Thatcher Interview with Iain Dale

For a university project I interviewed Iain Dale on the resignation of Margaret Thatcher. Here are his answer. Many thanks to Iain for giving up his time to do this, it helped greatly.


Q1. In John Sergeant's book 'Maggie', he claims that a conservative MP told him that Margaret Thatcher had 'ruined' the Conservative Party. To what extent do you feel that she had damaged the partyand do you think she should have resigned earlier?

She didn't ruin the Conservative Party. The cowards who overthrew her did. If they hadn't ditched the most successful peacetime PM in that way and let electoral politics take their course, the course of the last 20 years might have been very different indeed. It has been a running sore ever since, and it is only really now that the Party is recovering. We can all play 'what if' and it might well have been better if she had resigned of her own accord at a time of her choosing, but we will never know how things might have panned out. Her big mistake was in not have a natural successor lined up.


Q2. In retrospect, do you think that Michael Heseltine did the right thing by challenging her?

I do not think Heseltine did the right thing, either for the Conservative Party or himself. He made sure he would never wear the crown. If he had waited for her to lose an election he would probably have won a leadership election. I think he knows that now.


Q3. Do you think that her backing of John Major, along with the Poll Tax, proved that by 1990, she had completely lost her political intuition?

She had no alternative but to back John Major. There were no other viable candidates. The poll tax was a big political error, there's little doubt about that. It took the form of a very slow car crash - many people could have prevented it from happening but failed to. Her well honed political antennae deserted her on that one.


Q4. In his recent documentary, Michael Portillo suggested that he tried to persuade Mrs Thatcher to fight the leadership challenge, and not to step down. If you had been a cabinet member, at that time, what advice would you have given to her?

I would have also urged her to fight on and go down all guns blazing if necessary. Defeat became almost inevitable I think, partly because she was so badly advised by the people around her - mainly John Wakeham, Tim Renton and Peter Morrison.


Q5. Political commentators argue that David Cameron is the first Conservative leader able to turn the "I would never vote Tory because of Thatcher" brigade. Why do you think this is and do you think there are any other Conservative members of parliament who could do this?

I think that is probably right. He has decontaminated the Tory brand, although I would argue that much of that contamination occurred under John Major rather than Margaret Thatcher. But Cameron has indeed restored Tory fortunes in a way that his three predecessors hadn't managed. However, he does not appeal to the C2 skilled working class vote in the way that Margaret Thatcher did. She identified with them through her policy on council houses and share ownership. His challenge is to have that same appeal.