Margaret Thatcher served as prime minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from May 1979 to November 1990.

The longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century, Thatcher also led the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first woman to head a major British political party and the first to serve as prime minister.

Thatcher entered parliament in 1959 and rose through the Conservative ranks, serving in the cabinet of Edward Heath as secretary of state for education and science. She defeated Heath in the 1975 Conservative leadership contest, positioning herself as the standard-bearer for a more economically liberal mode of conservatism.

Thatcher led the Conservatives to victory at the 1979 general election, defeating the incumbent Labour government under James Callaghan. Her premiership forged a new economic consensus, defined by sweeping privatisation, deregulation and market-oriented reforms. She was called the “Iron Lady” for her personal and political toughness.

Thatcher resigned as prime minister in November 1990 after losing the support of senior colleagues. Her legacy, both domestically and internationally, remains deeply contested.

Thatcher stood down as an MP at the 1992 general election and was elevated to the House of Lords shortly thereafter. She died on 8 April 2013, aged 87.

general election

The 1979 general election was triggered by a vote of “no-confidence” in James Callaghan’s Labour government. The vote – 311 to 310 – was announced to raucous cheers from Conservative MPs just after 10:00 pm on 28 March 1979. At the time of parliament’s dissolution, Callaghan remained the more popular of the two main party leaders, but the Conservative campaign relentlessly exploited public misgivings about the direction of the country.

Thatcher campaigned on a platform of controlling inflation, curbing trade union power, and reducing the role of the state in the economy. A Conservative Party broadcast began with the Sun‘s famous “Crisis? What Crisis?” headline. The phrase was then repeated by an increasingly desperate-sounding voice actor. The broadcast was interspersed with film footage of piles of rubbish, closed factories, picketed hospitals and locked graveyards. On top of this, the famous “Labour Isn’t Working” poster – curated by advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi – probably captured the public mood.

In the event, Thatcher’s Conservative Party won 339 seats (up 62), securing a comfortable working majority of 43, while the Labour Party, the incumbent government, slumped to 269 seats (down 50). The swing of 5.2 points from Labour to the Conservatives was the largest since 1945.

On the steps of 10 Downing Street following her victory, Thatcher famously quoted St Francis of Assisi.

She said: “Where there is discord, may we bring harmony. Where there is error, may we bring truth. Where there is doubt, may we bring faith. And where there is despair, may we bring hope.”

The 1979 general election was by all accounts a political watershed.

Thatcher’s victory ushered in 18 years of Conservative rule and a period of radical free-market reforms that would fundamentally reshape the British economy and society.

Callaghan resigned as Labour leader in 1980. He was replaced by Michael Foot.

Foot, aged 67, was firmly identified with the party left. But he was well-liked by Labour MPs and seen as the candidate best-placed to unite the party. Thatcher congratulated Foot on his election, saying she hoped he would “genuinely and truly enjoy” his time as opposition leader.

Foot’s bookish and sometimes dishevelled appearance provided ample ammunition for his opponents. Conservative MP Kenneth Baker greeted Foot’s succession in 1980 with the remark: “Labour was led by Dixon of Dock Green under Jim Callaghan. Now it is led by Worzel Gummidge.”

Economic programme: ‘The lady’s not for turning’ (1980-1981)

Thatcher’s first government quickly embarked on an ambitious programme of economic and social reform.

The June 1979 budget, delivered to the House of Commons by chancellor Geoffrey Howe, featured substantial tax cuts, such as reducing the top rate of income tax from 83% to 60% and the basic rate from 33% to 30%. Howe also announced reductions in public spending.

In his address to the commons, Howe warned that the country could not “go on avoiding difficult choices in the fatal, and increasingly futile, quest for easy solutions.”

One of Thatcher’s flagship policies was the Housing Act 1980, which introduced the “right to buy” for council house tenants. Coming into force on 3 October 1980, the legislation created the opportunity for millions of public sector tenants to purchase their homes at heavily discounted prices. Increasing home ownership was the fourth of the “five tasks” outlined by the Conservatives in their 1979 election manifesto.

In her 1980 conference speech, Thatcher referred to the vision of a “property-owning democracy”.

She stated: “It was Anthony Eden who chose for us the goal of ‘a property-owning democracy’.

“But for all the time that I have been in public affairs that has been beyond the reach of so many, who were denied the right to the most basic ownership of all – the homes in which they live.”

The Housing Act led to a surge in sales. Between 1979 and 1996, 2.2 million house sales were recorded by local authorities, new town corporations and housing associations.

By late 1980, however, as Conservative MPs and delegates journeyed to Brighton for the party’s annual conference, all was not well for the government.

From 1979 to 1980, Thatcher faced a series of crises and a recession – blamed on the government’s monetarist economic programme. Unemployment was rising rapidly towards 2.5 million and manufacturing output had fallen starkly. Meanwhile, riots had broken out in cities like Bristol, raising the spectre of social upheaval.

Heading into conference season, there was some expectation that Thatcher would be forced to bow to the pressure. But it was in this context that Thatcher, addressing Tory delegates and doubters, delivered the famous line: “You turn if you want to. The lady’s not for turning!”.

In her address, Thatcher described the 2 million unemployment figure as a “human tragedy” that undermined “human dignity and self respect”. But she rejected the idea that there was any “obscure economic religion which demands this unemployment as part of its ritual”.

Directly addressing the calls to change course, she declared: “To those waiting with bated breath for that favourite media catchphrase, the ‘U turn’, I have only one thing to say: ‘You turn if you want to. The lady’s not for turning.’

“I say that not only to you but to our friends overseas and also to those who are not our friends.”

The proclamation, which concluded Thatcher’s remarks on economic policy, was reportedly met with a five-minute standing ovation in the conference hall.

Northern Ireland and the hunger strikes (1980-1981)

Events in Northern Ireland presented Thatcher’s government with an altogether different challenge.

In 1980 and 1981, Provisional Irish Republican Army and Irish National Liberation Army prisoners in Northern Ireland’s Maze prison carried out hunger strikes, protesting for the restoration of political status.

The 1981 hunger strike began with Bobby Sands, the leader of the IRA prisoners in the Maze prison, refusing food.

The beginning of the strike coincided with the sudden death of Frank Maguire, the independent republican MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone. Sands was nominated to stand in the subsequent by-election as an Anti H-Block/Armagh Political Prisoner candidate. The H-Block was the section of the Maze prison in Belfast reserved for republican and loyalist paramilitary prisoners.

At the time of the 1981 Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-election, Sands had served four years of a 14-year sentence for possessing firearms. Other nationalist parties stood aside, producing a highly polarised contest between Sands and the former Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader, Harry West. The by-election turned into a de facto referendum on the hunger strike itself.

Sands won with 30,492 votes (51.2%) to West’s 29,046 (48.8%). Over 3,000 ballot papers were spoiled – an unusually high number. Voter turnout stood at 86.9%. The New York Times reported that the result cast into “doubt the view often expressed by politicians in London that the IRA is supported only by a fringe of the Catholic voters.”

Following the by-election, celebration parades were organised in republican areas across Northern Ireland. Several would descend into rioting. Thatcher insisted that there could be no “question of political status for someone who is serving a sentence for crime.”

Thatcher stated: “Crime is crime is crime: it is not political, it is crime, and there can be no question of granting political status. I just hope that anyone who is on hunger strike for his own sake will think fit to come off hunger strike, but that is a matter for him.”

In response to Sands’ victory, the UK parliament passed the Representation of the People Act 1981 to prevent prisoners serving sentences of more than a year from standing for election.

While it did not alter the government’s stance, the by-election drew global attention to the cause of the hunger strikers. On 28 April, the private secretary of Pope John Paul II paid a visit to Sands in an attempt to persuade him to end his hunger strike. Ronald Reagan, the US president, stated that America would not intervene in the situation in Northern Ireland but that he was “deeply concerned” at events there.

Despite attempts by the European Commission on Human Rights to mediate, Sands died in prison less than a month after his election, aged 27. Marcella Sands, Bobby’s sister, had made an application to the European Commission on Human Rights, accusing the British government of breaking three articles of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The announcement of Sands’ death sparked riots and international condemnation of the British government.

Sands was the first of 10 republican prisoners to die after hunger strikes. The campaign came to an end on 3 October 1981 – with only minor concessions granted by the Conservative government. The episode had a profound impact on the political character of Sinn Féin and Irish republicanism, accelerating its shift towards a more strategic engagement with electoral politics.

1981: Thatcher’s annus horribilis

The year of 1981 was the most testing of Thatcher’s premiership.

Riots in Brixton, Toxteth and Moss Side coincided with a sharp decline in Thatcher’s approval ratings. In April 1981, responding to a suggestion that rioting was caused by unemployment, Thatcherite enforcer Norman Tebbit maintained that unemployment of the 1930s was far worse than that of the 1980s. He asserted, somewhat infamously: “I grew up in the ’30s with our unemployed father. He did not riot, he got on his bike and looked for work.”

Within the party, Thatcher faced significant criticism from senior “wets” – party grandees who opposed Thatcher’s monetarist reforms. Conservative party chairman Lord Thorneycroft’s comment about “rising damp” in February 1981 was interpreted as disillusion with Thatcher’s economic policies.

