🗣️ 'We admire him and are fond of him.' 🗓️ So said John Major about Edward Heath on this day, 25 February, in 1997 after Heath was criticised by some Conservative MPs for an interview he had given at the weekend in which he had been critical of the party.

🚨 On this day, 24 February, in 1744, Robert Walpole (the 1st Earl of Orford) made history by giving the first speech in Parliament by an ex-Prime Minister. 🗣️ With 'emotion and spirit', he spoke about the House of Lords' response to a message from King George II on The Young Pretender and France.

📰 'Blair admits Thatcher "not all wrong" on EU'. 🗓️ So ran the headline of an article in The Times on this day, 23 February, in 2000 on a speech Blair was making in which he spoke about Margaret Thatcher's Bruges speech.

📰 'Et tu, Maggie?' 🗓️ So ran the headline of a story in The Times on this day, 22 February, in 1991 about Margaret Thatcher complaining to environment minister, Robert Key, that Government support to her local council was too low, meaning her local poll tax was too high.

🗣️ 'I might have preferred iron. But bronze will do. It won't rust.' 🗓️ So said Margaret Thatcher on this day, 21 February, in 2007 as she unveiled her statue at the House of Commons. 📘 There's more in 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street': www.bitebackpublishing.com/books/margar...

🗣️ 'On the whole, I prefer solid experience to an uncertain future.' 🗓️So said Alec Douglas-Home on this day, 20 February, in 1984 in an intervention on the Telecommunications Bill, the Bill which, amongst other things, privatised British Telecom.

🗣️ She 'would be making a “major European speech"' in a couple of months' time. 🗓️ So Margaret Thatcher's office advised the British Embassy in Holland on this day, 18 February, in 1992. 📘 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' covers the Hague speech in depth.

🗣️ 'It is not that we object to the Government making changes. The trouble is that they always make the wrong changes.' 🗓️ So said Jim Callaghan on this day, 17 February, in 1994, in an intervention in a speech by Home Office minister, Earl Ferrers.

🗣️ 'The salvation of the individual which is, in some ways, the central part of Christian teaching'. 🗓️ So said Alec Douglas-Home on this day, 16 February, in 1977, during an oral question on religious education.

🗣️ 'Oh, I adore her. I’ve written about her in books and speeches. She was the ultimate Iron Lady.' 📰 So the press reported on this day, 15 February, in 2023, Nikki Haley saying of Margaret Thatcher as she launched her campaign to be the Republican presidential nominee.

😊 There was a fourth post-war former prime minister to reach the age of 90: James Callaghan in 2002. 🥳 Although we can't find any reference to his birthday in the Cabinet minutes, Tony Blair did host a party for him at 10 Downing Street in April 2002.

💌 'A warm letter of thanks'. 🥳 There was a third former prime minister whose 90th birthday was mentioned in Cabinet. 🎁 Alec Douglas-Home's response to a gift presented to him was the second item of business at the Cabinet held on 15 July 1993.

😊 There was a fourth post-war former prime minister to reach the age of 90: James Callaghan in 2002. 🥳 Although we can't find any reference to his birthday in the Cabinet minutes, Tony Blair did host a party for him at 10 Downing Street in April 2002.

✍🏻 'A message of greeting and congratulation'. 🥳 Harold Macmillan was not the first former prime minister to have their 90th birthday raised in Cabinet. 🗓️ On 26 November 1964, Winston Churchill's 90th birthday was the second item of business in that day's Cabinet.

😊 'Recalled with pride, with gratitude and with affection his lifetime of outstanding service to his country.' 🗣️ So opened the Cabinet meeting on 9 February 1984 when the first item of business was Harold Macmillan's 90th birthday.

🥰 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' in Hatchards at St Pancras. 🤩 Great to see the company it's in, especially the Tennyson biography as Lady Thatcher quoted him in opening her tribute to Nicholas Ridley: 🗣️ 'A man who never sold the truth to serve the hour.’

🗓️ During Prime Minister's Questions on this day, 9 February, in 1982, Jim Callaghan said that withdrawing HMS Endurance from the South Atlantic was 'an error that could have serious consequences'. 🗣️ He told Margaret Thatcher he had 'turned [the idea] down flat' when he was PM.

