Leaving Common Market disastrous for Borders - Thatcher

by OUR POLITICAL STAFF

Boris Johnson, currently touring the country in his bid for the top job and promising the hardest of hard Brexits if necessary, appears to have overlooked the warning given by his political heroine Margaret Thatcher that leaving the Common Market would be disastrous for the Borders knitwear industry and for Border farmers.

The favourite to succeed Theresa May as Prime Minister has never hidden his unwavering admiration for Britain's first female leader. He has even promoted the idea of having a London airport named in her honour. And he lionised "Maggie" in his 2013 Margaret Thatcher Lecture, not long after her death.

'The Iron Lady's' doom-laden sentiments on the impact a British exit from Europe would have on Borders industry and agriculture were contained in a letter dated May 17th 1983 which she sent to Tory hopeful the late Iain Sproat, her party's candidate in the Roxburgh & Berwickshire constituency.

Sproat had successfully won and retained the Aberdeen South seat throughout the 1970s, but feared for his political life at the 1983 General Election. So he abandoned his constituents and sought refuge in the Borders where he thought his chances of a safe return to Westminster were much higher. He could not have been more wrong!

But he must have been heartened by the arrival of Margaret Thatcher's letter which predicted success for him in his efforts to unseat Roxburgh & Berwickshire's Liberal MP Archy Kirkwood. The correspondence was declassified un 2013 under the so-called 30-year rule and is among a vast collection of papers and letters which can be accessed on the website of the Margaret Thatcher Foundation.

The PM of the day wrote: "I was very disappointed indeed that the announcement of the General Election prevented me from visiting the Borders as you had arranged for me to do. I very much hope that after the Election, with you as the Member of Parliament, it will be possible to rearrange my visit. I was much looking forward to visiting Hawick again.

"Hawick traditionally typifies so many of those qualities of hard work, self-respect and independence that I admire so much. In particular, I was looking forward to seeing round Pringle's, and also to meeting representatives of the rest of the knitwear industry in Hawick, during my visit. I have been greatly impressed by the magnificent achievements of the knitwear industry in the Borders in spite of the enormous difficulties caused by the world recession, and now that it seems that we are pulling out of the recession, the knitwear industry in the Borders will be well placed to take advantage of new conditions.

 

"Thinking about the knitwear industry, underlines one other reason, of course, why it is so important that a Conservative Government, which has already proved how it can bring down inflation, and interest rates, is returned at the Election. It is a grim thought what the spendthrift policies of any future Labour Government (under Michael Foot) would do to places like Hawick: rocketing inflation and interest rates would be inevitable under Labour and ruinous to the knitwear industry - as well as to so many other industries and businesses in the Borders. Labour's policy of taking this country out of the Common Market would also be disastrous for the knitwear industry - as well as for the Border farmers.

 

"I know that Borderers have always been too sensible in the past to vote Labour, and I am sure they will not vote Labour this time either. But it would be a tragedy for the Borders if by voting Liberal in the Borders, they(let Michael Foot and) the Socialists in at Westminster. The only way to keep the Socialists out of Government is by voting Conservative. And by voting for you as their Conservative MP, Borderers will have the satisfaction of knowing that they will have as their MP somebody who, as a Borderer himself, can put over the Border view where it really matters - with the next Conservative Government!"

In a hand written note on the draft letter Mrs Thatcher ordered "Please keep out all references to Labour personalities. We fight on policies."

So the references to Michael Foot which we have enclosed in brackets were removed from the final text.

Brexit in 2019 may still be 'disastrous' for what little is left of the local knitwear industry and for the farmers who stand to lose the Common Agricultural Policy payments from Europe. But Boris Johnson, unlike his hero, doesn't seem to think so.

Footnote: For the record Iain Sproat, branded a carpetbagger and an opportunist by critics lost to Kirkwood while, ironically, the Tories held Aberdeen South. The 1983 Roxburgh & Berwickshire result was:

A Kirkwood (Liberal) 15,920 (50.3% of votes cast); I Sproat (Conservative) 12,524 (39.6%); D Briggs (Labour) 2,326 (7.4%); R Shirley (SNP) 852 (2.7%). The Labour and SNP candidates lost their deposits. The turnout was 75.8%.

Results were very different at a national level with Mrs Thatcher racking up a landslide victory and a majority of over 140 seats. The final outcome - Conservatives 13 million votes, 397 seats (+58) and 42.4% share of the vote; Labour 8.4 million votes, 209 seats (-60) and 28.3% of the vote; and Liberal/SDP 7.7 million votes, 23 seats (+12) and 25.4% of the vote.