Thatcher was afforded some reprieve by the outbreak of infighting within the Labour Party. Under Michael Foot’s stewardship, Labour was split between an insurgent, increasingly influential grassroots movement, often associated with Tony Benn, and the social democratic tradition associated with James Callaghan and Denis Healey. Grassroots pressure for procedural reform culminated at the dramatic Wembley conference in January 1981, where new leadership election rules were approved, granting significant influence to a trade union bloc within the Labour Party. The famous Limehouse Declaration (January 1981), which precipitated the formation of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), was issued as a response to the rule changes agreed at Labour’s Wembley conference. Over the course of 1981, 28 Labour MPs defected to the SDP – which now threatened to “break the mould” of British politics.

In 1981, Tony Benn challenged Healey, the incumbent deputy leader, under the party’s new procedures. Benn secured an overwhelming majority of the constituency party vote (81.1%). Healey, however, won a commanding majority of the PLP (65.9%) and the heavily weighted trade union/affiliated bloc (62.5%). Overall, Healey prevailed with just 50.4% of the electoral college vote in the second ballot. The long campaign over the course of 1981 was bitter and divisive. It consumed Labour, meaning the party mostly failed to capitalise on Thatcher’s lagging position in the polls.

In 1981, therefore, the political landscape was in a state of flux. And while the SDP was formed as a response to Labour’s perceived leftward shift, its new alliance with David Steel’s Liberals also posed a major threat to Thatcher’s premiership. The official SDP-Liberal Alliance soon soared above Labour and the Conservatives to occupy first place in the polls.

In March 1981, Christopher Brocklebank-Fowler, the MP for North West Norfolk, defected from the Conservatives to the SDP. Brocklebank-Fowler announced his intention “to join the Council for Social Democracy” during a commons debate on the spring 1981 budget, a monetarist package. He stated his support for a “programme for stability, national unity and national renewal”.

The 1981 budget inspired further collisions between “wet” and “dry” cabinet ministers. The situation had worsened – not improved – since Thatcher issued her famous “The lady’s not for turning” proclamation. She was once again urged to change course.

Thatcher responded in September 1981 with a ruthless cabinet reshuffle. She dismissed senior wets and promoted loyalist dries who shared her economic convictions. The “purge of the wets” reshuffle is remembered as a remarkable – and ultimately successful – expression of prime ministerial authority. Among the most prominent casualties were Sir Ian Gilmour, the lord privy seal and deputy foreign secretary; Mark Carlisle, the education secretary; and Lord Soames, the leader of the Lords.

Gilmour responded: “I have been sacked because I am in disagreement with the government’s economic policy.

“Certainly there is no harm in throwing an occasional man overboard, but it does not do much good if you are steering full speed ahead for the rocks, and that is what the government is now doing.”

But the most significant move was the demotion of James Prior, the employment secretary. Prior, having resisted Thatcher’s trade union reforms, was exiled to the post of Northern Ireland secretary. Prior was replaced by Norman Tebbit, who would enthusiastically implement the government’s employment legislation. Labour described Tebbit’s appointment as “the clearest possible signal to the unions that she is out for confrontation over industrial relations, and to the three million unemployed that they can expect no quarter and no hope.”

Nigel Lawson and Cecil Parkinson, notable “dries”, were also promoted. Lawson, a key ally and future chancellor, joined the cabinet as energy secretary. Parkinson was appointed party chairman, replacing Thorneycroft.

Thatcher’s decision to double down was not immediately successful.

On 25 November 1981, a group of 21 Conservative wets – referred to as the “gang of 25” – signed a letter threatening to vote against the government’s latest round of monetarist measures delivered at the autumn statement.

The letter stated: “Most of us have written to you individually, some of us many times, to express our fundamental disagreement with the government’s economic analysis, but we do not believe that these representations have been effective.

“We are therefore now writing collectively to warn you that we have decided that were the government to present an economic package to the House of Commons during this winter, the effect of which was to deflate aggregate demand in the economy, we would all vote against any consequent measures presented to the House.”

In the end, the rebel MPs did not follow through on their threat in voting against the autumn statement – but the episode spoke to the Conservative Party’s deep divisions.

In October and November, the Conservatives lost two by-elections in Croydon North West and Crosby – both to Alliance (SDP-Liberal) candidates. The contests came after the deaths of serving Tory MPs in supposedly “safe” constituencies.

The September 1981 reshuffle, however, cemented Thatcher’s control over her cabinet. The formation of a new, more ideologically disciplined executive set the stage for the industrial confrontations and free-market reforms that would define her tenure.

Thatcher reaffirmed her refusal to change course in a new year message for 1982.

She argued that the “worst mistake of all… would be to relax our efforts now, at the very moment when we have the prospect of bringing about lasting recovery for Britain.” The message served as a trenchant statement of her monetarist principles. Referring to the “twin evils of inflation and unemployment”, Thatcher said: “They are not alternatives.”

On 26 January 1982, official figures revealed that unemployment in the United Kingdom had risen above three million for the first time since the 1930s. The total of 3,070,621 people out of work – representing one-eighth of the workforce – was a devastating milestone for Thatcher. The House of Commons session on the afternoon of 26 January was highly charged. Thatcher, in attendance for prime minister’s questions, was greeted with repeated shouts of “resign”. Labour MP Dennis Skinner accused Thatcher of creating “more havoc in the British economy than the German High Command in the whole of the last war”.

Skinner referred to Thatcher as the “Westminster ripper”.

Thatcher said that the government “deplore the tragic fact that unemployment has reached 3 million and so many people who want to work find themselves without a job”. She insisted there were “encouraging signs” the economy was improving.

The Falklands War (1982)

On 2 April 1982, Argentine forces launched an invasion of the Falkland Islands, a British overseas territory in the South Atlantic, beginning a 10-week undeclared war.

The military action was ordered by the ruling junta in Argentina, led by General Leopoldo Galtieri, which sought to assert its long-standing claim to the islands, known in Argentina as Las Malvinas. The invasion began in the early hours of the morning, with Argentine commandos landing near the capital, Stanley. The British governor, Rex Hunt, was forced to surrender later that day. The following day, Argentina also invaded the island of South Georgia. Argentina had already established an unauthorised presence in the South Sandwich Islands in 1976.

Thatcher’s government was accused of failing to foresee and deter the attack.

On 3 April, both Houses of Parliament were recalled for the first time on a weekend since the Suez crisis in 1956 to be updated on the government’s response. Lord Carrington, the foreign secretary, addressed peers in the upper chamber.

Opening the landmark commons debate, Thatcher told MPs that, “for the first time for many years, British sovereign territory has been invaded by a foreign power.”

The prime minister stated: “After several days of rising tension in our relations with Argentina, that country’s armed forces attacked the Falkland Islands yesterday and established military control of the islands.”

She characterised the invasion as an act of “unprovoked aggression” with “not a shred of justification.”

Thatcher announced that a “large task force” would be dispatched to the South Atlantic to recapture the islands. HMS “Invincible”, the prime minister said, would lead the naval task force and leave port on Monday (5 April).

She declared: “The people of the Falkland Islands, like the people of the United Kingdom, are an island race. Their way of life is British; their allegiance is to the Crown. They are few in number, but they have the right to live in peace, to choose their own way of life and to determine their own allegiance.”

The commons debate is said to have convinced Carrington to resign as foreign secretary. In his letter of resignation, Carrington recognised that the invasion of the Falkland Islands “led to strong criticism in parliament and in the press of the government’s policy.”

In her response, Thatcher said she did her “utmost throughout Saturday and Sunday to dissuade” Carrington from resigning. The prime minister accepted Carrington’s resignation with the “greatest reluctance”.

Richard Luce, the minister of state for foreign affairs, and Humphrey Atkins also resigned. Atkins had served as the chief government spokesman in the House of Commons for foreign and commonwealth affairs.

The 74-day war that followed claimed the lives of 649 Argentine and 255 British servicemen, as well as three Falkland Islanders. The war ended on 14 June when the commander of the Argentine garrison at Port Stanley surrendered to British troops.

Britain’s decisive victory helped Thatcher, previously regarded as one of the most unpopular prime ministers in history, forge her reputation as the “Iron Lady”. Having overseen rising unemployment and recession in her battle against inflation during her first years in office, Thatcher’s authority to see out her economic programme was secured, in effect, by overseas developments.

Undoubtedly, the Falklands War was a significant factor in the Conservative Party’s landslide victory at the 1983 general election.

The Conservative Party’s 1983 manifesto stated: “In a troubled world, Britain is increasingly respected because we stand up for our own interests. But we are also respected because we stand up for the cause of freedom and the spread of prosperity throughout the world.

“We resisted unprovoked aggression in the Falkland Islands, when the loyal support of our friends throughout the world reminded us of our common heritage of freedom. We will continue to uphold the principles for which we fought.”

general election

Thatcher called the 1983 general election some 11 months early to capitalise on her newfound popularity. At the time, the Conservative Party stood 11-points ahead of Labour.

