Braddock, Elizabeth Margaret (Bessie) (1899–1970)

British union activist and Labour politician. Born in Liverpool, she was a city councillor in Liverpool from 1930 until 1961. She was Liverpool's first Labour and first female member of Parliament, winning the Exchange division in 1945 and holding this until 1970. A right-winger, she was a powerful and caustic platform speaker and a stout defender of working people's rights to better health and education services. She turned down the offer of a post in the 1964 Labour government.

Braddock's early activism was in the Cooperative movement and the Union of Distributive and Allied Workers. She left the Independent Labour Party in 1920 to join the Communist Party and then Labour in 1924. She married John Braddock in 1922 and together they dominated the divisive world of Liverpool Labour politics. They also wrote The Braddocks (1962).