Margaret Thatcher Statue

Описание: Margaret Thatcher was first elected to the House of Commons in October 1959. She was promoted shortly after her election, serving as Parliamentary Undersecretary at the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance in Harold Macmillan's administration, the youngest woman ever to take up such a post at that time. She joined Ted Heath’s Cabinet as Secretary of State for Education and Science in 1970, serving in that post for the duration of that government.

Following the defeat of the Conservative Party in both the 1974 general elections, Thatcher challenged Heath’s leadership of the party. She was elected as party leader, and thus Leader of the Opposition on 11 February 1975. She would go on to secure three terms in office as Prime Minister, winning her first election in 1979.

Antony Dufort’s statue of Margaret Thatcher was commissioned by the Speaker’s Advisory Committee on Works of Art in 2003, following a change in the rules, which had previously disallowed the depiction of living Parliamentarians within the Palace of Westminster. The sculptor sought to depict her as she had appeared in the throes of debate, and with one hand pointing towards the Commons Chamber, while the other grasps an order paper. The statue was cast in bronze, and stands in Members Lobby, the antechamber of the House of Commons, opposite a statue of another Conservative Prime Minister, Winston Churchill.

Find out more: www.parliament.uk/art