{"id":788,"date":"2025-10-14T05:58:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T05:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/788\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T05:58:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T05:58:08","slug":"did-the-queen-break-royal-protocol-to-criticise-margaret-thatcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/788\/","title":{"rendered":"Did the Queen break Royal protocol to criticise Margaret Thatcher?"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the latest Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things podcast, royal biographers Robert Hardman and Andrew Morton\u00a0debate the late Queen’s relationships with her 15 Prime Ministers.<\/a><\/p>\n

From Winston Churchill to Liz Truss<\/a>, the historians assess the impact individual leaders had on her 70-year reign.<\/p>\n

They highlight Margaret Thatcher<\/a> as having a particularly trying relationship with the Queen, despite both women being close in age and attempting to leave their mark on the male dominated halls of British power.<\/p>\n

The monarch and the Iron Lady came dangerously close to a public rift in 1986, when the Sunday Times published a story with the headline, ‘Queen dismayed by ‘uncaring’ Thatcher<\/a>‘.<\/p>\n

\"From <\/p>\n

From Winston Churchill to Liz Truss, the historians assess the impact individual leaders had on her 70-year reign<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The monarch and the Iron Lady came dangerously close to a public rift in 1986<\/p>\n

The article alleged the Queen was displeased with her Prime Minister’s policy approach, signalling a potential break from the political neutrality that had defined the modern royal family<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Under intense scrutiny, the Sunday Times stood by their story. Palace officials soon identified the Queen’s own Press Secretary, Michael Shea, as the source.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the episode, Hardman and Morton break down the scandal and reveal whether the Queen had actually taken a political stand, or if the article was simply the work of one rogue press secretary.<\/p>\n

The bombshell article that ‘desperately hurt’ the Iron Lady<\/p>\n

The article, published on July 20, 1986, took aim at both Thatcher’s foreign and domestic policies.<\/p>\n

It alleged the Queen viewed the Conservative government as socially divisive and lacking in compassion, particularly regarding Thatcher’s treatment of miners during the year-long strike of 1984-85.<\/p>\n

On the world stage, the piece claimed the monarch was dismayed by Thatcher’s hostility towards the Commonwealth and her approval of US air strikes on Colonel Gaddafi’s Libya.<\/p>\n

To the public, the article appeared to confirm long-standing rumours of a tense relationship that had swirled since Thatcher assumed power in 1979.<\/p>\n

Buckingham Palace immediately released a statement describing the story as ‘entirely without foundation’, insisting the Queen enjoyed ‘a relationship of the closest confidentiality’ with Mrs Thatcher.<\/p>\n

‘They really were extraordinary allegations’, Hardman told the podcast.<\/p>\n

‘To make out the Queen was actively subverting her Prime Minister and wanted that story out there.’<\/p>\n

According to Charles Moore’s authorised biography, Thatcher was ‘desperately hurt’ by the piece, particularly the accusation she was ‘uncaring’.<\/p>\n

A mole hunt began inside the Palace. Suspicion quickly fell on Michael Shea, the Queen’s left-leaning Press Secretary.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The article, published on July 20, 1986, took aim at both Thatcher’s foreign and domestic policies<\/p>\n

\"Suspicion <\/p>\n

Suspicion quickly fell on Michael Shea (pictured right), the Queen’s left-leaning Press Secretary<\/p>\n

\"Despite <\/p>\n

Despite rumours of a rift, the historians describe Thatcher and the Queen’s relationship as one built on mutual respect<\/p>\n

Shea admitted to the conversation but denied being accurately represented in the article.<\/p>\n

He left royal service in 1987, departing under a cloud less than a year after the controversy.<\/p>\n

‘Within a few months, Shea departed’, Morton, writer of the bombshell book, Diana: Her True Story, explained.<\/p>\n

‘He wasn’t blamed, in the sense of being sacked, but he was urged to move on and look elsewhere.<\/p>\n

‘That was a shame \u2013 I really liked Michael. He was very decent Press Secretary, who wrote good books too.’<\/p>\n

In a pointed snub, Shea did not receive the knighthood typically bestowed on departing press secretaries, despite nine years of service to the Queen.<\/p>\n

Despite rumours of a rift, the historians describe Thatcher and the Queen’s relationship as one built on mutual respect.<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardman said: ‘Obviously, they had very different temperaments and were from completely different backgrounds.<\/p>\n

‘The Queen was not naturally confrontational. Thatcher would have a confrontation with anyone who stood in her way.<\/p>\n

‘Thatcher had huge respect for the Queen \u2013 it’s overblown I think, the idea they were at loggerheads.’<\/p>\n

The Queen later awarded Thatcher one of Britain’s highest honours, the Order of Merit, and attended both her 80th birthday and funeral in 2013.<\/p>\n

To discover which Prime Minister the Queen liked the least, search for Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things now, wherever you get your podcasts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the latest Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things podcast, royal biographers Robert Hardman and Andrew Morton\u00a0debate the late…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[818,978,979,9,24,980,12,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-dailymail","tag-liz-truss","tag-margaret-thatcher","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-times","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}