🗓️ In 1975, Harold Macmillan wrote that Stanley Baldwin was 'in many ways comparable to [Robert] Walpole'. 💡One thing Walpole and Baldwin had in common was that as ex-Prime Ministers, they intervened in Parliament just once. 🚨 They are the only two to intervene on only one occasion.

🚨 Today's question for students of the Office of Former Prime Minister: where does Gordon Brown's intervention on the Peter Mandelson case, including on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme this morning, rank in post-prime ministerial interventions? www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/202...

🗣️ 'We always know when the Government are in trouble. They are lucky to have...Lord Whitelaw, to present a reasonable case on their behalf when they do not always seem totally capable of it themselves.' 🗓️ So said Jim Callaghan on this day, 6 February, in 1996.

🗓️ On this day, 5 February, in 1992, Chris Patten, then Conservative Chairman, wrote to one of John Major's advisers about Margaret Thatcher's role in that year's General Election. 📘 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' covers that in depth: www.bitebackpublishing.com/books/margar...

🗓️ On this day, 4 February, in 1975, Edward Heath resigned as Conservative leader. 🚨 Like Margaret Thatcher's, his life after Downing Street has been shrouded in myth too, misrepresented, and misunderstood. ✅ Like his successor, he also continued serving his country, at home and abroad.

🥳 On this day, 3 February, in 1994, Margaret Thatcher spoke at an event for Ronald Reagan's 83rd birthday. 👏🏻 The speech was interrupted by applause 20 times. 😂 By laughter 5 times. 🔗 The Margaret Thatcher Foundation has the speech in full: www.margaretthatcher.org/document/108... 🧵 1/

🗓️ On this day, 2 February, in 1983, John Vincent said Edward Heath risked ‘injury to the valuable convention that ex-premiers are national figures above the storm.’ 🤔 There is not (and never was) such a convention so it was wrong about Heath, as is much of the commentary about him as an ex-PM.

🚨 January 2026 update on ex-PMs' parliamentary activity. 💥 History made! 👑 Rishi Sunak takes Jim Callaghan's crown and now averages the most interventions per session since 1955: 27 to Callaghan's 26. 👀 Helped by this long session, but still impressive!

🚨 January has been a historic month in relation to 'The Office of Former Prime Minister'. 👀 Check back tomorrow for why. 💥 Exciting!

🗣️ 'He's getting awfully bossy.' 📰 So Margaret Thatcher said about Tony Blair (🤭 yes, really), in a report published on this day, 31 January, in 1999. 💎 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' is stuffed full of such gems of Lady Thatcher being entirely herself.

🚨 Perhaps Margaret Thatcher's greatest legacy of all: still able to wind people up (to dizzying heights), 35 years after she left office and 13 years after she died. ✍🏻 A brilliant illustration from @iaindale.bsky.social of how even now she's still the one we can and do debate most of all.

🗣️ 'I quite agree you get independent-minded Members in all Parties; they are generally regarded as a nuisance by the Whips but they do enliven the Parties'. 🗓️ So said Clement Attlee on this day, 30 January, in 1958 in a debate on life peerages.

🎉 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' was published 6 months old today. 🙏🏻 A massive thank you to everyone who's bought it. 🔗 If you don't have a copy yet, or wanted to gift one, it currently has a 36% discount on Amazon: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178590920...

🗣️ 'Increasingly over the past 18 years the Government have behaved in an arrogant manner to most people who are concerned with public affairs, whether it be the Civil Service or either House.' 🗓️ So said Jim Callaghan on this day, 28 January, in 1997, when speaking on the Police Bill.

✍🏻 'The Iron Lady is back in style with fashion gurus' was the headline of a Daily Telegraph article on this day, 27 January, in 2000. 👚 Margaret Thatcher's wardrobe was a key part of her life after Downing Street. 📰More from Hilary Armstrong below. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politic...

🥳 This is me with my grandmother, Ivy Mary Just, who would have been 120 today. 📘 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' is dedicated to her, one reason being that is thanks to Grandma that I first learnt of Margaret Thatcher's unrivalled ability to irritate men.

🗓️ On this day in 1956, 25 January, Clement Attlee took his seat in the House of Lords as the first Earl Attlee. 🚨 One of his supporters was Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, Stanley Baldwin's son. 🗣️ The new Earl became one of the most parliamentary active ex-PMs.

