The Downfall of Margaret Thatcher

Abstract

This chapter examines the resignation of Margaret Thatcher as prime minister to uncover what it shows about the power of the British prime minister and of the cabinet. It is not a chronological narrative but an analytical explanation, unravelling the threads of a story. The plot is rather like a detective novel by Agatha Christie. Was Thatcher’s resignation ‘the grandest political suicide in modern British history’ (Young, 1991), or was it murder and, if so, ‘who dunnit?’ For those who like to know the ending early on, so they can appreciate the twists leading to the dénouement, it was not suicide: she was murdered. Three daggers were plunged into her, two injuring her seriously and one fatally. The first was wielded by the British people, expressing their views in the European elections, by-elections and opinion polls; the second blow was struck by the Conservative party in the House of Commons, withdrawing its support at a critical moment; but the mortal wound came from the cabinet, which rejected her.