Under Michael Foot’s leadership, Labour campaigned on a left-wing platform that included unilateral nuclear disarmament, withdrawal from the European Economic Community (EEC), the abolition of the House of Lords, higher personal taxation for the rich, and a sweeping nationalisation programme. The party’s 1983 general election manifesto, entitled The New Hope for Britain, was famously described by one of its own MPs, Gerald Kaufman, as “the longest suicide note in history”.

Labour’s defence commitments proved especially difficult to sell to the electorate. Healey, the deputy leader, and Callaghan, the former Labour prime minister, both expressed misgivings about the party’s position. Foot was ultimately forced to modify the manifesto position, saying Labour would “move towards” a non-nuclear and the removal of nuclear bases.

During the campaign, Foot argued that another term of the “torments and evils” of Conservative rule would finish Britain as a great industrial nation.

Thatcher provided her own framing in a speech to a Scottish Conservative Party rally in Perth.

Thatcher declared: “The choice facing the nation is between two totally different ways of life. And what a prize we have to fight for: no less than the chance to banish from our land the dark, divisive clouds of Marxist socialism and bring together men and women from all walks of life who share a belief in freedom.”

The split in the anti-Conservative vote – between Labour and the Social Democratic Party – allowed the Tories to win numerous seats on a minority vote share. Despite a slight fall in the Conservative vote share to 42.4%, therefore, Thatcher’s party gained 47 seats, finishing with a total of 397 and a majority of 144 – the largest since Labour’s victory in 1945.

The Sun newspaper referred to “Maggie’s Massacre”.

Labour was reduced to just 209 seats (down 60), the party’s worst result since 1935. Its share of the vote – just 27.6% – was the lowest since 1918. Notably, Tony Benn was defeated in Bristol East, a seat he had held since 1963.

In the wake of the election, Thatcher exercised her authority to demote two leading “wets”, Francis Pym and William Whitelaw. Pym’s dismissal as foreign secretary followed his remark that “landslides don’t on the whole produce successful governments.” Whitelaw, who had stood against Thatcher in the 1975 Conservative leadership election, was removed as home secretary and replaced by Leon Brittan. Whitelaw was sent to lead the House of Lords, becoming the first recipient of a hereditary peerage in 19 years.

Geoffrey Howe succeeded Pym as foreign secretary, while Nigel Lawson succeeded Howe as chancellor of the exchequer.

Ronald Reagan congratulated Margaret Thatcher on her victory, reportedly joking that if he were ever in need of assistance in the future, she might consider managing one of his campaigns.

The miners’ strike (1984-1985)

On 6 March 1984, the National Coal Board (NCB), a government agency, publicly announced its plan to close 20 “uneconomic” pits with the loss of 20,000 jobs. This proclamation precipitated the year-long miners’ strike – one of the most significant industrial and political conflicts in modern British history. Between 6 March 1984 and 3 March 1985, some 140,000 out of Britain’s 187,000 working coal miners walked out. A widespread slogan during this period was “close a pit, kill a community”.

The 1984-1985 strike represented the culmination of years of preparation by Thatcher’s Conservative government. Following the 1979 general election, the Final Report of the Nationalised Industries Policy Group (the so-called Ridley Plan drafted in opposition) was operationalised. The government stockpiled coal and prepared new trade union legislation to ensure it could withstand a prolonged dispute.

Arthur Scargill, national president of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) since 1982, declared his support for the regional strikes in Yorkshire and Scotland, and called for action from NUM members in all other areas. Controversially, Scargill chose not to hold a national ballot. He is said to have been reluctant to put the membership’s opinion to the test, having previously lost three national strike ballots. This lack of a formal mandate caused divisions within the NUM and high court challenges over the strike’s legality. The decision led to the formation of the Union of Democratic Mineworkers (UDM), which reportedly formed ties with the Thatcher government.

The strike saw high levels of violence. At Orgreave coking plant in South Yorkshire on 18 June 1984, the NUM deployed 5,000 pickets from across the UK to prevent strike-breaking lorries from accessing the site. They faced approximately 6,000 police in riot gear, police horses and dogs. At the Battle of Orgreave, as it has come to be known, 51 pickets and 72 policemen were injured. A total of 93 arrests were made. At the time, Scargill said that police on horseback had charged “into our people, we’ve had people hit with truncheons and people kicked to the ground.”

On 19 June 1984, Thatcher was asked about the “ugly scenes of violence on the picket line at Orgreave”. Addressing the commons at prime minister’s questions, Thatcher argued that “​​the scenes at Orgreave yesterday had nothing to do with peaceful picketing”.

She added: “However serious the strike – and it is serious – the consequences of giving in to mob rule would be far graver. Thanks to the courage of the police, yesterday’s attempt failed. I agree with my hon. Friend that the law must be, and will continue to be, upheld.”

Neil Kinnock, Foot’s successor as leader of the Labour Party, stated that Thatcher’s “absolutism” had “brought violent conflict on a scale that has virtually been unknown in this country, certainly for the past 50 years or more.”

On 19 July, Thatcher delivered a famous address to the 1922 committee of Conservative backbenchers in which she compared the Falklands War and the ongoing dispute in the mining industry. The Times reported: “Speaking at a private meeting of the 1922 committee of Conservative backbench MPs at Westminster, Mrs Thatcher said that at the time of the conflict they had had to fight the enemy without; but the enemy within, much more difficult to fight, was just as dangerous to liberty.”

In September 1984, a high court judge ruled that the miners’ strike was unlawful on the grounds that no ballot had been held. Scargill dismissed the court’s findings, describing them as “another attempt by an unelected judge to interfere in the union’s affairs.” In late 1984, the National Association of Colliery Overmen, Deputies and Shotfirers union (NACODS) called off a planned strike after negotiating a deal with the NCB. This decision underlined the NUM’s isolation.

The miners began to go back to work in large numbers in February 1985. By this point, 9542 strike related arrests had been made, with 7755 people charged and 3817 convictions. Then, on 3 March 1985, the NUM’s executive narrowly agreed to end the long-running industrial dispute by 98 votes to 91. The union had made no headway with its demands.

Thatcher expressed her relief, saying she wanted a return to a “prosperous coal industry”.

The prime minister added: “The miners would have been back earlier if the strike had not been kept going by intimidation and I am very glad now they can go back.”

The effective defeat of the miners marked the end of an era for Britain’s trade union movement. The planned pit closure programme was implemented. And by 1994 only 15 of the 174 pits remained open. The remnants of Britain’s coal industry were privatised.

Brighton bombing and the Anglo-Irish Agreement (1984–1985)

On 12 October 1984, a bomb planted by the Provisional Irish Republican Army exploded in the Grand Hotel, Brighton, the hotel hosting the Conservative Party annual conference. The attack, which detonated at 02:54 am, was an attempt to assassinate Thatcher.

The bombing was part of an IRA campaign on the British mainland intended to pressure the UK government into withdrawing from Northern Ireland. The assassination attempt is said to have been a response to Thatcher’s handling of the 1981 republican hunger strikes.

The explosion destroyed a section of the hotel’s facade. Five people were killed, including the Conservative MP Anthony Berry, and more than 30 others were injured. Among the seriously injured were the trade and industry secretary Norman Tebbit and his wife Margaret, who was left paralysed. John Wakeham, the chief whip, was also left injured; his wife Roberta was killed. Both Tebbit and Wakeham were trapped in the rubble. It is said that Thatcher herself narrowly escaped death, as her bathroom was destroyed.

An IRA statement, claiming responsibility for the attack, read: “Today we were unlucky, but remember, we only have to be lucky once; you will have to be lucky always. Give Ireland peace and there will be no war.”

Thatcher arrived on the conference stage at 09.30 am on 12 October and led a two-minute silence.

In the afternoon, she delivered a redrafted speech, describing the bomb attack as “first and foremost an inhuman, undiscriminating attempt to massacre innocent unsuspecting men and women staying in Brighton for our Conservative conference.”

Thatcher’s government continued to pursue a political solution to the conflict in Northern Ireland, which produced the Anglo-Irish Agreement in November 1985.

The Anglo-Irish Agreement, signed by Thatcher and Garret FitzGerald, the Irish Taoiseach, was a landmark moment in the Northern Ireland peace process. Article 1 of the agreement affirmed “that any change in the status of Northern Ireland would only come about with the consent of a majority of the people of Northern Ireland.”

The agreement also affirmed that the two governments would support any future wish by the people of Northern Ireland to enter into a united Ireland. It recognised the “present wish of a majority of the people of Northern Ireland” to remain in the union, but declared that “if in the future a majority of the people of Northern Ireland clearly wish for and formally consent to the establishment of a united Ireland, they will introduce and support in the respective parliaments legislation to give effect to that wish.”

Critically, the agreement granted the Republic of Ireland a formal consultative role in the governance of Northern Ireland through a new Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Conference. The conference would deal with political matters; security and related matters; legal matters, including the administration of justice; and the promotion of cross-border co-operation. It marked the first time since partition that Dublin had been formally invited into the governance of Northern Ireland.

The conference was denounced by unionists as a concession to nationalist opinion and a step that would undermine the integrity of the United Kingdom. Following the signing of the agreement at Hillsborough Castle on 15 November 1985, unionist leaders withdrew from advisory boards and threatened to paralyse local government by refusing to set rates.

