Margaret Thatcher, the Conservative Party and the Northern Ireland Conflict, 1975-1990

Stephen Kelly

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781350115392
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Historia
• Subtopic: Historia británica moderna

Winner of the 2022 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Titles The first woman elected to lead a major Western power and the longest serving British prime minister for 150 years, Margaret Thatcher is arguably one the most dominant and divisive forces in 20th-century British politics. Yet there has been no overarching exploration of the development of Thatcher's views towards Northern Ireland from her appointment as Conservative Party leader in 1975 until her forced retirement in 1990. In this original and much-needed study, Stephen Kelly rectifies this. From Thatcher's 'no surrender' attitude to the Republican hunger strikes to her nurturing role in the early stages of the Northern Ireland peace process, Kelly traces the evolutionary and sometimes contradictory nature of Thatcher's approach to Northern Ireland. In doing so, this book reflects afresh on the political relationship between Britain and Ireland in the late-20th century. An engaging and nuanced analysis of previously neglected archival and reported sources, Margaret Thatcher, the Conservative Party and the Northern Ireland Conflict, 1975-1990 is a vital resource for those interested in Thatcherism, Anglo-Irish relations, and 20th-century British political history more broadly.

Part One

Official leader of the opposition, 1975–9

1

Thatcher and the Conservative Party’s Northern Ireland policy, 1975–9

‘[A]t this time I can see no solution to the problems in Northern Ireland …’: The genesis of Thatcher’s Northern Ireland policy

The Conservative Party’s defeat at the second British general election of 1974 (the first general election was held in February of that year, the second in October) came as a bitter disappointment to Margaret Thatcher. Although easily retaining her seat in her Finchley constituency, with a majority of almost 4,000 votes, the Conservative Party managed to secure only 277 seats, compared to the Labour Party’s 319 seats. Therefore, to the dismay of the Conservative Party leadership and rank-and-file supporters, alike, the ageing and increasingly volatile Harold Wilson, leader of the Labour Party, was provided with the opportunity to form a new administration under his premiership.

The loss of the general election was a political disaster for Edward Heath. This was his third general election defeat since his appointment as leader of the Conservative Party in 1965. Privately, like many of her senior Conservative Party colleagues, Thatcher now arrived at the conclusion that Heath must step aside as party leader. ‘I had no doubt’, she recalled in The path to power, ‘that Ted now ought to go.’¹ As soon as the general election was over, in the words of John Campbell, the struggle for the leadership of the Conservative Party was ‘unofficially on’.² The question, was, however, who should succeed Heath?

Initially, a cabal of anti-Heath Conservative Party MPs were spoken of as possible contenders. The main candidates to succeed Heath included William Whitelaw, chairperson of the Conservative Party; Keith Joseph, a founding member of the Conservative Party’s Centre for Policy Studies (CPS);³ Sir Edward Du Cann, chairperson of the Conservative Party’s 1922 Committee;⁴ and lastly, Ian Gilmour, chairperson of the CRD.⁵

If Thatcher’s own account of the leadership contest is to be believed, she initially ruled herself out of the running, instead favouring Keith Joseph for the position.⁶ Her recollections, however, do not paint a full picture. Although Thatcher saw Joseph as the main contender, by the winter of 1974, she did think of herself as a possible candidate for the leadership of the Conservative Party. On the general election campaign trail, between September and early October 1974, for instance, Thatcher had taken centre stage, canvassing combatively, ‘strongly promoting the middle-class interests’, including the aspiration for home ownership.⁷ As a result, her national profile had steadily grown, with more and more people becoming aware of her abilities; a useful bonus in the event of a future leadership contest.

On 21 November 1974 – the same day as the Birmingham Pub bombings, in which the PIRA murdered twenty-one people and injured a further 182 – the Executive of the Conservative Party’s 1922 Committee was informed that Thatcher would contest the post of leader of the Conservative Party (a position that technically did not exist as Heath continued to cling to power).⁸ Her decision to stand was greeted by a mixture of surprise and condescension amongst the higher echelons of the Conservative Party. Peter Walker,⁹ who served at ministerial level under Heath, summoned up the mood of the majority of senior Conservative Party figures regarding Thatcher’s chances of success: ‘Supporters could not believe that a woman who had never been anything other than Minister of Education could defeat the current male leader who had just been Prime Minister.’¹⁰

Despite garnering support from Keith Joseph and Humphrey Atkins, a perception prevailed that Thatcher’s decision to stand for the leadership of the Conservative Party was ‘nothing more than a chance to prepare the ground for a challenge by someone more serious’.¹¹ To her many critics, in the words of Ben Jackson and Robert Saunders, ‘Thatcher was a suburban housewife with no experience of high office, who seemed neither willing nor able to expand the party’s constituency.’¹² Indeed, given her sex and social background (the daughter of a shop grocer), Thatcher was seen as ‘something of an outsider in the Tories’ high circles’.¹³

To the disbelief of many within the Conservative Party, however, Thatcher pulled off a staggering leadership victory. With the support of Airey Neave, who acted as her campaign manager during the latter stages of the leadership contest, Thatcher was appointed the leader of the Conservative Party on 11 February 1975. Not only did she beat Heath in the first ballot on 4 February (Thatcher, 130 votes; Heath, 119; and Sir Hugh Fraser,¹⁴ 16), but following Heath’s resignation as party leader, she also won outright against Whitelaw, in the second ballot on 11 February (Thatcher, 146 votes; Whitelaw, 79), with the result that she did not need the third ballot.¹⁵ Thus, at 49 years of age, Thatcher became the first women leader of a major British political party.

