Though it is well known that Lady Astor was the very first woman to become an MP, a recent article in the New Statesman forgot her, drawing the following letter from Alistair Lexden which was published in the magazine on 14 October.The original article focused on George Freeman, Conservative MP for Mid Norfolk, who has been given a major role in policy development by Mrs May.
The normally omniscient George Eaton makes a small slip (Politics, 30 September). Volatile, publicity-seeking Lady Astor was the first female Tory MP, not the modest Mabel Philipson, a Gaiety Girl in her youth and great-aunt of my old friend George Freeman, one of most creative Tories who first devised electorally attractive policies in order to help John Major twenty years ago (foolishly he showed no interest in them).
Mrs Philipson, a woman of the most generous philanthropic instincts, took the place of her husband, Hilton, a National Liberal, as MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed at a by-election in May 1923 after he had been unseated for fraud committed by his agent. The Tories’ second woman MP hardly opened her mouth in the Commons, retiring six years later to resume her stage career.
Alistair Lexden
House of Lords