It's #PMQs at Westminster. But is being Prime Minister now an impossible job? Historian @robertsaunders.bsky.social of the @mileendinstitute.bsky.social explores why PMs burn out so fast, broken leadership pipelines, and why leaders should trust voters more. 🎧 Listen: buff.ly/bhvHQf6

💥 'SURELY HE WAS THE GREATEST OF THEM ALL.' ✍🏻 So wrote Margaret Thatcher in the Finchley Press following the death of Sir Winston Churchill on this day, 24 January, in 1965. 🔗 You can read her article on the Margaret Thatcher Foundation website: www.margaretthatcher.org/document/101...

🗓️ On this day in 2024, Theresa May asked Rishi Sunak about diabetes during Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs). 4⃣ She is one of only four ex-PMs since 1955 to take part in PMQs. 🥇 Only Jim Callaghan exceeds her in the number of PMQs asked. hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2024...

📺 On this day, 23 January, in 1985, the House of Lords was broadcast for the first time. 🎭 Performing as Earl of Stockton, Harold Macmillan spoke. 📸 There are also glimpses of his two immediate successors as PM: Alec Douglas-Home and Harold Wilson. www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CzE...

🚨 Margaret Thatcher was many things, after 1990 perhaps even more than before: person, persona, practising politician, political deity. 💡 After Downing Street she was something else too: prophet. 🌎 The Manila speech is an example of her prophesying the world we now live in.

📢 'It is in all our interests to keep [the United States] committed to upholding international order, which means remaining a Pacific and indeed a European power.' 🗓️ So said Margaret Thatcher 30 years ago today, 22 January 1996, in Manila: margaretthatcher.org/document/108... 🧵 1/

🗣️ 'We are making another move in the gradual secularisation of our people and in abandoning the old principles'. 🗓️ So said Harold Macmillan on this day, 21 January, in 1986 about the Shops Bill. 🧵1/

📰 The Downing Street dinner featured on the front cover of @privateeyenews.bsky.social's 1985 Christmas issue. 📰 Richard's story in the podcast about Harold Wilson during the 1983 election also featured on a Private Eye cover, along with Jim Callaghan's intervention on defence.

🚨 Interested in the role of former Prime Ministers? 🎙️ Then check out this great recent 'Since Attlee and Churchill' podcast of an event in Downing Street in 1985 which brought together Her Majesty The Queen and six of her Prime Ministers. 🧵 1/ www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNEp...

🗣️ 'If we are to maintain the genuine belief of this House in the unity of the United Kingdom, a way must be found, otherwise the Union will not only be in danger it will be broken.' 🗓️ So said Ted Heath 50 years ago today, 19 January 1976. 🧵 1/

🗣️ 'like Tony Blair aping Alec Douglas Home' ☺️ A refreshing change from how British political history has largely been since 1990: 'Every Prime Minister attempting [and failing successfully] to ape Margaret Thatcher'.

🗣️ 'His complete conviction that the sanctity of international treaties freely entered into is the sole foundation for world peace. That is a principle which our disorderly world finds is daily underlined.' 📅 So said Alec Douglas-Home of Anthony Eden on 18 January 1977. 🧵1/

🗡 'Treachery with a smile on its face' at The National Archives. 📄 And its consequence for Margaret Thatcher. 📅 The diary erased almost to blank.

🗓️ On this day, 17 January, in 1977, Commons' tributes were paid to Anthony Eden. 🗣️ They included a speech by Ted Heath (sadly, for many reasons, Harold Macmillan was not in Parliament). 🙏🏻 Margaret Thatcher thanked Jim Callaghan for flying Eden home. 🧵 1/

🗓️ On 15 January 1993, Julian Seymour, the Director of Margaret Thatcher's office, spoke to Christopher Prentice, a Foreign Office official, about Lady Thatcher's travel plans that year. 📝 The memo was shared with John Major and Alex Allan, his PPS. 🧵 1/

🗣️ 'I have come to the conclusion that the BBC World Service is now the only impartial part of the BBC'. 🗓️ So said Ted Heath on this day, 16 January, in 1996 in a speech defending the service, including against the possibility of privatisation. hansard.parliament.uk/commons/1996...