Ian Gow, a Treasury minister and one of Thatcher’s closest personal allies, resigned in opposition to the agreement. Addressing the commons on 26 November, he stated that the deal would “prolong and not diminish the agony of Ulster”. Enoch Powell, the Ulster Unionist Party MP for South Down, accused Thatcher of “treachery” in the days leading up to the signing.

On 23 November 1985, a massive unionist demonstration took place at Belfast City Hall to protest against the Anglo-Irish Agreement. It formed part of a broader strategy of non-cooperation and civil disobedience orchestrated by the two main unionist parties: the UUP led by James Molyneaux, and the Democratic Unionist Party led by Ian Paisley. Standing before Belfast City Hall, Paisley invoked the memory of Unionist leader Edward Carson and the 1912 Ulster covenant. The covenant committed its 471,414 signatories to oppose the establishment of a Dublin-based home rule parliament by “all means which may be found necessary”.

In his speech’s most famous passage, the unionist firebrand declared: “I want to ask a question today, and the question is simple.

“Where do the terrorists operate from? From the Irish Republic! That’s where they come from.

“Where do the terrorists return to for sanctuary? To the Irish Republic!

“And yet Mrs Thatcher tells us that that republic must have some say in our province. We say Never! Never! Never! Never!”

In the crowd, an effigy of Thatcher was burned.

Unionist resistance to the agreement continued over the following months and years. But the agreement is regarded as an important step in the NI peace process. It established the principle that the constitutional status of Northern Ireland would not change without representation for the nationalist minority, while acknowledging an Irish or ‘North-South’ dimension would be included in a political solution. It also signalled to unionists that the British government was willing to face down and repudiate their protests with regard to nationalist representation.

Thatcher, however, later expressed regret over the agreement. Reviewing a political biography written about Enoch Powell, Thatcher wrote: “I now believe that his assessment [of the agreement] was right, though I wish that on this as on other occasions he had been less inclined to impugn the motives of those who disagreed with him.”

Westland and the limits of Thatcher’s authority (1985-1986)

On 9 January 1986, Michael Heseltine resigned as defence secretary, sparking one of the most serious political crises of Thatcher’s premiership. The ‘Westland affair’ is remembered as Thatcher’s moment of greatest danger until she was formally defenestrated in 1990. Over a matter of weeks, the disputed future of a mid-sized helicopter manufacturer escalated into a fierce departmental feud.

Heseltine, in his capacity as defence secretary, had championed a rescue package from a European consortium for the Westland helicopter company – which was suffering severe financial difficulties. In taking this stance, he clashed with Thatcher and Leon Brittan, the trade and industry secretary, who favoured a rival bid by the American Sikorsky Fiat group. Observers were hence treated to the unusual spectacle of a cabinet member (Heseltine) appearing to pursue a policy that was diametrically at odds with the government’s stated intentions. The position taken by Michael ‘Tarzan’ Heseltine, so-called for his famous mane of golden hair, was supported by MPs on the House of Commons defence select committee.

On 6 January, the crisis deepened markedly after a “confidential” letter from the solicitor general, Patrick Mayhew, was leaked to the press. The letter accused Heseltine of “material inaccuracies” in his lobbying for a European consortium rescue package. The leak raised questions about the prime minister’s own involvement and integrity.

The affair came as the Conservative Party slipped to third place in the polls behind the Labour Party, led by Neil Kinnock, and the Social Democratic Party.

The immediate trigger for Heseltine’s departure was a ruling by Thatcher that all public comments on the Westland controversy should be cleared through the Cabinet Office to maintain collective responsibility. Thatcher was at pains to overcome the impression that the government was at war with itself; it is also speculated that she feared Heseltine’s popularity. Heseltine responded by marching out of the cabinet meeting. The literally outgoing defence secretary is said to have proclaimed: “I can no longer be a member of this cabinet”.

In a commons statement on 23 January, Thatcher stated that Brittan – Heseltine’s main cabinet antagonist on Westland – had authorised the leaking of the 6 January letter. An inquiry, requested by Mayhew, accused Brittan of conspiring against his cabinet colleague. The prime minister said Brittan “took the view that the fact that the solicitor general had written to [Heseltine], and the opinion he had expressed, should be brought into the public domain as soon as possible.”

Thatcher confirmed that her office was “accordingly approached” and made aware of Brittan’s scheme. But she insisted she had not been consulted by her senior staff members. “Had I been consulted”, she added, “I should have said that a different way must be found of making the relevant facts known.” The prime minister was repeatedly asked when her office informed her of its role in the leak; opposition MPs suspected that Thatcher had personally authorised the selective disclosure. She was unable to give a clear answer. Thatcher also confirmed that the solicitor general did not agree to having his letter leaked to the press. “I deeply regret that”, she added.

Brittan resigned as trade and industry secretary on 24 January, after his conduct was roundly criticised during a meeting of the 1922 committee of Conservative backbenchers. In his letter of resignation, Brittan said he had come to the conclusion that he could “no longer command the full confidence of my colleagues.”

Revelations since have suggested that Downing Street was, after all, behind the leak. In 2015, Thatcher’s official biographer, Charles Moore, said the prime minister’s hands “were not entirely clean” in respect of the leaking of the letter. In her own memoirs, Thatcher records her confession to friends 27 January 1986 – the day of a crucial commons debate on the Westland affair – that “I may not be prime minister by 6pm tonight.”

Thatcher’s survival is said to have been secured by a faltering and unfocused performance by Neil Kinnock. The Labour leader’s speech was ridiculed by Heseltine, who responded: “If there are men born for whom the highest attainment is to remain leader of Her Majesty’s opposition, the leader of the opposition is such a man.”

On 14 April 1986, Thatcher suffered a rare defeat in the House of Commons when the government’s Shops Bill was rejected at its second reading. The bill, which aimed to do away with all government regulation of Sunday shopping in England and Wales, was defeated by 296 votes to 282 – a majority of 14.

The defeat over the Shops Bill was delivered by a rebellion of 72 Conservative MPs, who defied a three-line whip and voted with the opposition. In rejecting the legislation, the rebels were supported by the Keep Sunday Special campaign, a powerful if somewhat unlikely coalition of religious groups, social conservatives, some prominent food retailers, smaller private businesses and trade unionists. The campaign included those who sought to preserve the sanctity of the Christian Sabbath. Labour MPs, who also voted against the bill en masse, were largely motivated by the concerns voiced by trade unions and fears over eroding shop workers’ rights.

The Shops Bill saga was a demonstration of the limits of Thatcher’s authority. Crucially, it encapsulated the ideological-moral tensions between her liberal economic policy which championed deregulation, and the standing of some more socially conservative Tory MPs. Thatcher’s parliamentary defeat is arguably under-considered because it fell on the same evening US warplanes bombed targets in Libya, with several taking off from British airbases. The following morning, newspaper coverage was dominated by the US military action. Charlie Price, the then US ambassador, later joked that Thatcher had given president Ronald Reagan the right to use the UK bases provided he time the attack to coincide with the Shops Bill vote.

The Shops Bill marked the only major parliamentary defeat Thatcher suffered during her time in office.

general election

On 17 September 1986, Thatcher posed for one of the most enduring images of her premiership during a visit to British troops in West Germany. The photo opportunity came as Thatcher attended Nato exercises at Fallingbostel, near Hamburg. Wearing a headscarf, goggles, ear protectors, leather gloves and a white mackintosh, Thatcher rode in the turret of a Challenger main battle tank. During her visit to the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR), Thatcher observed gunnery demonstrations involving tanks and helicopters. She then climbed aboard Britain’s main battle tank and, according to a contemporary news report, “laid the Challenger’s one hundred and twenty millimetre gun on her target, the blackened hulk of an old burnt-out tank.” The prime ministerial markswoman scored a 1000-yard direct hit.

Asked if she wanted a second go, the prime minister responded: “No, with a 100% record I’ll quit while I’m ahead.”

Thatcher and Helmut Kohl, the West German chancellor, later held a joint press conference to express the solidarity of the Anglo-German alliance within Nato. Kohl said the British military presence in West Germany demonstrated that “freedom and liberty cannot be obtained for nothing”.

The images of Thatcher emerging from the tank turret, in command of a piece of heavy military hardware, became a famous expression of her “Iron Lady” persona. The stunt is also considered a landmark moment on the Conservative Party’s journey to victory at the 1987 general election.

The Conservative Party campaigned in the 1987 general election on a platform of continued economic reform, tax cuts, and a strong defence policy – capitalising on the beginnings of a period of economic growth known as the “Lawson Boom”. However, while Thatcher had emerged strengthened from the 1984-1985 miners’ strike with the government styled as victorious, the resignations of two cabinet ministers – Heseltine and Brittan – over the Westland affair exposed cracks in her political supremacy.

On 4 June, the Conservative campaign was rattled by a rogue Gallup poll for the Daily Telegraph which showed the party’s lead as down to 4 points. At this point, David Young is said to have grabbed his cabinet colleague, Norman Tebbit, by the lapels and declared: “Norman, listen to me, we’re about to lose this f****** election.”

“Wobbly Thursday”, as it became known, prompted Thatcher to back calls for more aggressive messaging. This approach was supported by Young but resisted by Tebbit.

