James Murray
PRIVATE documents seen together for the first time reveal that Margaret Thatcher was an Iron Lady in every sense of the word. The Daily Express has seen a bundle of the former Prime Minister’s papers from her 11 years in power which reveal she was as ruthless in her handling of civil servants and ministers as she was careful with the public purse.
Years before the 2009 MPs expenses scandal – which saw large numbers of politicians resign and lose their seats for making fraudulent claims – Mrs Thatcher showed scrupulous honesty, insisting on paying for a £19 ironing board in the Downing Street flat she shared with husband Denis.
Held in The National Archives, one of Mrs Thatcher’s hitherto unseen papers relates to a 1981 parliamentary written question on the cost of refurbishing ministers’ accommodation. It provides a detailed breakdown of the expenditure on the Prime Minister’s flat.
In a note next to a column of figures, Mrs Thatcher queries the £464 cost given for replacing bed linen and pillows, writing: “Bearing in mind we only use one (heavily underlined) bedroom, can the rest go back into store”, adding, “I will pay for the ironing board.”
DURING premiership from 1979 to 1990, rumours circulated about Baroness Thatcher’s exacting treatment of staff and Cabinet colleagues, but these papers show just how demanding she could be.
A stickler for detail, Mrs Thatcher’s many notes paint a picture of her character and leadership style, according to Mark Dunton, principal records specialist at The National Archives, who led the research.
“The Prime Minister’s marginalia, written in her own hand, are as forthright as you would expect,” he says.
“They show her amazing drive and determination. She was a notorious workaholic and her frequent underlining of particular sections of documents is evidence of a laser-like focus on the details of the matter in hand.”
Lady Thatcher, who died of a stroke in London in 2013, aged 87, often scrawled in fountain pen ink on her official papers, tearing down ministers’ arguments and querying decisions – singling out senior Cabinet colleagues Sir Geoffrey Howe and Nigel Lawson for particularly harsh criticism.
When Howe resigned as deputy PM in 1990, he gave a speech to the Commons which laid bare their tensions over Europe.
But the papers show her frustration with her him went back as far as the start of her premiership, when Howe was Chancellor and presented a paper on pay policy for public services.
Mrs Thatcher wrote in the margin of the document, dated May 25, 1979: “This is a very poor paper and we can only assume the Treasury is ‘otherwise occupied’ at the moment.” One of her first battles on taking power on May 4 was tackling the size and cost of the civil service. Three days later on a policy draft put forward by the Lord President, Christopher Soames, suggesting “minor exceptions to a [recruitment] ban”, she scrawled in underlined