Lord Chancellor no longer Speaker of Lords

LONDON, July 5 (UPI) -- Britain's House of Lords has changed a centuries-old practice and created a speaker of the house separate from the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain.

Baroness Helene Hayman replaces Baron Charles Leslie Falconer, the Lord Chancellor, as the chamber's speaker. Her duties include supervising debates in the chamber.

Hayman made headlines in the 1970s as a twentysomething first-term member of the lower House of Commons after she kicked off her shoes during a particularly hot day in the chamber, the Daily Telegraph reports. She later became the British agriculture minister.

Tuesday's vote for Speaker of the Lords was a result of Britain's Constitutional Reform Act of 2005, which removed the function of speaker of the House of Lords from the Lord Chancellor.

Hayman beat eight other candidates in a ballot of 730 peers and received the traditional wig and gown.

Addressing the peers in her new role, Hayman spoke of her "sense of honor and history."