Thatcher fondly remembered first receiving news of her victory. She recalled Neave opening the door to his office and saying, ‘so quietly’, ‘I have to tell you, you are the new Leader of the Opposition.’¹⁶ Following her election victory, she immediately tried to rally the Conservative parliamentary party, chiefly her rivals for the leadership behind her cause. ‘It is important to me’, she informed a press conference following her victory, ‘[that] this prize has been won in an open electoral contest with four other potential leaders. I know they will be disappointed, but I hope we shall soon be back working together as colleagues for the nation in which we all believe.’¹⁷

The final line-up of Thatcher’s new shadow cabinet was confirmed on 18 February 1975, less than a week after her election as leader of the Conservative Party. Whilst Heath declined a portfolio in Thatcher’s shadow cabinet, many of her previous rivals for the leadership of the Conservative Party quickly fell in behind her. In fact, former colleagues of Heath dominated her new shadow cabinet. Whitelaw duly accepted the post of deputy party leader. Sir Geoffrey Howe became shadow chancellor. Keith Joseph agreed to take over the responsibility for policy and research. Jim Prior was given employment. Francis Pym¹⁸ accepted agriculture (although he gave up the post following a nervous breakdown a few weeks later). Reginald (Reggie) Maudling¹⁹ came back to the frontbench to take on the role as shadow foreign secretary. Ian Gilmour was promoted to shadow home secretary (having briefly held the shadow secretary of state for Northern Ireland portfolio under Heath).

At his personal request, Neave, 59 years old, was appointed shadow secretary of state for Northern Ireland. The Times welcomed Neave’s appointment as the man charged with leading ‘the Tory attack on Ulster policy’.²¹ At the same time, Thatcher also made him titular head of her private office. In practice, however, Richard Ryder²² ran Thatcher’s office day to day, while Neave devoted himself to Northern Ireland policy. Neave confessed at the time that one of the reasons Thatcher decided to appoint him as titular head of the leader’s private office was to guarantee that Northern Ireland policy was kept ‘close to Mrs. Thatcher’.²³

Personally, Neave and Thatcher were relatively close to one another (their relationship, in the words of Robin Harris, ‘was built on mutual respect and obligation rather than personal affection’).²⁴ Even before Neave agreed to manage Thatcher campaign for the leadership of the Conservative Party, they had known one another for several years. As barristers, they had shared the same chambers and had been neighbours at Westminster Gardens. During Thatcher’s period as the official opposition spokesperson for social security, she had helped Neave with his Bill to make provision for pensions for the over-eighties.²⁵ A known critic of Heath (whom Neave ‘greatly disliked’),²⁶ in March 1974, Neave was elected to the anti-Heath Conservative Party 1922 Committee Executive.²⁷

As the new official leader of the opposition, Thatcher wasted little time in conducting a root and branch review of the Conservative Party’s policies. On the day of her election, she told ITN News, ‘You don’t exist as a party unless you have a clear philosophy and a clear message.’²⁸ She immediately set out a radical new path, a path designed to ‘save Britain from ever-worsening decline’, to quote Jim Tomlinson.²⁹

Thereafter, Thatcher’s central political objective – arguably obsession – was to rid Britain of the ‘basic immorality’ of Socialism, as she phrased it.³⁰ First in her sights was to secure Britain from an impending economic abyss, described by Thatcher as a ‘catastrophic national decline’.³¹ As noted below, five major economic problems dominated the shadow cabinet’s economic strategy during Thatcher’s initial years as the official leader of the opposition. These economic objectives would later form part of what many commentators have described as the economic ‘monetarist’ platform of ‘Thatcherism’.³² These five economic preoccupations were

(a) how to deduce rampant inflation;

(b) how to tackle inefficiencies and poor productivity in the bloated public sector;

(c) how to reduce pubic spending and borrowing and tackle imbalances in monetary policy (stemming from the enormous public sector deficits);

(d) how to reduce unemployment, and lastly;

(e) how to temper the power of trade unions and the reform of collective bargaining.³³

However, as Thatcher accustomed herself to her new role as leader of the...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Acknowledgements
• Note on Capitals and Formal Titles
• Note on Sources: Primary and Secondary
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Part 1 Official leader of the opposition, 1975–9
• Part 2 First-term in office, 1979–83
• Part 3 Second-term in office, 1983–7
• Part 4 Third-term in office, 1987–90
• Conclusion (including Epilogue, 1990–8)
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• Copyright Page