Meta Ramsay, Baroness Ramsay of Cartvale

"Margaret Ramsay" redirects here. For Margaret Ramsay (c. 1726–1782), see Margaret Lindsay Ramsay.

The Right Honourable The Baroness Ramsay of Cartvale
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
Incumbent
Assumed office 11 October 1996 Life Peerage
Personal details
Born	(1936-07-12) 12 July 1936 (age 88)
Political party	Labour
Alma mater	University of Glasgow, Graduate Institute of International Studies

Margaret Mildred "Meta" Ramsay, Baroness Ramsay of Cartvale (born 12 July 1936) is a Labour Party member of the House of Lords.

Professional career

Ramsay was educated at the University of Glasgow and the Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva. Whilst at Glasgow she served as President of the Students' Representative Council, wrote for the then Gilmorehill Guardian, and was a member of the Dialectic Society.^[1][2][3] Ramsay served in the British diplomatic service from 1969 to 1991. A fluent Russian speaker, having studied with Elizabeth Smith, wife of the late John Smith, she was a well-respected Case Officer with Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (SIS/MI6). She served with distinction in Stockholm and in Helsinki where, as the SIS Head of Station, she was involved in the successful exfiltration of the former KGB Colonel Oleg Gordievsky. A news article states that SIS will neither confirm nor deny they ever employed Ramsay.^[4]

A contemporary of Sir John Scarlett, the chief of SIS from 2004 to 2009, she was short-listed to succeed an earlier MI6 chief – Sir Colin McColl, though at that time, 1994, she lost out to Sir David Spedding, left the Service and moved into full-time politics.

She was foreign policy adviser to John Smith, Leader of the Labour Party from 1992–94, and was special adviser to Jack Cunningham, Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry 1994–95.

Parliamentary career

She was made a life peer as Baroness Ramsay of Cartvale, of Langside in the City of Glasgow on 11 October 1996.^[5]

Between 1998 and 2001, Ramsay was Baroness in Waiting (Whip); Spokesperson of the Scottish Office; Spokesperson of Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs; and Spokesperson of Culture, Media and Sports; in the Lords. In 2002 she was appointed Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords a position she still holds (one Deputy Speaker from a panel of 20 to 25 Deputy Speakers preside over debates when the Lord Speaker is not present).^[6][7]

In 2005 she was appointed a member of the Intelligence and Security Committee, which provides parliamentary oversight of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), GCHQ and the Security Service (MI5). She served on the Committee until 2007.^[8] She is an advisory council member of the foreign-policy think-tank, the Foreign Policy Centre.

She is the chair of Labour Friends of Israel in the House of Lords.^[9][10]

References

1. "Special Survey of S.R.C.: These Are Your Masters". The Gilmorehill Guardian. 7 November 1958. p. 1.
2. Ramsay, Meta; Gordon, J.S.; Budge, Margo (17 October 1958). "Redevelopment and Union Extensions Special Survey". The Gilmorehill Guardian. p. 1. Retrieved 24 October 2024.
3. "Dry wit and a taste for mischief". The Sunday Herald. 15 October 2000.
4. Warrell, Helen (8 December 2022). "The secret lives of MI6's top female spies". Financial Times. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
5. "No. 54554". The London Gazette. 17 October 1996. p. 13805.
6. Staff United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Female Suffrage 1918/22), Worldwide Guide to Women in Leadership Archived 3 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Retrieved 16 March 2009
7. Staff. Deputy Speakers (House of Lords)^{[dead link‍]}, United Kingdom Parliament Archived 26 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine, 13 January 2009
8. Committee Membership - see section on previous committees 2005-2010.
9. "LFI Supporters in Parliament". Labour Friends of Israel. Retrieved 8 September 2019.
10. Ramsay, Baroness (24 October 2019). "Unlike Labour's toy-town revolutionaries, Ellman enhanced debate on Israel". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 30 October 2019.