The Conservative message, styled and presented by the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, was simple: “Britain is great again. Don’t let Labour wreck it”.

A memorable Conservative campaign poster depicted a British soldier’s arms raised in surrender with the caption: “Labour’s Policy On Arms”.

Thatcher was also guilty of a series of gaffes during the campaign. In an interview on 11 May, she was asked if the campaign would be her last as Conservative leader.

The prime minister responded: “I would hope not, I would hope not. This is only the third term we are asking for. There is quite a long way to go… Yes, I hope to go on and on, because I believe passionately in our policies.”

The comment was characterised as arrogant and potentially out of step with her party’s position.

The Labour Party under Kinnock ran a significantly more professional campaign than its attempt in 1983. The campaign, directed by Bryan Gould and Peter Mandelson, aimed to overhaul the party’s image and that of its leader – including with a celebrated party election broadcast directed by the filmmaker Hugh Hudson (of Chariots of Fire). The slick broadcast, dubbed “Kinnock: The Movie”, was an attempt to portray the Labour leader as down to earth and understanding. Kinnock’s popularity is said to have jumped markedly in the wake of the broadcast – a factor that contributed to Conservative jitters.

Labour’s manifesto, Britain Will Win with Labour, was also a more moderate document than its unapologetically left-wing predecessor, but the party still struggled to overcome public concerns about its economic policies and its commitment to unilateral nuclear disarmament.

In an interview on 24 May, Kinnock claimed that Labour’s alternative defence strategy in the event of a Soviet attack would be “using the resources you’ve got to make any occupation totally untenable”.

Thatcher issued a well-refined response. She declared: “Asked this weekend how his non-nuclear defence policy would work, [Kinnock] said, and I quote, ‘You’ve got to make the occupation totally untenable’ – a Soviet occupation, I presume.

“So now we know that Labour’s non-nuclear defence policy is a policy for defeat, surrender, occupation, and finally, prolonged guerilla fighting.”

The final result saw the Conservatives win 376 seats with 42.2% of the vote, while Labour won 229 seats with 30.8%.

Speaking in the wake of the result, Thatcher said: “It is wonderful to be entrusted with the government of this great country once again.

“The greater the trust, the greater the duty upon us to be worthy of that trust, and we will indeed endeavour to serve the people of these islands in the future as we have in the past.”

Kinnock said the election result would lead to “an even greater abyss of division than that which we witnessed previously.”

Bruges speech and breakdown (1988-1989)

On 20 September 1988, Thatcher delivered a speech at the College of Europe in Bruges that redefined the Conservative Party’s relationship with the European project. Thatcher’s “Bruges speech” was a direct challenge to the federalist ambitions of the European Commission president, Jacques Delors.

In a July 1988 address to the European parliament, Delors outlined his vision for deeper integration. He predicted that within ten years, “80% of our economic legislation, and perhaps even our fiscal and social legislation, will be of Community origin”. Then, on 8 September, Delors delivered a speech to the Trades Union Congress (TUC) conference. He called on Britain’s labour movement to embrace a “uniquely European model of society” and support the commission in building a “platform of guaranteed social rights”. Thatcher, of course, had spent the duration of her premiership at odds with the British labour movement. Having received an invitation to deliver a speech on Europe in Bruges, she decided to frame her address as a direct rebuttal.

Thatcher’s response, delivered in the Belfry of Bruges, set out her stark opposition to European supranationalism. However, the Bruges speech was not – as it is often remembered – an inherently anti-European speech. Thatcher’s argument developed from her assertion that “Europe is not the creation of the Treaty of Rome” (which founded the then-European Economic Community in 1957). She described the British people as “as much heirs to the legacy of European culture as any other nation”. She referred to a British tradition of liberty, stemming from Magna Carta. But added that “without the European legacy of political ideas we could not have achieved as much as we did.”

But the Bruges speech is best remembered for the rhetorical pivot that followed.

In the speech’s most consequential passage, Thatcher warned: “We have not embarked on the business of throwing back the frontiers of state at home, only to see them re-imposed at a European level with a European superstate exercising a new dominance from Brussels.”

The prime minister argued for a “willing and active co-operation between independent sovereign states” rather than a federalist entity.

In the immediate term, Thatcher’s remarks exposed a rift between her and the elements of the Conservative Party that supported the ‘European project’. The speech thus placed her at odds with senior ministers such as Geoffrey Howe, the foreign secretary. In his memoirs, Howe wrote that hearing that speech was “like being married to a clergyman who had suddenly proclaimed his disbelief in God.” As for Thatcher, she wrote in her memoirs that “not even I would have predicted the furore the Bruges speech unleashed”.

Over the following years, divisions within the Conservative Party over Europe deepened, particularly regarding monetary policy and Britain’s role in European economic integration. The European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), an economic stability measure, emerged as a flashpoint in 1989. Howe and the chancellor, Nigel Lawson, threatened to resign from cabinet if Thatcher failed to oversee Britain’s entry into the ERM.

In July 1989, Thatcher responded with a reshuffle, replacing Howe as foreign secretary with John Major. Howe was made leader of the commons, a post embellished with the title of deputy prime minister. Some months later on 26 October, Lawson resigned as chancellor, citing the influence of Alan Walters, Thatcher’s personal economic adviser, who opposed Britain’s entry into the ERM.

The Conservatives lost 13 seats in the July 1989 European parliament election – the party’s first national election defeat since October 1974. The campaign was conducted in the shadow of Thatcher’s famous Bruges speech.

On 5 December 1989, Thatcher faced the first direct challenge to her leadership of the Conservative Party in 14 years, defeating the backbench MP Sir Anthony Meyer. Under the Conservative Party’s leadership procedures at the time, Thatcher was subject to annual re-elections. But she had been returned to her post unopposed since 1975. Meyer, a 69-year-old Europhile backbencher, put himself forward as a candidate, triggering the first Tory leadership election since Thatcher toppled Edward Heath in 1975.

Meyer was a reluctant candidate, standing in the place of far more senior Thatcher-critics such as Michael Heseltine. He acknowledged that he had no chance of winning, but believed a contest – initiated by a stalking horse candidate – was necessary to test the party’s confidence in its leader.

Meyer declared his candidacy, a self-professed “burnt offering”, on 22 November 1989. The Conservative challenger was derided by the tabloid press as “Sir Anthony Whats’isname” and a “stalking donkey”. In an open letter to Tory MPs, he wrote: “On Europe above all, the prime minister stands apart not only from many of her own cabinet.”

The short 1989 Conservative leadership election featured an intervention from Edward Heath, Thatcher’s predecessor as Conservative leader. The europhile former prime minister described Thatcher as a “narrow little nationalist… unable to move with the movement of history in creating the greater Europe”.

On the day of the election, Thatcher attended the commons for prime minister’s questions.

Labour MP Alice Mahon stated: “Since this might be the last time that the prime minister answers questions at the dispatch box… will she tell us her proudest achievement?

“Is it the number of homeless… or is it the image of a government who resort to seedy bribes to get their privatisation programme through?”

Thatcher responded: “My proudest achievements have been bringing Britain from the decline of socialism to the prosperity of Conservatism.”

The prime minister survived Meyer’s challenge. She secured a seemingly decisive victory with 314 votes to Meyer’s 33. But the result exposed significant discontent within her party. A total of 60 MPs – one in six – failed to support her, either by voting for Meyer, spoiling their ballots (24), or abstaining (3). Privately, Thatcher’s team was alarmed. George Younger, Thatcher’s campaign manager, warned that many MPs had voted for her with “varying degrees of reluctance”. He classified 50 MPs as “reluctant supporters”, who could in time make Thatcher’s position vulnerable.

Younger predicted future danger, noting: “As there are likely to be economic and polls difficulties in a year’s time, another challenge is not improbable.”

One of Thatcher’s whips, Tristan Garel-Jones, put it more bluntly when he said: “We are talking about the beginning of the end of the Thatcher era.”

Thatcher’s woes were deepened by the implementation of the community charge, better known as the “poll tax”. The policy, a flat-rate levy on every adult regardless of income, provoked mass protests, calls for non-payment and riots. Introduced under the Local Government Finance Act 1988, the scheme meant, in the words of Conservative minister Nicholas Ridley, that a “duke [could] pay more than a dustman”.

Thatcher defended her doomed policy on the commons on 1 March 1990. She argued the community charge was a “very much fairer system than domestic rates which preceded it”, whereby “a single person in one house paid the same rates as four or five people in the next-door house.”

On 31 March 1990, mass demonstration against the poll tax in central London descended into some of the worst rioting seen in the capital for a century. It came shortly before 35 million people received their poll tax bills on 1 April. Charges were expected to be much higher than government forecasts.

A total of 200,000 people joined the anti-poll tax protest, far surpassing original estimates which predicted attendance to land in the tens of thousands. The demonstration was organised by the All-Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation (ABAPTF) on the eve of the tax’s introduction in England and Wales. The initial march from Kennington Park to Trafalgar Square was largely peaceful, but the situation deteriorated dramatically in the afternoon. Confrontations between police and protesters in the crowded square escalated into a full-scale riot. Missiles were thrown, buildings were set on fire and shops were looted. Police on horseback launched repeated charges to disperse the crowds. Some 339 people were arrested for public order and other criminal offences. A total of 374 officers of the 2,198 on duty were injured – of whom 58 required hospital treatment.

