PM stresses wider choice

By Richard Evans, Lobby Editor

THE PRIME MINISTER urged Conservative MPs yesterday to hammer home the Government's determination to increase the freedom of choice for both industry and individuals.

Mrs. Thatcher told a 1922 Committee lunch at the Savoy that, after only a few weeks in office, the Government had ensured that, for the first time in years, industry had control of prices, wages and dividends.

Her message was that the incoming Government had got off to a flying start but needed to get its policy of higher rewards and better incentives across with the maximum impact.

She stressed that it was only by increasing productivity that higher expenditure both by the individual and the state would be possible.

The Prime Minister admitted there would be political squalls ahead, as some of the Government's politices were implemented, and it was then that the total support of backbenchers would be needed and expected.

But the occasion was essentially a celebratory one, as 200 Tory MPs and peers applauded their leader and congratulated her on the election victory.

The MPs presented her with a gold brooch containing a 1922 motif.

Mrs. Thatcher told her audience that the Socialists had now lost the intellectual ascendancy they had claimed since the War. The Tories had clearly won the political argument at the General Election.

Second, she claimed that the Labour Party had now lost the moral ascendency that had governed its thinking on social issues.

Now the major task that faced the Government was to change people's attitudes and to ensure that people continue to move towards a freer society and away from socialist restrictions.

In her view, the tactics of the Opposition were designed not to save the country from failure but to save it from policies of success.

This was the only interpretation that could be placed on the Labour Party's fierce opposition to the Government's desire to increase incentive and productivity.