Margaret Thatcher was warned over feuding ministers, archives reveal

Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was advised to assert her authority over her feuding ministers, newly-released government files reveal.

In a note following the Westland affair, press secretary Bernard Ingham urged her to take action to show the government "knows what it is doing".

He warned that so far it appeared to be "at the mercy of events".

Defence Secretary Michael Heseltine quit in January 1986 in a row over the future of Westland helicopter firm.

The battle for control of the company was one of the most divisive political rows of Mrs Thatcher's second term in office.

In his message to the PM in the months that followed, Mr Ingham said: "You need to be seen to be imposing your will on things."

'Moaning subjectively'

His comments were echoed by the then chief whip, John Wakeham, who said ministers were behaving "as a string of one-man, single-issue pressure groups, without regard to collective responsibility."

He added: "This merely serves to give backbenchers and the media the impression that, far from being a united, purposeful government, we are a bunch of undisciplined politicians in unco-ordinated competition with each other."

Mr Ingham also criticised the approach taken to dealing with the media by Mrs Thatcher's ally, the then party chairman Norman Tebbit.

"In my experience, the media, and not least the BBC's Today programme, welcome advice, put in a constructive way, about where they have got their facts wrong," he wrote.

"This is quite different from moaning subjectively about programmes.

"I am afraid Mr Tebbit has acquired a reputation with some broadcasters as simply a moaner. This does no good."

'Not for turning'

In another note, after the 1985 Autumn Statement, Mr Ingham invoked one of Mrs Thatcher's most famous phrases as he noted that the "appalling press" he had expected had not materialised.

"The opposition is in a state of frustration/sulk/defeat because it does not know where to turn," he wrote.

Former press secretary Bernard Ingham, seen here with Margaret Thatcher in 1998, warned against government indiscipline

"This is not a question of whether you are right or wrong. Most people haven't a clue either way. But their gut feeling is that they don't believe you are for turning, after six years."

He added: "So far, so good. We can't count on it lasting. But remember you are not for turning, have not turned and will not turn.

"That's the Maggie they know."