#OTD in 1909 Alice Bacon, the first woman MP to represent a Leeds constituency, was born in Normanton. She was a miner’s daughter rooted in West Yorkshire. When she joined the Labour Party aged 16, she said it was “as natural as breathing”. (1/5)

First elected in the 1945 Labour landslide, Alice Bacon was one of 21 Labour women elected as MPs. In total 24 women MPs were elected in that year. (2/5)

When Labour came to govt under Harold Wilson in 1964, Bacon became a Home Office Minister. She worked to get many liberalising reforms on the statute books, including legalising abortion, decriminalising homosexuality, and abolishing capital punishment. (3/5)

In 1967, Bacon moved to Tony Crosland's Dept of Education. Here, she pushed for more comprehensive schools – her political passion. Alice also worked closely with her Leeds colleagues Hugh Gaitskell, Denis Healey & Charlie Pannell, who called themselves “Leeds United”. (4/5)

As only the second woman MP to represent a Leeds constituency, I am in awe of what Alice Bacon achieved. She was an inspiring & groundbreaking woman of Westminster and of Leeds politics. In 2019, I unveiled a blue plaque for her at @leedscornex where she held her surgeries. (5/5)