gradually moved away from the hard left, supporting incumbent leader Neil Kinnock against Benn in 1988. By this time she was a front bencher, as a spokesperson on Social Security since 1984 , becoming a member of the Shadow Cabinet in 1989 as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury . After the 1992 General Election she was elected Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and served under John Smith as Shadow Leader Of The House Of Commons . She became a Member Of The Privy Council in 1993 . She was acting party leader after the death of John Smith in 1994 , and therefore also the acting Leader Of The Opposition , but placed third behind Tony Blair and John Prescott in the subsequent leadership election. She decided to resign the deputy leadership so that the two posts came up for election at the same time; in this contest she lost to Prescott. Under Tony Blair's leadership, Margaret Beckett was the Shadow Secretary of State for Health and then from 1995 the Shadow Secretary of State for Trade And Industry . Following the 1997 General Election , she entered Tony Blair's government as the Secretary Of State For Trade And Industry . She became Leader Of The House Of Commons in 1998 . After the 2001 General Election she was given the role as the Secretary Of State For Environment, Food And Rural Affairs where she has remained since. She has managed to remain part of Blair's inner circle despite close links with the Trade Union movement. In August 2002 she expressed reservations about the prospect of a war in Iraq , but supported the 2003 Iraq War when the time came. She is the longest serving Labour frontbench spokesperson and has received some praise for being a 'safe pair of hands' {Link without Title} ; however, she saw some criticism in April 2006 when the details of Ministers' use of RAF aircraft for official travel were published. Beckett was discovered to have taken 134 flights on ministerial business between 2002 and March 2005, flying 102,673 miles; this was calculated as producing 191.08 tons of Carbon Dioxide . On es. MINISTER FOR AIR MILES As from April 2006, she is now nicknamed as "the minister for air miles" by flying more than 100,000 miles and helping to create more than 100 tons of harmful carbon emissions, in the Queens Flights to and from Brussels via her constituency. Mrs Beckett, Britain's international ambassador on green issues, was last night facing fresh questions about her personal commitment to tackling climate change after an analysis showed that she had taken 134 flights on ministerial business between 2002 and March 2005, clocking up 102,673 miles and 191.08 tons in CO2 emissions. EXTERNAL LINKS
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