vLady Thatcher's last message to Cameron: 'Be more unpopular'. Former prime minister criticised current leader only months ago

Baroness Thatcher had criticised David Cameron only a few months ago for not being ‘far enough behind’ Labour in the polls – because he ought to be pushing through unpopular policies.

As the Conservative Party grappled with her towering legacy, a friend of the former prime minister said she had also expressed a dislike of the Coalition and urged voters not to support UKIP.

Lady Thatcher’s death has prompted a surge of pride among Tory MPs at her government’s extraordinary achievements, but also a degree of soul-searching about the party’s failure to win the last election outright.



Leaders: Baroness Thatcher (right) had criticised David Cameron (left) only a few months ago for not being 'far enough behind' Labour in the polls - because he ought to be pushing through unpopular policies

Several senior figures contrasted her refusal to bow to the whims of ‘focus groups’ or the next day’s headlines unfavourably with the behaviour of today’s political leaders.

But Left-wing commentator Owen Jones complained that her death was prompting ‘a mixture of Diana’s funeral and a month-long political broadcast for the Conservative Party’.

Conor Burns, a Tory MP who visited Lady Thatcher weekly, said: ‘I remember last November showing her a poll in one of the Sunday papers and it showed that we were nine points behind, and she asked when the next election was, and I said it wasn’t for another two and a half years.






‘She said, “That’s not far enough behind at this stage.” She sort of took a view that to do things that were right did entail unpopularity until people saw that what you were doing was working.

‘She always had confidence that what she was doing would work and coincide with the electoral cycle, which is, despite the fact that she’s been written up as this incredibly controversial, divisive figure, why she won three general elections and was in power for 11 and a half years.’

In February 1981, Michael Foot led Lady Thatcher by 16 points, but he went down to a crushing defeat in 1983.






Praise: Lord Tebbit (left) spoke in support of her leadership, while Conor Burns MP (right) said she 'took a view that to do things that were right did entail unpopularity until people saw that what you were doing was working'

And at the height of the poll tax furore in April 1990, Labour had a 23 per cent lead, but went on to lose the 1992 election.

Mr Burns also illustrated Lady Thatcher’s uncompromising view of the Coalition, explaining: ‘On one occasion, one colleague said to her, “Of course Lady Thatcher, we’ve gone into coalition with the Liberal Democrats”.


'She sort of took a view that to do things that were right did entail unpopularity until people saw that what you were doing was working'

Conor Burns, Tory MP who visited Lady Thatcher weekly

‘And she looked at him and raised her index finger and jabbed it at him and said: “I have not gone into coalition with the Liberal Democrats”.’

‘She wanted to see a stand-alone Conservative government. She was a tribal Conservative to her fingertips.’

Mr Burns insisted she believed only the Conservative Party, not UKIP, could deliver the necessary changes in Europe.

‘Margaret Thatcher was a Conservative all her career and died a Conservative,’ he said. ‘She wanted the Conservative party to thrive.

‘Now that doesn’t mean that she didn’t have regard for those who have sympathy for UKIP, but she understood that only the Conservative party is the big enough vehicle to deliver the change that she would want to see in Europe and in Britain.’



Support: London Mayor Boris Johnson also suggested that Lady Thatcher towered above current political leaders, saying: 'Her memory will live long after the world has forgotten the grey suits of today¿s politics'

Lady Thatcher – whom friends say had periods of lucidity, even though her short-term memory was badly affected by a series of small strokes in her final years – was broadly critical of modern politicians, he added.

And he said if she were in charge now, she would be ‘much more honest about the state of Britain’s finances, she’d be pointing out the debt as well as the deficit’.


'She believed in freedom, she believed in free enterprise. She believed that the British people should be liberated from decades of socialism. That’s what drove her. Not a headline in tomorrow’s newspapers. She wasn’t a follower of focus groups'

Sir Gerald Howarth, ex-defence minister

Former defence minister Sir Gerald Howarth is chairman of Conservative Way Forward, a group founded in 1991 to preserve the legacy of Lady Thatcher.


He said: ‘She believed in freedom, she believed in free enterprise. She believed that the British people should be liberated from decades of socialism.

‘That’s what drove her. Not a headline in tomorrow’s newspapers. She wasn’t a follower of focus groups.

‘She had those principles by which she stuck and thank God she did, because Britain was a better place as a result. She was a salvation of the nation.’

Lord Tebbit, Lady Thatcher’s most successful party chairman, said: ‘Would that there was somebody like her to lead us again now.’



Riots: At the height of the poll tax furore in April 1990, Labour had a 23 per cent lead, but went on to lose the 1992 election

London Mayor Boris Johnson also suggested that Lady Thatcher towered above current political leaders, saying: ‘Her memory will live long after the world has forgotten the grey suits of today’s politics.’

Former defence secretary Dr Liam Fox, another close friend of Lady Thatcher, said that under her the Conservative party ‘not only felt self-confident but was infused with a sense of moral purpose’.


'Would that there was somebody like her to lead us again now'

Lord Tebbit, Lady Thatcher’s most successful party chairman

He added: ‘She would have been humbled by the tributes paid to her today, however richly deserved. She never wanted to be popular but was always keen to be respected.’

In a piece for the ConservativeHome website, Environment Secretary Owen Paterson wrote: ‘She picked up a country which had lost its confidence and ambition.

‘She left a country holding its own and walking tall. The legacy she leaves our party, our country and the world is a remarkable one. We owe it to her to build on this.’And former health secretary Alan Milburn, an ardent Blairite, admitted New Labour would not have existed without her, adding: ‘Tony Blair probably wouldn’t have existed in the way that he did as a New Labour leader unless Mrs Thatcher had changed the political landscape in the way that she did.