LONDON, Oct 6: Guyanan-born Valerie Amos on Monday became the first black woman to head the House of Lords, the highest chamber in the British parliament, officials said.

The House of Lords traditionally a bastion of Britain’s upper class elite, used to be composed solely of hereditary peers who were appointed by birth right.

But Britain’s Labour government set about reforming the House of Lords to remove this privilege and Amos’ appointment is another symbolic step towards this.

Baronness Amos, who replaces Lord Williams of Mostyn who died in September, was elected a life peer of the House of Lords in 1997, when she became the first black woman to be made a life peer.

She became international development secretary in May taking over from Clare Short, who resigned over Blair’s policy of going to war against Iraq.

Amos was then one of only two black members of the British cabinet along with Paul Boateng, Treasury chief secretary.

Unlike many of her Oxford or Cambridge-educated peers, she studied at the English Universities of Warwick, Birmingham and East Anglia. But known to be a tireless debater, she has earned the goodwill of all sides of the House of Lords.

She will have the delicate task of continuing Blair’s work

on reforming the House of Lords.—AFP