Thatcher: The Downing Street Years

Even as Margaret Thatcher strode onto the world stage with Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, and the election campaign gathered pace, her colleagues began to feel disenchanted. Party chairman Norman Tebbit saw her as a 'medieval monarch wondering who has his eyes on the crown', and Sir Geoffrey Howe thought her trumpeted 'special relationship' with Reagan was at the expense of relations with Europe. Nigel Lawson claimed she distrusted her colleagues, and she, in turn, thought of him as 'a man of many talents... but great drawbacks'. As the economy worsened and problems with the poll tax began to loom, the prime minister found herself even more isolated behind the newly erected Downing Street security gates.

As the Conservative Party began to turn against her leadership, the Prime Minister showed no willingness to stand down. Although there was no clear successor, colleagues were beginning to view Thatcher as an electoral liability.