Thatcher, addressing reporters from the prime minister’s country estate, Chequers, expressed her “absolute horror” as to the scale of the violence. “People have a right to demonstrate peacefully”, she said.

Meanwhile, the new chancellor of the exchequer, John Major, proposed a compromise on the thorny issue of monetary union.

In June 1990, he announced his support for the creation of a new common European currency, the ‘hard ECU’, as a practical alternative to the vision of a single currency. The ‘hard ECU’ (European Currency Unit) would provide a common or dual currency, managed by a European Monetary Fund, that would circulate in parallel with existing national currencies like the pound, the franc, and the Deutschmark. If it proved popular, it could eventually evolve into a single currency.

Over time, Major also became convinced that the UK’s membership of the ERM was necessary to combat inflation and restore macroeconomic stability. Alongside Douglas Hurd, his replacement as foreign secretary, he too set about convincing Thatcher. The Major-Hurd axis was ultimately more effective than its Howe-Lawson predecessor in influencing Thatcher’s thinking. On 4 October 1990, she reluctantly agreed to Britain’s entry into the ERM at a rate of DM 2.95 to £1.00.

On 18 October 1990, the Liberal Democrats achieved a seismic victory in the Eastbourne by-election, overturning a 16,923-vote Conservative majority. The result confirmed the political trouble facing Thatcher’s government. The by-election was triggered by the assassination of the sitting Conservative MP, Ian Gow, a close personal friend and loyal confidante of the prime minister. Gow, who served as parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to Thatcher from 1979 to 1983, was killed by an Provisional Irish Republican Army car bomb on 30 July 1990.

The result was a major political shock given the constituency’s long history as a Conservative stronghold. Significantly, the Liberal Democrats were not regarded as a serious threat at the time of the by-election. The result immediately influenced the long-running debate over Thatcher’s premiership. It reinforced the fears among Conservative MPs that she would not be able to win a fourth general election, having triumphed in 1979, 1983 and 1987.

Downfall (1990)

Thatcher’s eurosceptic, anti-integrationist worldview – famously expounded at Bruges – found finer expression in her defiant “No. No. No.” declaration on 30 October 1990.

In a statement to MPs, Thatcher updated the House on the developments of the recent European summit in Rome. She clarified that Major’s “hard ECU would be a parallel currency, not a single currency… a single currency is not the policy of this government.” Questioned on this point specifically, she further insisted that the hard ECU currency would not “become widely used throughout the community”.

Thatcher told the House: “It would possibly most widely used for commercial transactions. Many people would continue to prefer their own currency.”

Thatcher then issued her most strident denunciation of European integration to date.

Thatcher said: “The president of the [European] commission, Mr [Jacques] Delors, said at a press conference the other day that he wanted the European parliament to be the democratic body of the community, he wanted the commission to be the executive and he wanted the council of ministers to be the senate.

“No. No. No.”

For Geoffrey Howe, the last remaining member of Thatcher’s original 1979 cabinet, this proved to be the last straw.

On 1 November 1990, Howe resigned from his posts as deputy prime minister and leader of the House of Commons, citing fundamental disagreements with Thatcher’s stance on European integration. Howe had served under Thatcher in a series of prominent ministerial roles, including as chancellor (1979 to 1983) and foreign secretary (1983 to 1989). In his resignation letter, addressed to the prime minister, Howe cited “the growing difference which has emerged between us on the increasingly important issue of Britain’s role in Europe.”

At the time of Howe’s resignation, the Conservatives were as much as 16 points behind Labour in the opinion polls.

On 13 November, Howe delivered his highly anticipated personal statement in the House of Commons to a packed chamber. Denis Healey, the former deputy Labour leader, had once compared being attacked by Howe to “being savaged by a dead sheep”. The ex-chancellor was sometimes mocked as “Mogadon man”, after the sleeping medication. But for Thatcher, who was perched on the frontbench having finished prime minister’s questions, Howe’s statement was coruscating, brutal and ultimately fatal.

Howe argued that the prime minister had made Major’s “hard ECU” proposal “untenable” by appearing to rule out “any compromise at any stage on any of the basic components” of monetary union.

In the speech’s most famous passage, Howe said Thatcher’s position was “rather like sending your opening batsmen to the crease only for them to find, the moment the first balls are bowled, that their bats have been broken before the game by the team captain.”

Howe ended his speech with an appeal to his former cabinet colleagues: “The time has come for others to consider their own response to the tragic conflict of loyalties, with which I have myself wrestled for perhaps too long.”

Howe’s speech galvanised existing opposition to Thatcher’s premiership. Most significantly, it spurred Michael Heseltine, the former defence secretary, to launch a leadership challenge.

The first ballot of Conservative MPs took place on 20 November. Thatcher, who was attending a summit in Paris, secured 204 votes (54.8%) to Heseltine’s 152 (40.9%). There were 16 abstentions.

Under the complex rules of the Conservative Party, established in 1975, a candidate required a majority of 15% of the total electorate to win outright. Thatcher’s majority was 52 votes; she needed 56. The prime minister had fallen short by just four votes.

Immediately following the result, Thatcher appeared in front of reporters outside the British Embassy in Paris.

She said: “I am actually very pleased that I got more than half the Parliamentary party, but disappointed that it is not quite enough to win on the first ballot.”

Thatcher vowed to “fight on” and “fight to win”.

Upon her return to London, Thatcher’s rigid stance shifted. On 21 November, she held a series of one-on-one meetings with her cabinet ministers. Many pledged their personal loyalty. But the majority warned her that she would lose a second ballot against Heseltine and that her continued candidacy could fracture the party. Confronted with the loss of cabinet support, she decided to withdraw to allow other candidates to enter the race and thwart Heseltine.

At 9:30 am on 22 November, Thatcher informed the cabinet of her decision.

A statement issued from 10 Downing Street read: “The prime minister, the right honourable Margaret Thatcher FRS MP has informed Elizabeth II… that she does not intend to contest the second ballot of the election for leadership of the Conservative Party and intends to resign as prime minister as soon as a new leader of the Conservative Party has been elected. The prime minister will seek an Audience of Elizabeth II later this morning to convey her decision formally.”

John Major, the chancellor of the exchequer, and Douglas Hurd, the home secretary, announced their candidacies for the Tory leadership mere hours after Thatcher’s announcement.

In a joint statement, they said: “We have decided to let both our names go forward in friendly contest so that our party colleagues who take the decision can choose which of us is better placed to unite the party.”

In the second Conservative leadership ballot held on 27 November, Major secured 185 votes. Heseltine won 131, while Hurd was supported by 56 Conservative colleagues. Major was two votes short of the required majority and his rivals conceded.

Thatcher formally tendered her resignation to Queen Elizabeth II on 28 November 1990.

In her final remarks outside Downing Street, a visibly emotional Thatcher said: “We’re leaving Downing Street for the last time after eleven-and-a-half wonderful years, and we’re very happy that we leave the United Kingdom in a very, very much better state than when we came here eleven -and-a-half years ago.

“It’s been a tremendous privilege to serve this country as prime minister – wonderfully happy years – and I’m immensely grateful to the staff who supported me so well, and may I also say a word of thanks to all the people who sent so many letters, still arriving, and for all the flowers.

“Now it’s time for a new chapter to open and I wish John Major all the luck in the world. He’ll be splendidly served and he has the makings of a great prime minister, which I’m sure he’ll be in very short time.

“Thank you very much. Goodbye.”

Late political career and retirement

The political inheritance Thatcher bequeathed to Major was unstable in several respects. The nature of Major’s accession, whereby he symbolised continuity to some Conservative MPs and change to others, proved a persistent source of tension.

Thatcher stood down from the House of Commons at the 1992 general election, which resulted in a shock Conservative victory under Major. She was elevated to the peerage as Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven shortly thereafter, and appointed Lady Companion of the Order of the Garter in 1995.

From 1990 to 1997, Thatcher – who resented those who produced her political downfall – continued to make political interventions. Her reported remark that she would prove a “very good back-seat driver” was prescient in this regard. During the 1992 general election campaign, Thatcher complained that the Conservative effort lacked “oomph and steam”.

In the 1992-1997 parliament, Thatcher actively opposed the Maastricht Treaty, which entailed a significant deepening of European integration. In June 1993, addressing the House of Lords, Thatcher said she “could never have signed this treaty”.

Major later remarked of his predecessor: “I found Margaret’s behaviour very puzzling… she seemed to be actively persuading new and relatively impressionable MPs to vote against the government on policy issues.

“And many of her speeches abroad trickled back here with what could only have been construed as criticism of the government policy… She was, if not actively encouraging, certainly looking in a very sunny fashion upon James Goldsmith [founder of the Referendum Party].”

Major added: “In retrospect, I can now say, I think her behaviour was intolerable. And I hope none of my successors are ever treated that way by their predecessors, or indeed by anyone else.”

Major’s government was eventually swept from power in the 1997 general election. Tony Blair, elected Labour leader in 1994, led his party – restyled as “New Labour” – to a landslide victory.

