Tory support for UK to celebrate Margaret Thatcher Day

Kemi Badenoch added any final decision on such an accolade for the country’s first female prime minister would be for Boris Johnson.

The Falkland Islands celebrates Margaret Thatcher Day every January 10, the anniversary of her first visit in 1983.

A street in the capital, Stanley, is also named Thatcher Drive after her and there is a bust statue of her with the inscription: “They are few in number, but they have the right to live in peace, to choose their own way of life and allegiance.”

Photo shows Margaret Thatcher, via the Herald.

The tributes came after a UK taskforce helped liberate the islands from Argentine forces in 1982.

Calls for Margaret Thatcher Day

Speaking in the House of Commons at women and equalities questions, Conservative MP Sheryll Murray (South East Cornwall) said: “There’s no doubt that our first female prime minister led the way by showing women that they can reach the highest office and do the job well.

“What steps are the Government taking to encourage more women to seek elected office and will she consider a similar accolade to the Falkland Islands and celebrate a Margaret Thatcher Day?”

Equalities minister Ms Badenoch replied: “I personally would be very supportive of a Margaret Thatcher Day but I think that is more a question for the Prime Minister than myself.

“And (Ms Murray) will know that all parties actually do quite a lot to support women into elected office, and I think that’s something we can agree across the House is a very important thing to continue.”

Margaret Thatcher

In the view of her many admirers, Margaret Thatcher thrust a strike-infested half-pace Britain back among the front-runners in the commanding peaks of the industrial nations of the world.

Her detractors, many of them just as vociferous, saw her as the personification of an uncaring new political philosophy known by both sides as Thatcherism.

Tireless, fearless, unshakeable and always in command, she was Britain's first woman Prime Minister - and the first leader to win three General Elections in a row.

Mrs Thatcher, who became Baroness Thatcher, resigned as Prime Minister in November 1990 after a year in which her fortunes plummeted.

It was a year in which she faced a series of damaging resignations from the Cabinet, her own political judgments were publicly denounced by her own colleagues, catastrophic by-election humiliations, internal party strife, and a sense in the country that people had had enough of her after 11 years in power.

She is widely remembered for her political battles with mining unions and those working in the industry.

The closure of coal mines throughout the UK ended in thousands of job losses.

Mrs Thatcher died on April 8, 2012, following a stroke.