Lawson: I’ve lost my home, let me keep my car
NIGEL LAWSON begged Margaret Thatcher to spare his ministerial Jaguar after she had removed his country home in a bruising Cabinet reshuffle.
Mrs Thatcher, then prime minister, was called on personally to decide if her chancellor should be allowed to retain the prestige car, or whether he should have a lowly Rover as Cabinet rules decreed.
Cabinet Office files released today at the National Archives in Kew, west London, show that secretaries of state usually had Rover 827s except for a select few, including secretaries for defence, foreign affairs and Northern Ireland, who were given armoured Jaguars. However, other ministers were apparently quick to produce reasons why the rules should be bent in their favour too.
Correspondence from 1988 shows the rules were relaxed for Mr Lawson as Mrs Thatcher approved a secondhand Jaguar for him on grounds that he was “one of the most senior ministers”.
The next year, Mr Lawson’s car was retired, leaving her to decide whether to get him a new one, or save money and have him revert to a Rover. Her decision was sensitive, coming soon after Mr Lawson was stripped of his grace-and-favour rural residence, Dorneywood.
She allowed Geoffrey Howe to take over the traditional residence of the chancellor in Buckinghamshire to stop him resigning from government after he was sacked as foreign secretary.
An October 1989 memo to Mrs Thatcher from Andrew Turnbull, her principal private secretary, said: “Coming on top of the country house saga, the spectacle of ministers squabbling over cars is distasteful.” The note said Mr Lawson, now Lord Lawson of Blaby, “naturally” preferred a new Jaguar “primarily on grounds of comfort and status, but also because he would like to avoid the ‘first she took away his country house and then his car’ story”.
The note from Mr Turnbull also revealed where other exceptions had been made to the rigid rules.
Sir Geoffrey Howe was granted a Jaguar as Lord President because his predecessor, Lord Whitelaw had one before him. Lord Whitelaw, was allowed a Jaguar “on comfort grounds… particularly on the long run to [his constituency in] Cumbria”.
Then Wales secretary, Peter Walker, was allowed a Jaguar and, in 1987, Alan Clark was allowed to pay for his own Jaguar while a trade minister, rather than his allotted Montego, against the advice of the head of the Civil Service who believed Mr Clark should be promoting the Austin Montego.
Although Mrs Thatcher bowed to Mr Lawson’s wishes for a new Jaguar, he never received the benefit as he resigned just three weeks later, on Oct 26, to be replaced by John Major.