Aides to Thatcher challenge claims that she criticised Major because of dementia

TWO of Margaret Thatcher’s closest aides have challenged Sir John Major over claims that his predecessor was suffering from the onset of dementia at the beginning of his premiership.

Sir Julian Seymour and Sir Mark Worthington, who between them served Baroness Thatcher for more than three decades, have disputed the assertion that the illness was behind her criticism of Sir John’s time in Downing Street.

In a letter published in The Daily Telegraph today, Sir Julian, who served as the director of her private office between 1991 and 2001, said that they “saw no sign whatsoever of the dementia which overtook her in later years”. It comes days after Sir John, who replaced Lady Thatcher as prime minister in 1990, said that the “sniping” from the Baroness during his first days in office “didn’t sound to me like the Margaret I had come to know”.

Speaking at an event in London on Friday, he added that the belief that she was ill made it easier for him to bear the criticism.

However, Sir Julian claims that both he and Sir Mark, her private secretary, saw her “virtually every day” and did not detect any signs that her “mental faculties had started to decline”.

“We saw no sign whatsoever of the dementia which overtook her in later years. Her medical advisers hold the same view. In our view it was certainly not until after Sir John’s time as Prime Minister”.

While Sir John and Lady Thatcher enjoyed a close friendship during her premiership, relations are said to have soured after the former entered No 10.

In December last year, Baroness Trumpington claimed that Lady Thatcher had given Sir John “such a ghastly time”. However, Sir Julian’s intervention suggests that Lady Thatcher’s criticism was not founded on ill health, but rather a genuine difference of opinion with her successor.