'Men in tights' get female boss

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The Queen has approved the House of Commons' first female Serjeant at Arms - head of a security team colloquially known as the "men in tights".

Mother-of-two Jill Pay, who has been assistant serjeant since 2004, takes up the historic role which usually goes to an ex-serviceman.

She manages security and housekeeping issues, and is the only person in the Commons allowed to carry a sword.

Her formal uniform includes silver buckled shoes and silk stockings.

Mrs Pay has worked at the Palace of Westminster since 1994, when she was head office keeper.

Previous jobs included working for the Department of Employment and jobs as a business manager and an executive officer in an advertising agency.

Her new job will see her authorised to carry a sword, as a symbol of authority, and head up a staff of about 40 people.

She also controls access and maintains order in the Commons chamber, galleries and committee rooms, allocates rooms for MPs and is responsible for other housekeeping issues - like ensuring Commons stationery is supplied.

She will also walk ahead of the Commons Speaker carrying the Mace during the Speaker's Procession.

For formal ceremonies, the Serjeant wears regalia based on clothing worn in the old royal court in England - including silver-buckled shoes, stockings, knee-breeches or skirt, black cut-away coat with a large rosette on the back and a cocked hat carried under left arm.

Her predecessor, General Grant Peterkin, was appointed in 2004 with a brief to tighten security after pro-hunting protesters stormed the chamber and a fathers' rights group threw purple flour at Tony Blair.

Both she and her Lords equivalent - Black Rod - are advised by a security co-ordinator, who was introduced in the wake of those incidents.