Thatcher thrift that Boris could learn in No 10

WITH an unprecedented Electoral Commission investigation into the refurbishment of his Downing Street flat, Boris Johnson could have avoided a lot of trouble if only he had followed the example set by one of his illustrious — and thrifty — predecessors.

As chatelaine of No 10, Margaret Thatcher applied the same rigour to spending on decor as she did to the nation’s finances. On one occasion, the iron Lady vetoed plans for a new carpet in her study.

‘There was a small threadbare square in front of her favourite armchair,’ one of her former advisers told me this week. ‘ her officials wanted a new carpet but she was having none of it.’

She directed them to search the cellar to see if offcuts left over from the original fitting had been stored there and, sure enough, they found some.

They cut out a square and placed it over the offending space. The result? ‘One bright square in a sea of faded green pile, but Maggie was chuffed to bits,’ my source tells me.

in her memoir, The Downing Street Years, Baroness Thatcher wrote: ‘i had the study re-papered at my own expense. its unappealing sage-green damask flock wallpaper was stripped and replaced by a cream stripe, which was a much better background.’

Sir Anthony Seldon, whose new book The impossible Office? examines the record of the nation’s 55 Prime Ministers over 300 years, confirms: ‘ it’s true Thatcher was very careful about public money being spent.’

Boris and his fiancee Carrie should take note!

■ SIR Bernard ingham, who was Margaret Thatcher’s formidable press secretary, has a waspish take on ‘wallpaper-gate’.

‘ No 10 looks to be a fairly accurate reflection of its untidily hirsute elected incumbent. Bright, but not exactly wise, cavalier, disorganised, shambling and busking it too often.’ Quite.