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 is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

Professional career

Ramsay was educated at the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

and the

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

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

. 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. 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 obtain diplomatic immunity when they are accredited to o ...

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 (MI numbers, Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of Human i ...

(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 (; 10 October 1938 – 4 March 2025) was a colonel of the KGB who became KGB resident-designate (''rezident'') and bureau chief in London. Gordievsky was a double agent, providing information to the British Secret ...

. A news 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 Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) from 2004 to 2009. Prior to this appointment, he had chaired the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC ...

, 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 United Kingdom, British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) from 1994 to 1999. Early life David Spedding was the son of a Border Regiment lieutenant colonel, and grew u ...

, 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, (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 general ...

, 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. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...

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

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

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 membe ...

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 (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 United Kingdom. Primar ...

and the Security Service (

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

). 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 advocates a strong bilateral relationship between the United Kingdom and Israel, and seeks to strengthen ties between the British Labour Party (UK), Labour ...

in the House of Lords.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramsay of Cartvale, Meta Ramsay, Baroness 1936 births Living people Politicians from Glasgow Nobility from Glasgow Life peeresses created by Elizabeth II Life peers 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 MI6 personnel Scottish diplomats British women diplomats People educated at Hutchesons' Grammar School Scottish expatriates in Switzerland 20th-century Scottish women politicians