Shirley Tart talk to the Leader of the Opposition about clothes, her energetic routine—and her prospects of becoming Britain's first woman Prime Minister …

The lady in waiting

We were chatting about clothes, as women will from time to time.

“Look,” she said standing up for inspection, “it's skirt lengths which make clothes a nuisance sometimes. This suit is actually old but it's the sort of thing I wear when I'm in the office all day. But now that skirts are longer it doesn't feel quite right, apart from that there is nothing at all wrong with it.

“I haven't a very big wardrobe for the job I have to do—I can't afford it—that's why they often see me in the same old things. I have to keep my nicer things for going on tour.”

This was Margaret Thatcher yesterday morning in her comfortable room at the House of Commons otherwise eerie in its apparent inactivity. They were still washing the lovely mosaic floor in the Central Lobby when I was collected soon after 9 a.m.

Mrs Thatcher had someone with her and after my allotted and hard won half hour her next caller was waiting. The day looked set to hurl by at the same speed.

Election

Today and tomorrow she is in the West Midlands—probably wearing fawn or brown she thought, on account of the fact that all her blue has been cleaned, laundered, pressed and mended ready to burst out of her Chelsea home and on to the election hustings.

Yesterday she was wearing pretty peach but any time now she hopes to be back in blue.

She is ready for the battle whenever the Prime Minister decides to call an election. She is also ready to take his job and she truly believes she will. She thinks that this is her moment. That time when everything falls right for tackling the summit.

Sipping a coffee she crossed one elegant leg over the other. Contrary to some reports she is not spreading round the middle, doesn't set her hair with concrete and is not bionic.

She said with conviction: “I now accept that things will come the way I have been working for. I accepted when I took over the party leadership that I would have at least 10 years dedicated to politics and the family are wholly behind me. I couldn't have done it 10 years ago because the children would have been too young and perhaps I would have been too young as well.

“That gives me extra confidence … when things click into place. No one could have known how things would have gone but it's all just right. The children are 25 and I'm free. My Denis Thatcherhusband is partly retired and can come out and about with me which is very nice and I really think I'm just about the right age—neither too young nor too old. I am young enough to be in touch with the next generation and old enough to have gained the experience for the job.”

Resilient

You can't overlook the fact that she is on her third major career—she has a science degree and qualified as a barrister before going into politics—which makes her a formidable lady by any standards. She also managed to have her family—twins, Carol and Mark, in one go.

Having said that, there is more to her than the Iron Maiden image which has been slapped on her. Of course anybody—man or woman—has to be tough, resilient and dedicated to make it to the top. But she does have other interests, can produce a nice sense of humour and thinks that anyone who takes over the role of Prime Minister would be very insensitive if they were not a bit apprehensive and had at least a few qualms.

This relaxed, friendly and chatty lady—I have always found her quite charming and unaffected to talk to—has been painted, sculpted, insulted, applauded and hailed by some as the political giantess of the century. If she pulls off an election coup this autumn—or next year at the latest—her personal cup must surely run over.

She is already the most important political woman we have seen since Lady Astor entered the House on a wave of [end p2] male disapproval to take her seat as the first woman MP. To lead a major party is success. To lead it to victory and a Downing Street address for yourself has to be the icing on a very special cake.

But you still need more than ability to even consider running the country. What, for instance, about health and strength?

“I reckon I've got a good constitution and stamina, some of which has come with training. If you have such a long day as I do you can't miss too many meals so I try to eat properly without putting on weight.”

Which prompted me to pose a question about some of the extraordinary personal comments about her—hairstyles and hats apart—and whether they really do cut deeply. I noticed for instance that a woman writer recently suggested that she was bulging round the middle and should perhaps wear a girdle.

The famous eyebrows shot into her hairline—she hadn't seen the remark—and with half a smile she said: “Well there's no point in losing sleep or getting bothered about that sort of thing.” She looked down to waist level and added drily: “Perhaps she was right. That does happen to women of my age sometimes.”

In fact, she is particularly trim for 52 and has the sort of boundless energy which can leave you breathless. No, she never gets so exhausted that she thinks she must stop. “While there is something to be done you do it. When the adrenalin flows you can carry on. I think it's when you stop that you realise how tired you are.”

It is well known that she operates at full speed on around five hours sleep, but she does like one decent night a week. She has her hair washed on Monday mornings and it simply has to last, at the most it might get a few rollers popped in at the end of the week. Which is one aspect where she finds hats useful “for covering up if your hair is really a mess.”

Since she became leader three years ago she has been dissected and reassembled in a glut of interviews. She can't move without causing comment and it is this one aspect of her glittering career which does bother her sometimes.

“Not for myself,” she says, “but it is difficult for one's children having a mum like me and it does bring everything they do to the gossip columnists' attention which is very difficult for them. One tries to protect them from it, but you can't because every single thing you do becomes public.

“If you see anyone privately there are headlines talking about secret meetings. And it might only have been a friend you were talking to. Your own life is never as glamorous, you know, as other people see it. I just have a job to do and try to get on with it. I'm very lucky to have it.

She fairly glows when she talks of work. She wallows in it all the time, anywhere. And the impressive academic background adds credence to the thought that she is probably a workaholic.

She entered the House in 1959 and reckons that she couldn't have even thought about it until Members were paid enough to keep them. “I never really had that sort of background and it isn't right to go into Parliament then hope to pick up an outside job. I have no private income, everything I have has to be earned.”

Could that be one reason why she is so keen on encouraging people to work, earn and pay their way?

Revolt

She nods vigorously: “Yes, yes. And particularly that whatever people get should be earned.” She also firmly believes that on the whole people want to be more conservative (she hopes with large and small Cs) and that even Mr Callaghan recognises it.

“All over the world there is a revolt against high taxation and we recognise this ourselves. As a party we have always changed with the times by conserving the past and using it as a sure foundation.”

But her basic beliefs don't change and it is this conviction that she and her party can offer good and acceptable government which helps in the way she faces the possibility of being the first woman Prime Minister.

Of her career she says: “I took the ball as it bounced up each time. As the opportunities came up I took them. Of course I'm a bit nervous about approaching a new job, who wouldn't be? But by the time you have the sort of experience in and out of politics which I now have, there also comes an extra confidence.”