Mrs Thatcher holds historic first meeting

Press, 10 May 1979, Page 9

Mrs Thatcher holds historic first meeting

NZPA-Reuter London The British Prime Minister (Mrs Margaret Thatcher) called her Cabinet together for the first time yesterday to lay down the new Conservative Government’s top priorities.

Never before in the 250year history of 10 Downing Street had a woman presided at the brown b a i z e-covered Cabinet table where Gladstone, Lloyd George, and Winston Churchill sat. The session was described as a “bedding-in” meeting to discuss broad objectives rather than any issue in detail. The 22 Cabinet members took up their posts only last Saturday night and Mrs Thatcher summoned them to settle the particular aims of her early months in office. There was little doubt these would include sweeping fiscal measures shifting the basis of taxation, and the strengthening of Britain’s armed forces. , The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Sir Geoffrey Howe) has already started preparatory work on the Budget which is expected

to cut taxation on personal incomes and put more duty on goods. The date of the Budget has not been named, but it is expected within a month.

During the campaign, Mrs Thatcher — a stern critic of Soviet militarism — also pledged she would waste no time beefing up British defences.

Her foreign policy debut comes tomorrow when the West German Chancellor (Mr Helmut Schmidt) has dinner and talks at Downing Street. The Chancellor and the former Prime Minister, James Callaghan, both socialist, conferred frequently and the visit was arranged before last week’s General Election toppled Mr Callaghan from power.

Mrs Thatcher also faces a quick decision on the domestic front: whether to “live above the shop” and make 10 Downing Street her home. British Prime Ministers have lived there since Sir Robert Walpole in the 17205. At the moment Mrs Thatcher is commuting from her Chelsea home several kilometres away.