Thatcher to face rival

Press, 6 December 1989, Page 10

Thatcher to face rival

NZPA-Reuter London Britain’s Conservative Party will vote for a leader today in an unprecedented challenge to the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. Her challenger, a maverick member of Parliament, Sir Anthony Meyer, has no chance of winning but Mrs Thatcher’s campaign managers have been working tirelessly to convert the undecided. Mrs Thatcher’s authority could be bruised by the number of abstentions. Her campaign manager, George Younger, is trying to turn around the so-called "wobblers” who plan to abstain and so register disapproval with her performance. Mr Younger said yesterday that there might be 40 abstainers. Some members of Parliament were abroad and had not secured proxies. This could swell the number of abstentions and distort the result. Conservative Party rules dictate that there must be an election for party leader within 28 days of the opening of a new session of Parliament, which reconvened on November 21. Mrs Thatcher, aged 64, has previously been unopposed. It will be the first test of her party leadership since she toppled Edward Heath in 1975 and four years later won the first of three successive general elections. Sir Anthony, aged 69, a politician about whom so little was

known before he announced his candidature that the tabloid press dubbed him “Sir Nobody," said last week he provoked a challenge to protest against Mrs Thatcher’s European policy. A staunch advocate of closer harmony with the European Community, the liberal Leftwinger says he is challenging Mrs Thatcher not for the leadership but for her leadership. “I have nothing personal against her. But I have opposed her all along as leader.” But he praised Mrs Thatcher’s achievements.

Mrs Thatcher’s team believes a hard core of 20 Conservative members of Parliament will vote for Sir Anthony, with perhaps half that number abstaining. If the forecast proves accurate, Mrs Thatcher will sail through the challenge. If more than 50 withhold their votes, her image will suffer. To achieve a clear win and avoid a second ballot, which would allow other candidates to enter, Mrs Thatcher must be backed by 215 of the 374 Conservative members of the House of Commons. Sir Anthony’s challenge has embarrassed Mrs Thatcher at a time when high inflation has alienated some traditional Conservative voters. Her handling of the resignation of the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Nigel Lawson, has raised questions about her leadership style.