'She did the double very smartly!' Lord Tebbit remembers Baroness Thatcher

  • Anglia
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Norman Tebbit waving to well-wishers after her election win in 1983 Credit: PA wire

Lord Tebbit was one of Margaret Thatcher's staunchest supporters during her time as Prime Minister.

After the Conservative Party won the general election in 1979, Margaret Thatcher appointed him Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Trade. Later the Essex MP served in the cabinet as Employment Secretary and Secretary of State for Trade and Industry.

Visiting him today at his home in Bury St Edmunds, surrounded by memorabilia from that era, he says even he was surprised when she became the first woman party leader. He says this went completely against the grain of the male dominated politics of the 1970s.

Lord Tebbit commissioned these before the 1987 election, so sure he was that Margaret Thatcher would win. Credit: ITV Anglia

Lord Tebbit says that working with Margaret Thatcher was, "quite exciting and at times hard work."

In October 1984 the IRA exploded a bomb at the Hotel in Brighton, where the cabinet were staying Credit: PA

One of the most momentous events of Margaret Thatcher's premiership was the IRA's bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton during the Tory Party conference of 1984. Lord Tebbit was seriously injured in the attack and his wife, Margaret, left permanently disabled.

He says that Margaret Thatcher's loyalty to him during that time is one of his most profound memories of her.

Norman Tebbit and Margaret Thatcher in 1983 Credit: PA wire

Lord Tebbit retired from the government in 1987 in order to care for his wife. Although a devoted admirer of the former Prime Minister (even now he won't accept the Poll Tax was completely flawed) Norman Tebbit still concedes that there were problems with her later years of government.

The longest serving British Prime Minister of the twentieth century, Margaret Thatcher spent over a decade behind those narrowing windows. Norman Tebbit believes her legacy could last centuries, not decades.