The Queen and Margaret Thatcher’s tense relationship revealed

The Sunday Times ran the headline: “Queen dismayed by ‘uncaring’ Thatcher”, and reported that the rift between monarch and Prime Minister over South Africa and the Commonwealth was indeed real.

In Thatcher’s biography, Moore writes, “Buckingham Palace rushed out a statement, saying that ‘as with all previous prime ministers, the Queen enjoys a relationship of the closest confidentiality with Mrs Thatcher, and reports purporting to be the Queen’s opinion of government policies are entirely without foundation'”.

But apparently it was the Queen’s press secretary Michael Shea who told Andrew Neil, the editor of the Sunday Times.

So the Queen needed to quash the rumours and rang Mrs Thatcher to tell her “that she ‘could not imagine how the story came to be circulated, and anyway it bears no relation to the truth as I understand it . . .'”, wrote Moore.

“Many people were naturally disposed to believe the Palace denial (or apparent denial), which was repeated by [Sir William] Heseltine (the Queen’s private secretary) in a letter to the Times. But the fact that the story had come from the Queen’s press secretary meant that the paper and its proprietor, Rupert Murdoch, were able to stand by it. It was clear to Mrs Thatcher, therefore, that there had been some truth in it”.

It was believes that Mrs Thatcher felt desperately hurt by the Queen’s dislike for her, but never verbalised it.

Tell us, do you think the Queen should have revealed that she wasn’t a big fan of Thatcher, even to her most trusted people? Did you like Thatcher yourself?