How Margaret Thatcher fought off the Falklands doubters
TORY wets told Margaret Thatcher she would be “mad” to defend the Falklands and secretly warned her: “We do not want the place in any case.”
Confidential papers belonging to the former Prime Minister reveal how she faced extraordinary opposition from her own “very wobbly” MPs.
They show that as well as battling Argentina in the 1982 conflict, the Iron Lady had to face down doubters within her own party.
“We are making a big mistake,” said Ian Gilmour, MP for Chesham and Amersham, Bucks. “It will make Suez look like common sense.”
Marcus Kimball, who represented Gainsborough, Lincs, advised: “Let the Argentinians have the Falklands with as little fuss as possible.”
Tory Peer Lord Drumalbyn made the comment about not wanting the islands anyway, adding: “I think the Government are mad.”
Kenneth Clarke, then a junior minister, and Aylesbury MP Timothy Raison warned: “We should blow up a few ships but nothing more.” The frank remarks were reported in a memo from Tory Chief Whip Michael Jopling to the Prime Minister in April, weeks before the task force arrived in the South Atlantic.
It is part of a bundle of her private papers released by the Margaret Thatcher Archive Trust and the Churchill Archives Centre at Cambridge University.
Mr Jopling said Stephen Dorrell, the Loughborough MP who went on to become Health Secretary, was “very wobbly”. He said Cambridge MP Robert Rhodes James was “hopelessly defeatist and disloyal”.
Harrow West MP John Page was said to be depressed and Canterbury MP David Crouch begged: “Please, no blood.”
On the other hand West Devon MP Peter Mills said: “My constituents want blood.”
Chris Collins, trust historian, said the papers show the “chaos” Lady Thatcher had to deal with.
The documents are available for public scrutiny from today at www.margaretthatcher.org