Speeches, etc.

Margaret Thatcher

Radio Interview for IRN (General Election announcement)

Document type: Speeches, interviews, etc.
Venue: No.10 Downing Street
Source: Thatcher Archive: COI transcript
Journalist: Peter Murphy, IRN
Editorial comments: 1500-1615 was set aside for interviews on the General Election announcement. No.10 announced the General Election shortly after 1400.
Importance ranking: Major
Word count: 1063
Themes: General Elections, Leadership

Peter Murphy, IRN

Can I ask you first of all, Prime Minister, why have you decided on June when you have still got another year to go?

Prime Minister

Because, as I have always said, we never take an election before the end of the fourth year, but any time between the end of the fourth year and the fifth year where you have to have it is time when you can take an election. During that year, you find sometimes what is happening now. That people are a bit uncertain as to the future. They hold up investment decisions, and you also find sometimes—but very much this year—there are enormously important international issues and some of the decisions are going to be taken this coming year. We have taken a leading part in those, but your partners whom you are negotiating with want to feel that there is confidence in the future and want to know where they are, and I think therefore it is best to take an election now. [end p1]

Peter Murphy, IRN

So did you more or less get forced into a decision for June?

Prime Minister

Oh no, no. One is not forced into anything. It is, for the reasons which I have indicated. It would not necessarily be the same next time.

Peter Murphy, IRN

Did you ever have any doubts though yesterday, as you met with your Cabinet colleagues, to pick June 11th?

Prime Minister

We just discussed things very very thoroughly to make certain that we have looked at all aspects of the subject, and you know, several brains are always better than one in these matters, and you have to look at them before you take a decision which once taken you cannot go back on.

Peter Murphy, IRN

Do you enter this election campaign as confident as you were in 1983?

Prime Minister

I am never overconfident. All my life I have had to work for anything that we have been able to be successful in gaining. We had to work extremely hard for the 1979 victory; extremely hard again for the 1983 victory. We work every inch of the way. I hope and [end p2] believe we shall win. I hope and believe we shall win with a good majority, but my goodness me, we shall work for it!

Peter Murphy, IRN

The opinion polls at the moment are fairly volatile. Although you are way ahead in those polls, are you not taking a chance? You are giving up a massive majority in the House of Commons. Are you not taking a chance on an uncertain future?

Prime Minister

One has to submit oneself to the electorate. That is what democracy is all about. You have to submit yourself to their judgment.

I think, for the reasons I have given, that I have chosen the right date to do it and the right time.

Peter Murphy, IRN

How is this campaign going to be fought? Is it going to be fought, do you think, on policies or personalities?

Prime Minister

We always fight on policies. We always have. It is our policies and our will to put them into effect which has brought us victory in the past. It is those policies, our resolve, our decisiveness and our belief in the freedom and opportunity of the British people which has got Britain to have strong economic growth, to be strong in defence, to have a wide property-owning democracy, [end p3] and to achieve the things we have now.

Peter Murphy, IRN

Will you have a lot of new policies to put to the electorate to prove that you have not run out of steam?

Prime Minister

Yes indeed. There will be no charge that we have run out of steam. We shall have continuity. You do not give up a policy that has achieved so much, under which industry has become strong and under which we have been able to compete in the world. But, of course, new occasions teach new duties, have new needs, have new requirements, and we shall put those again fairly and squarely to the British people.

Peter Murphy, IRN

Do you think the Opposition parties are likely to concentrate on your role as Leader of the Conservative Party? Will they make your role as Leader a major election issue?

Prime Minister

That is a matter for them. If they have not got anything to say about policy, they will have to concentrate on personalities. I think that is a bad way to run an election.

Peter Murphy, IRN

Do you think it could be a dirty election campaign? [end p4]

Prime Minister

I hope not. We shall in fact fight on policies. We shall fight on our own positive policies and naturally, we shall have something to say about the policies of other people, because we do not think that those policies are right.

Peter Murphy, IRN

There has been speculation in the past about how long you would remain Prime Minister if you won this coming election. Would you see out the whole term?

Prime Minister

I would like to go on. I love the work. I am a workaholic in the job—I freely admit it—but you know, to consider going on for a fourth time, which I hope and would like to be able to do, we have first to win a third term, so let us take life one step at a time.

Peter Murphy, IRN

You would quite like to be Prime Minister into the year 2000?

Prime Minister

Well, that would be beyond a fourth term. Let us win the third term first.

Peter Murphy, IRN

Are you looking forward to this campaign? [end p5]

Prime Minister

Yes, of course, but why one hesitates is you look forward to it tremendously, believing that you are going to get the right result. If we did not get such a good result, then I would not look back on it so happily.

Peter Murphy, IRN

Of course, you have had experience now of two election campaigns as Leader. Do you expect it is going to be a very tiring time ahead?

Prime Minister

It is always tiring. If you are fighting, really righting well, it will be tiring, but then, I am used to a tiring life, so that is no different from the life I live now.

Peter Murphy, IRN

Looking ahead, which of the parties worries you most in the election campaign? Is it the strength of the Alliance or is it…   .

Prime Minister

My only worry is both winning and getting a good majority for confidence abroad, that is my objective and I concentrate my mind on that.