Thatcher continued to intervene in Conservative politics in the wake of the 1997 election. She endorsed William Hague in the 1997 Conservative leadership contest, and Iain Duncan Smith in the 2001 contest, dismissing Duncan Smith’s “wet” opponent, Kenneth Clarke.

In a crucial intervention, Thatcher said: “I simply cannot understand how Ken Clarke could lead today’s Conservative party to anything other than disaster. He is at odds with the majority of its members on too many issues.

“He appears to be an even keener enthusiast for the euro than is the prime minister, let alone the chancellor. He seems to view with blithe unconcern the erosion of Britain’s sovereignty in Europe. And in the strategic decision over whether Britain aligns herself with an emerging European superstate or whether our relationship with America should remain paramount, Ken Clarke would be on the side of Brussels.”

Both Duncan Smith and Hague rode Thatcher’s endorsement to victory.

After suffering a series of small strokes, Thatcher announced in March 2002 that she would cancel all planned speaking engagements on doctors’ advice. This represented Thatcher’s effective retirement from public life. Her daughter Carol revealed in 2005 that Thatcher had dementia.

Gordon Brown and David Cameron both extended invitations to Thatcher to visit 10 Downing Street and Chequers. Thatcher, aged 81, visited Brown shortly after his appointment as prime minister in September 2007. The spectacle was reportedly “as confounding for Labour Party activists as for grassroots Tories.”

At the time, Brown told reporters: “I admire the fact that she is a conviction politician. I am a conviction politician like her.”

In December 2012, Thatcher was hospitalised after a procedure to remove a growth in her bladder.

Death, tributes and legacy

Thatcher died of a stroke on 8 April 2013 at the Ritz Hotel in London, aged 87.

David Cameron, the prime minister, cut short an official trip to Europe and announced that parliament would be recalled from recess so tributes could be paid. The major political parties suspended campaigning ahead of the 2013 local elections.

Speaking on Downing Street, Cameron declared: “Margaret Thatcher didn’t just lead our country – she saved our country.

“And we should never forget that the odds were stacked against her. She was the shopkeeper’s daughter from Grantham who made it all the way to the highest office in the land.”

Tributes to Thatcher reflected the contested nature of her legacy.

Barack Obama paid tribute to the British stateswoman, describing her as a “true friend” to the US.

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last president of the Soviet Union, said Thatcher was a “heavyweight politician and a striking person”.

Morrissey, the Smiths frontman, said Thatcher was “a terror without an atom of humanity” and that “she destroyed the British manufacturing industry, she hated the miners, she hated the arts, she hated the Irish Freedom Fighters and allowed them to die”.

In his speech to the House of Commons on 8 April 2013, Cameron said that “Thatcher was a woman of great contrasts. She could be incredibly formidable in argument yet wonderfully kind in private.”

She added: “The scale of her achievements is apparent only when we look back to Britain in the 1970s. Successive Governments had failed to deal with what was beginning to be called the British disease: appalling industrial relations, poor productivity and persistently high inflation…

“They say that cometh the hour, cometh the man. Well, in 1979 came the hour, and came the lady. She made the political weather. She made history. And let this be her epitaph: she made our country great again.”

Ed Miliband, the Labour leader of the opposition, said Thatcher “broke the mould”.

He added: “But it would be dishonest and not in keeping with the principles that Margaret Thatcher stood for not to be open with the House, even on this day, about the strong opinions and deep divisions there were, and are, over what she did. In mining areas such as the one I represent, communities felt angry and abandoned.

“Gay and lesbian people felt stigmatised by measures such as section 28, which today’s Conservative party has rightly repudiated.”

On 17 April 2013, Thatcher was accorded a ceremonial funeral with military honours. It was the first time Queen Elizabeth II had attended the funeral of a British prime minister since that of Sir Winston Churchill in 1965. Also amongst those in attendance were Tony Blair, former US vice president Dick Cheney, Jeremy Clarkson, leading US politician Newt Gingrich and Dame Shirley Bassey.

Thatcher’s rise to prominence (1950-1975)

Thatcher stood as the Conservative candidate for Dartford in the 1950 and 1951 general elections, losing on both occasions. She entered parliament as the MP for Finchley at the 1959 general election.

In 1961, Thatcher was appointed to the Conservative frontbench as parliamentary secretary to the Ministry for Pensions. She lost this post after the Conservatives returned to opposition following the 1964 general election.

Thatcher subsequently served as shadow minister for fuel and power (1967-1968).

In this capacity, Thatcher led the Conservative Party’s response to the report of the tribunal of inquiry into the Aberfan disaster (1966). Addressing the commons on 26 October 1967, Thatcher expressed concern about the National Coal Board’s “complacency”. She pointed to a Daily Telegraph report which quoted Lord Robens, chairman of the NCB, as saying: “At no time did anyone think of pit tips as that sort of potential danger.”

Thatcher said she found this statement “extremely worrying” because the tribunal’s report contained “evidence upon evidence” contradicting it. She referenced a specific exchange from the tribunal where a NCB board member and “tip expert”, W. V. Sheppard, asked if the board appreciated that tips could slide. “That was appreciated, that tips slide”, he responded. The questioner, Thatcher relayed, then queried whether “it appreciated that when they do slide they can often slide a long way?”

Sheppard replied: “That was not appreciated, no.”

Thatcher said she was “absolutely astounded” at Sheppard’s ignorance. She also raised the question of why A. H. Kellett, the chairman of the NCB in South Wales, had stayed in Japan for a conference during the fallout from the Aberfan disaster.

Thatcher was appointed to the shadow cabinet as shadow secretary of state for transport in 1968.

From 1969 to 1970, Thatcher served as shadow minister for education.

In February 1970, Thatcher responded on behalf of the Conservative Party to the Equal Pay Bill, which sought to prohibit pay inequity for the same or similar work, establishing “equal treatment as regards terms and conditions of employment to men and to women”. In a speech to the commons, Thatcher expressed her party’s support for the legislation. Following her own legal training’s advice to “always express your conclusion first”, she declared: “I welcome it.”

But Thatcher added: “We should not delude ourselves by thinking that equal pay for women… necessarily means equal opportunities. There is still a great deal of work to be done in that respect to enable women to have the jobs which their qualifications would warrant.”

Following the 1970 general election, which resulted in a majority Conservative government, Edward Heath appointed Thatcher as secretary of state for education and science. In this capacity, Thatcher abolished free milk for schoolchildren aged seven to eleven, leading to the nickname “Margaret Thatcher, Milk Snatcher”.

In February 1974, Heath went to the country seeking a fresh mandate to confront the latest national miners’ strike, famously framing his reelection campaign around the question: “Who governs Britain?”. The electorate’s inconclusive answer led to a hung parliament and the formation of a minority Labour government under Harold Wilson. However, the unstable parliamentary arithmetic, with Labour 17 seats short of a majority, made another contest effectively inevitable. Heath stayed in post to contest the October 1974 general election, which resulted in a slim Labour majority of three seats.

The October 1974 contest represented Heath’s third general election defeat since his elevation as Conservative leader in 1965.

Heath was the first Conservative leader to become party leader through a formal leadership election. But the existing procedures only permitted a contest in the event of a vacancy. There was no means of challenging an incumbent and, in the wake of the October 1974 election, Heath stubbornly refused to stand down.

Heath eventually agreed to a review of the leadership election rules. The new procedures established in 1975 provided for annual elections to the Conservative leadership. In the wake of the review, Heath called a leadership election for 4 February.

Leader of the opposition (1975-1979)

Heath, the former prime minister and incumbent, initially had good reason to feel confident.

His leading rival, Sir Keith Joseph, chose not to stand after he delivered a controversial speech (on 19 October 1974) suggesting that economically disadvantaged people should stop having so many children. Joseph, the shadow home secretary, had previously worked with Thatcher to set up the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS), a think-tank to develop policies for the new free-market Conservatism that they both favoured.

Joseph informed Thatcher of his decision not to stand. She reportedly responded: “Well, Keith, if you’re not going to stand, I will, because someone who holds the views we’ve worked out has to put them forward.”

It was left to Thatcher, the shadow environment secretary since March 1974 and a relative outsider, to challenge Heath. Her campaign was managed by Airey Neave.

In the first ballot on 4 February 1975, Thatcher astonished Westminster by defeating Heath by 130 votes to 119.

The result forced Heath’s immediate resignation, ending his decade-long tenure as Conservative leader. Heath’s deposition has been referred to as a “peasants’ revolt”, owing to the historic odds faced by his challenger in taking on the Tory establishment.

But Thatcher, having failed to establish a lead amounting to 15% of the total parliamentary party, was required to stand in a second ballot. As was permitted under the rules, several senior party figures entered the race at this stage. These included William Whitelaw, a longstanding Heath ally; Geoffrey Howe, the shadow health secretary; and Jim Prior, the shadow employment secretary.

On the second ballot, Thatcher won with 146 votes, comfortably ahead of Whitelaw (79), Howe (19), Prior (19) and shadow commons leader John Peyton (11).

Speaking at a press conference after the result was declared, Thatcher said it was a “dream that the next name in the line Harold Macmillan, Alec Douglas-Home and Edward Heath is Margaret Thatcher.”

