Thatcher at 100: Lavish celebrations to mark the Iron Lady’s life, lea
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Kemi Badenoch is expected to mark the 100th anniversary of Margaret Thatcher’s birth after paying a series of glowing tributes to her at the Conservative Party conference.
The Tory celebrations, 100 years after she was born on 13 October 1925, include a glittering dinner at the historic Guildhall in the City of London attended by a galaxy of A-list celebrities and veteran Tory grandees.
The Conservative leader led the tributes to Lady Thatcher at the party’s conference in Manchester, declaring in her opening speech: “As one of my great predecessors, Margaret Thatcher, put it: ‘The facts of life are Conservative’.”
Later in the speech, she added: “In the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher broke the cycle of high inflation, low growth and trade union strife, giving Britain back her national pride and economic strength.”
And responding to a Sky News YouGov poll suggesting half of Tory members don’t want her to lead the party into the next election, Ms Badenoch claimed she was being criticised just like Baroness Thatcher was when she became opposition leader in the 1970s.
“Pretty much everything that I’m experiencing now, she did,” she claimed in an interview when she was asked about attacks on her leadership and bad poll results. “She was written off.”
Ian Botham, pictured in 1986, is also expected to attend the dinner. Pic: AP
At the Guildhall dinner, the invited celebs range from national treasure Joan Collins to cricket legend Ian Botham and from Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes to bestselling author Jeffrey Archer.
The principal speaker is Sir Mark Thatcher, who – according to the organisers – will be speaking for the first time ever in public about his mother’s life, leadership and legacy.
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