Tony Benn on the resignation of Margaret Thatcher 22nd November 1990
With the reaction to the resignation of Theresa May today, much of it underlining her record on matters like Windrush and the Hostile Environment, its interesting to look back at Tony Benn’s Diary on the resignation of Margaret Thatcher.
Thatcher was of course responsible for pit closures and the destruction of a good bit of British manufacturing industry and the jobs that went with it. Even so Benn still admired her as an ideological opponent. I’m not sure May is in that class perhaps underlining the decline in the heft of the Tory Party in the last 30 years.
Thursday 22nd November 1990
I was in the middle of an interview about the war in the Gulf.. when my secretary Kathy burst in to say Margaret Thatcher had resigned. Absolutely dazzling news and it was quite impossible to keep my mind on the interview after that. So people have been to her and told her that she can’t win (a Tory leadership battle KF). She called the Cabinet together this morning and told them. But the motion of censure is still taking place this afternoon.
To the House which was in turmoil. We had the censure debate… Thatcher was brilliant. She always has her ideology to fall back on; she rolled off statistics, looked happy and joked
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