She added: “Each has brought his own style of leadership and stamp of greatness to the task. I shall take on the work with humility and dedication.”

An American reporter asked Thatcher what she had to say to those “who are still sceptical about the idea of a lady leader”.

Thatcher responded: “Give me a chance!”

There were only seven female Conservative MPs at the time of Thatcher’s election.

Thatcher soon set about appointing her first shadow cabinet, which featured Whitelaw as deputy leader of the opposition, Howe as shadow chancellor, Prior as shadow employment secretary, and Neave as shadow Northern Ireland secretary. Keith Joseph was also given a position on the shadow frontbench with responsibility for policy and research.

Thatcher led the Conservative Party in opposition from 1975 to 1979.

Shortly after her election as leader, Thatcher supported remaining in the European Economic Community (EEC) in the country’s first-ever nationwide referendum (1975). Thatcher, however, had expressed opposition to the Wilson government’s decision to hold the referendum. She referred to the referendum as “a device of dictators and demagogues”. The Conservatives voted against the Referendum Act 1975 under her leadership.

Clashes between Thatcher and the prime minister from 1976 to 1979, James Callaghan, were often high-stakes occasions, reflecting the government’s small – and steadily diminishing – majority.

On one notable occasion, Thatcher suspended all “pairing” arrangements after the Labour government was accused of manipulating the procedure in a crucial commons vote. (A “paired” MP is a parliamentarian that has voluntarily promised not to vote – in an agreement between government and opposition whips via the “usual channels”.) In the relevant division on 27 May 1976, the government’s motion was moved and approved by a single vote, 304 to 303. Had the Labour MP not broken his pairing agreement, convention would have compelled the speaker to defeat the motion with his casting vote. Once the result was announced, a gleeful group of Welsh Labour MPs began to sing The Red Flag, a traditional socialist and party anthem.

Michael Heseltine, the shadow industry secretary, responded by removing the ceremonial mace – the symbol of royal authority in parliament – from its perch. He brandished the bauble towards the government benches. Heseltine, otherwise known as Tarzan for his famous mane of golden hair, issued an almost-immediate apology for his actions. “I was unwarrantably provoked by the singing of the Red Flag”, he said.

After Thatcher suspended parliament’s informal “pairing” arrangements, Callaghan was forced to announce that the vote of 27 May would be “considered again”. The prime minister acknowledged the allegation that the government had won the vote by “questionable means” and admitted that a “misunderstanding” had occurred with regard to pairing.

As leader of the opposition, Thatcher tasked Conservative MP Nicholas Ridley with drawing up a report on how to defeat the National Union of Mineworkers. Thatcher was determined to avoid a repeat of the defeats inflicted on Edward Heath’s government by the miners in the early 1970s. The so-called “Ridley plan” (1977) discussed the likely opposition to Thatcher’s planned industrial reforms, outlining a strategy for suppressing resistance.

The Ridley plan assumed that trade unions and political opponents would attempt to disrupt Thatcher’s policy programme, most likely through strikes. It predicted “challenge between 6 months and 10 months after the election” and set out four distinct casus belli. The possible conflict triggers included an “unreasonable” wage claim, redundancies or closures, the government’s policy for the nationalised industries, or “some other political issue”. Ridley recommended that the government should build up large coal stocks at power stations, make contingency plans to import coal, and ensure alternative transport arrangements. The report, which stressed the need to respond firmly to violent picketing, was leaked and published by the Economist in May 1978.

Thatcher, as leader of the opposition, was at the centre of the speculation over whether Callaghan would call a snap general election in autumn 1978.

At this time, with the economic picture improving, Labour edged ahead of the Conservatives in the opinion polls. Inflation, which had peaked at 26% in 1975, fell into the single digits in 1978. Unemployment declined from a peak of 1.5 million in the third quarter of 1977, to 1.3 million a year later. Callaghan also bested Thatcher on the measure of personal popularity. The economics, politics, polling and parliamentary arithmetic pointed to an autumn election. Westminster and the country were simply waiting for Callaghan to give the go-ahead.

On 6 September 1978, Callaghan fuelled election speculation in a speech to the Trades Union Congress (TUC) conference. He delivered a rousing, partisan address – the sort of speech a prime minister delivers on the cusp of an election campaign – and proceeded to sing the chorus to an old music hall song.

Thatcher was apparently convinced that Callaghan would call an election. She told reporters at a lunchtime drinks reception on 7 September: “I don’t imagine he’s making a ministerial broadcast just to say he isn’t holding a general election.” Addressing a rally of Conservative Party workers on 6 September, Thatcher declared that the longer the government clings to power, the greater “the victory of the next Conservative government.”

She added: “If a prime minister shows he is afraid to go when he is in a minority then when the time comes that he has to go he has to be dispatched with all possible speed.”

Thatcher further referred to Callaghan’s whimsical sing-song at the TUC conference, saying said her own choice of tune would be: “I want to wash that man right out of my hair.”

On the evening of 7 September, Callaghan addressed an expectant nation. But in an uncharacteristically pessimistic intervention, “Sunny Jim” said there would be no general election that autumn. Thatcher, who had cancelled a holiday to France, heard the news at the Little Barrow Hotel in Lichfield.

Thatcher responded: “I believe the prime minister has made a mistake and his decision is against the nation’s interest. He has lost his majority and with it the authority to govern. He should now properly seek the verdict of the people…

“They need a government with a clear mandate from the people and several years’ life. Only that would restore confidence. As it is, we shall now have a long period of election fever. The country belongs to the courageous, not to the timid.”

Callaghan’s decision was predicated, in significant part, on his belief that he could secure an agreement with the trade unions on pay restraint. He then hoped that continued economic recovery would further improve Labour’s standing ahead of a spring election. Callaghan disastrously miscalculated. Within weeks, the country began its slow descent into the ‘Winter of Discontent’ – a period of widespread industrial unrest and economic disruption. The government was seen as flat-footed in responding to the turmoil, symbolised by the infamous Sun headline: “Crisis? What Crisis”.

Soon, having ruled out an autumn election, Callaghan found the issue forced upon him.

On 28 March 1979, Thatcher tabled a successful motion of “no confidence” in the Labour government. It followed the government’s failure to win the Scottish and Welsh devolution referendums earlier that month – defeats that prompted the Scottish National Party (SNP) to withdraw its support for the minority administration.

In her speech opening the no-confidence debate, Thatcher declared: “The government have doubled prices, doubled dole queues, doubled debt, diminished our defences and undermined public respect and confidence in the law.

“There has been a failure not only of policies but of the whole philosophy on which they are based – the philosophy which elevates the state, dwarfs the individual and enlarges the bureaucracy.”

Thatcher’s motion was passed by 311 votes to 310 just after 10:00 pm, inviting raucous cheers from Conservative MPs. It marked the first time a government had been brought down on a confidence vote since 1924 and paved the way for the 1979 general election.

On 30 March, two days after the no-confidence vote, Airey Neave was assassinated when a bomb exploded in his car as he drove out of the underground commons car park. Responsibility for the murder was claimed by the Irish National Liberation Army, a republican-socialist paramilitary group. The INLA claimed Neave, 63, was targeted for his hardline stance on security in Northern Ireland. No one has ever been convicted for his killing.

The assassination was a devastating personal blow to Thatcher as Conservative leader. Neave, a close friend and ideological ally, was widely expected to be appointed secretary of state for Northern Ireland in Thatcher’s incoming government, having written the Conservative Party’s NI manifesto commitments just hours before his assassination.

At the time, Thatcher was preparing for a party political general election broadcast at BBC headquarters. Her first thought was reportedly: “Please God, don’t let it be Airey”.

In a statement, an emotional Thatcher said that Neave was “one of freedom’s warriors.”

She added: “No one knew what a great man he was, how great a man he was, except those nearest to him.

“He was staunch, brave, true, strong. But he was very gentle, kind and loyal. It’s a rare combination of qualities. There’s no one else who can quite fill them. I, and so many other people, owe so much to him and now we must carry on for the things he fought for and not let the people who got him triumph.”

Speaking later, Thatcher said that “some devils got him and they must never, never, never be allowed to triumph, they must never prevail.”

Asked if the assassination would impact her campaign, Thatcher said it would make her party “more resolute”.

Early life and background

Margaret Hilda Roberts was born on 13 October 1925 in Grantham, Lincolnshire. Her father, Alfred Roberts, was an alderman and a Methodist local preacher. He owned a grocery shop. Her mother was Beatrice Ethel Stephenson.

Thatcher attended Huntingtower Road Primary School and Kesteven and Grantham Girls’ School. She studied chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford, graduating in 1947. She served as president of the Oxford University Conservative Association in 1946.

After graduating, Thatcher worked as a research chemist for BX Plastics in Colchester and later for J. Lyons and Co. in Hammersmith.

Thatcher trained as a barrister and qualified in 1953, specialising in taxation.

Personal life

Thatcher married Denis, a businessman, in December 1951. They had twins, Carol and Mark, born in 1953.

Denis Thatcher died in June 2003.

Trivia

Thatcher’s famous “Iron Lady” moniker was coined by a Soviet journalist in response to a foreign policy speech she delivered in January 1976.