LONDON (AP) — Shirley Williams, a trailblazing U.K. female lawmaker who tried to reshape a British political system dominated by two big parties, has died. She was 90. Williams’ party, the Liberal Democrats, said she “died peacefully in the early hours of Monday.” Williams was one of the “Gang of Four” Labour Party politicians who split in 1981 to form the centrist Social Democratic Party, in an attempt to reshape British politics. Instead, the SDP itself later collapsed, eventually merging into the Liberal Democrats. Williams served as a Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords, retiring in 2016. Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey called Williams “an inspiration to millions, a Liberal lion and a true trailblazer.”
