3,000 Scots had a crush on Margaret Thatcher

THE new leader of the Conservative Party came north on February 21, 1975, and found herself the centre of considerable public and media attention.

Margaret Thatcher, who had emerged as Ted Heath’s successor after a bruising battle and two ballots of Tory MPS, was pursued by eager crowds in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

In the capital she had to curtail a walkabout when a 3,000-strong crowd turned up to see her at the St James shopping centre (right), testing the resolve of her police cordon and various party aides.

“Cheers and shouts of support greeted the new

Tory leader,” the Evening Times reported, “as police fought to clear a way through the crowd that pressed closer and closer with every step.

“Men, women and children seemed almost desperate in their attempts to shake Mrs Thatcher’s hand or even just to touch her.” One young girl, unable to get close, pleaded with those nearby to pass her a box of Edinburgh Rock.

Afterwards, in the relative calm of the Assembly

Rooms, Alick Buchanansmith, shadow Scottish secretary of state, said: “I have never known anything like it. For one minute I was fearful about the cordon not holding. He said that he had bruises down one side.”

Later that day, in Glasgow, Mrs Thatcher was surrounded by around 1,000 well-wishers as she and her entourage tried to make their way across George Square to a hotel where she was to rest before making a speech at the City Halls.

Heath had called the leadership election in mid-november 1974 after losing two general elections that year – in February and October – to Labour’s Harold Wilson.

At first, Mrs Thatcher had not publicly been identified as one of the favourites to succeed him, but she proceeded to build up a formidable campaign within the ranks of her party.

The first ballot, in early February, had seen her score 130 votes to Heath’s 119; though Heath had then stepped aside, the margin had not been enough to give Mrs Thatcher an outright majority.

She triumphed, however, in the second ballot, on February 11, defeating Willie Whitelaw by146 votes to 79.