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Was Margaret Thatcher a good prime minister?

From Theresa May to Thatcher, Stephen Bush and Jonn Elledge explore the tenures of previous leaders in a six-part series from the New Statesman Podcast.

Welcome to Prime Ministerial. In each episode Jonn Elledge and Stephen Bush will look at the legacy of the previous six prime ministers and ask whether they achieved success on their own terms.

This final episode examines Margaret Thatcher’s premiership. The first woman to be prime minister, and one of the Conservative Party’s most successful election winners, she was a divisive figure in British politics, and her legacy remains so. Thatcher won three general elections before being deposed by her MPs and replaced by her chancellor John Major, but she leaves a long shadow over the party today.

Stephen and Jonn speak to the historian Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite and Thatcher’s former aide, the MP John Whittingdale.

Produced by Adrian Bradley and May Robson, with thanks to Caroline Crampton and Nick Hilton.

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