Bessie Braddock

Bessie Braddock MP
Braddock, photographed in the 1960s
Member of Parliament for Liverpool Exchange
In office 1945–70
Personal details
Born	Elizabeth Margaret Bamber (1899-09-24)24 September 1899 Liverpool, Lancashire, England
Died	13 November 1970(1970-11-13) (aged 71) Liverpool, Lancashire, England
Nationality	British
Political party	Labour
Spouse(s)	John "Jack" Braddock

Elizabeth Margaret "Bessie" Braddock (née Bamber; 24 September 1899 – 13 November 1970) was a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for the Liverpool Exchange division from 1945 to 1970. She was a member of Liverpool County Borough Council from 1930 to 1961. Although she never held office in government, she won a national reputation for her forthright campaigns in connection with housing, public health and other social issues.

Braddock inherited much of her campaigning spirit from her mother, Mary Bamber, an early socialist and trade union activist. After some years in the Independent Labour Party (ILP), Braddock joined the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) on its foundation in 1920, but quickly became disillusioned with the party's dictatorial tendencies. She left the CPGB in 1924 and later joined the Labour Party. Before the Second World War, alongside her husband Jack Braddock, she established a reputation as a crusading left-wing councillor, frequently at odds with her party while pursuing an agenda of social reform. During the war she worked in Liverpool's ambulance service, before winning the Exchange division for Labour in the 1945 general election.

With her formidable physique and outspoken manner, Braddock was a pugnacious presence in parliament, and a keen supporter of the 1945–51 Attlee ministry's reform agenda, particularly the establishment of the National Health Service in 1948. She served on Labour's National Executive Committee between 1947 and 1969. Her combative style led to a brief suspension from parliament in 1952. For most of her parliamentary career she remained a member of Liverpool's council, and was a central figure in the controversy that arose in the 1950s over the city's decision to acquire and flood the Tryweryn Valley in Wales for the construction of a reservoir.