Downing Street Years - Margaret Thatcher [190]
My first choice for the job of Foreign Secretary had been Cecil Parkinson. He and I agreed on economic and domestic policy. Neither of us had the slightest doubt that Britain’ interests must come first in foreign policy. He had served in the Falklands War Cabinet. He had just masterminded the most technically proficient general election campaign I have known. He seemed to me right for this most senior job.
However, my hopes were disappointed. In the early evening on election day after I had returned from my own constituency Cecil visited me in Downing Street and told me that he had been having an affair with his former secretary, Sara Keays. This gave me pause. But I did not immediately decide that it was an insuperable obstacle to his becoming Foreign Secretary. I was still thinking about the election. Indeed, I marvelled that with all this on his mind he had run such a magnificent campaign. I was even relieved that he had spared me the concern and distraction that it would cause at such a time. But the following day, shortly before Cecil was due for lunch at No. 10, I received a personal letter from Sara Keays’ father. It revealed that she was pregnant with Cecil’ child. When Cecil arrived I showed him the letter. It must have been one of the worst moments of his life.
It was immediately obvious that I could not send Cecil to the Foreign Office with such a cloud hanging over him. I urged him to discuss the personal questions with his family. Meanwhile I decided to make him Secretary of State for the newly combined Departments of Trade and Industry. It was a job I knew he would do well — and it was a less senior and less sensitive post than Foreign Secretary would have been.
In September I appointed John Gummer to succeed Cecil as Party Chairman (I would have appointed a new Chairman sooner or later in any case). John had been a Vice-Chairman of the Party under Ted Heath and so knew Central Office well. He is also a gifted speaker and writer. Nor was there any need for a leading minister, let alone a politician of Cecil’ stature, to be Chairman immediately after an election. Unfortunately, John Gummer was not a born administrator and when we ran into political trouble he did not carry the weight to help us get out of it.
An appointment that strengthened the Party, however, was that of John Wakeham who became Chief Whip. John would probably not dissent from his reputation as a ‘fixer’. He was on the right of the Party, a highly competent accountant, who had tried to make sense for me of British Leyland’ elliptical accounts. He had a manner which exuded self-confidence, a good deal of which was deserved. These talents made him a highly effective party manager.
Within months I had to make further important changes. At the beginning of October Cecil Parkinson, with the agreement of Sara Keays, issued a statement to the press revealing their affair and the fact that she was pregnant. I wanted if possible to keep Cecil — a political ally, an able minister and a friend. At first, it seemed that I might succeed. There was no great pressure from within the Party for him to go: on the whole his colleagues in government and on the back-benches were supportive. The Party Conference took place the week after Cecil’ statement and his ministerial speech was well received. However, very late on Thursday evening, as I was completing my