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

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

Professional career

Educated at the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

and the

Graduate Institute of International Studies Graduate may refer to: Education * The subject of a graduation, i.e. someone awarded an academic degree ** Alumnus, a former student who has either attended or graduated from an institution * High school graduate, someone who has completed hi ...

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

, Ramsay served in the British

diplomatic service Diplomatic service is the body of diplomats and foreign policy officers maintained by the government of a country to communicate with the governments of other countries. Diplomatic personnel obtains diplomatic immunity when they are accredited to ...

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 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...

(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 Oleg Antonovich Gordievsky, CMG (; born 10 October 1938) is a former colonel of the KGB who became KGB resident-designate (''rezident'') and bureau chief in London, and was a double agent, providing information to the British Secret Intelli ...

. A news3 article states that SIS will neither confirm nor deny they ever employed Ramsay. A contemporary of Sir

John Scarlett Sir John McLeod Scarlett (born 18 August 1948) is a British senior intelligence officer. He was Chief of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) from 2004 to 2009. Prior to this appointment, he had chaired the Joint Intelligence Commit ...

, the chief of SIS from 2004 to 2009, she was short-listed to succeed an earlier MI6 chief – Sir

Colin McColl Sir Colin Hugh Verel McColl, (born 6 September 1932) was Head of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) from 1989 to 1994. Career Educated at Shrewsbury School and at The Queen's College, Oxford, McColl joined the diplomatic service in 1 ...

, though at that time, 1994, she lost out to Sir

David Spedding Sir David Rolland Spedding (7 March 1943 – 13 June 2001) was Head of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) from 1994 to 1999. Early life David Spedding was the son of a Border Regiment lieutenant colonel, and grew up comfortably m ...

, 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 John Anderson Cunningham, Baron Cunningham of Felling, PC, DL (born 4 August 1939) is a British politician who was a Labour Member of Parliament for over 30 years, serving for Whitehaven from 1970 to 1983 and then Copeland until the 2005 ...

, Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry 1994–95.

Parliamentary career

She was made a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...

as Baroness Ramsay of Cartvale, of Langside in the City of

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

on 11 October 1996. 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 The Lord Speaker is the presiding officer, chairman and highest authority of the House of Lords in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The office is analogous to the Speaker of the House of Commons: the Lord Speaker is elected by the members ...

is not present). In 2005 she was appointed a member of the

Intelligence and Security Committee The Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament (ISC) is a statutory joint committee of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, appointed to oversee the work of the UK intelligence community. The committee was established in 1994 by the ...

, which provides parliamentary oversight of the

(

MI6 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...

GCHQ Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Unit ...

and the Security Service (

MI5 The Security Service, also known as MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Go ...

). She served on the Committee until 2007. She is an advisory council member of the foreign-policy think-tank, the

Foreign Policy Centre The Foreign Policy Centre (FPC) is a British think tank specialising in foreign policy. It was founded in 1998 by Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and his colleagues. It was launched at an event with Prime Minister Tony Blair, with the aim of develop ...

. She is the chair of

Labour Friends of Israel Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) is a group in the Parliament of the United Kingdom that promotes support for a strong bilateral relationship between Britain and Israel, and seeks to strengthen ties between the British Labour Party and the Isra ...

in the House of Lords.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramsay of Cartvale, Meta Ramsay, Baroness 1936 births Living people Politicians from Glasgow Life peeresses created by Elizabeth II Labour Party (UK) life peers Labour Friends of Israel Scottish politicians Alumni of the University of Glasgow Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies alumni Secret Intelligence Service personnel Scottish diplomats British women diplomats People educated at Hutchesons' Grammar School Expatriates in Switzerland