@PeterDJust researching life #AfterDowningStreet Research Associate, Centre for Legislative Studies Author of 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street'
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🧵 What do Prime Ministers do out of office?
🚨 Not always what you think.
📘 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' explodes the myths that have surrounded her ex-premiership.
🔍 It also provides a framework to study the Office of Former Prime Minister.
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ALT A book cover featuring an image of Margaret Thatcher. It reads, 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street', Peter Just. There is a quote from Andrew Roberts, 'A joy to read'.
🚨 October 2026 update on ex-PMs' parliamentary activity.
🗣️ Four interventions by Rishi Sunak.
😶 None by David Cameron or Theresa May.
ALT Number of parliamentary interventions by former UK prime ministers from 1955 to the end of October 2026.
🚨 Some historical context for this story on Sir Keir Starmer.
🏡 After Margaret Thatcher left Downing Street and discovered that her place in Dulwich was not right for her, she was loaned a flat in Eaton Square by Kathy Ford, in a house that Stanley Baldwin once lived in.
Sir Keir Starmer stayed in an £18.35m luxury central London apartment owned by Lord Alli of Norbury, the millionaire Labour donor, after leaving Downing Street.
Read our exclusive into the arrangement ⬇️
telegraph.co.uk/politics/202…
🚨 'In the end, a supervisor came along and gave Mrs Thatcher the discount she was demanding.'
😂 Margaret Thatcher being entirely herself and being entirely The Iron Lady in a full 'I want my tax back' performance.
📋 As told by @labour_history on the 1996 Budget.
ALT Story about Margaret Thatcher demanding a discount on whisky in 1996.
Ken Clarke delivered his final Budget in November 1996 and it would turn out to be the last time anything stronger than water sat beside a Chancellor at the despatch box.
30 Years On: The Last Chancellor to Booze at the Budget 👇
yesterdaypapers.substack.com…
🗓️ On this day, 29 October, in 1985, Lord Home of the Hirsel (Alec Douglas-Home as was, amongst other names and titles), spoke in a House of Lords debate on the 40th Anniversary of the United Nations.
hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/…
🗣️ ‘I’m not going to start talking about the Budget, or I’ll be here all day.’
🚨 A reminder, on Budget Day 2026, of Margaret Thatcher's response to Gordon Brown's 2005 Budget.
ALT ‘I’m not going to start talking about the Budget, or I’ll be here all day.’ Margaret Thatcher's comment on Gordon Brown's Budget.
📢 It being Budget Day, some words of Margaret Thatcher's about Gordon Brown's 2005 Budget.
🗣️ ‘I’m not going to start talking about the Budget, or I’ll be here all day.’
#Thatcher #Thatcher100 #MargaretThatcher #Budget #Budget25 #Budget2025 #ThatcherAfterDowningStreet
ALT Margaret Thatcher on Gordon Brown’s 2005 Budget ‘I’m not going to start talking about the Budget, or I’ll be here all day.’ Margaret Thatcher March 2005
Peter Just retweeted
🗣️ 'We have a majority in the country. It wants hereditary Peers to go. I have always wanted that and I hope that they are going tonight.'
🗓️ The last words ever spoken in Parliament by James Callaghan, said on this day, 26 October, in 1999, on the House of Lords Bill.
ALT James Callaghan.
🗣️ 'We have a majority in the country. It wants hereditary Peers to go. I have always wanted that and I hope that they are going tonight.'
🗓️ The last words ever spoken in Parliament by James Callaghan, said on this day, 26 October, in 1999, on the House of Lords Bill.
ALT James Callaghan.
📘 In 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' we highlight how 'explaining themselves' is one of the key themes flowing through the lives of ex-Prime Ministers.
🤔 Has any former occupant of No. 10 ever done that more than Liz Truss?
Liz Truss has accused former government ministers Lord Gove, James Cartlidge and Sir Mel Stride of toppling her premiership so they could get top jobs in Rishi Sunak’s Cabinet.
Read the interview with the former prime minister ahead of the release of her new book here ⤵️
telegraph.co.uk/politics/202…
😂 '"Newton and Ridley" - I have a Newton in my Cabinet and I have a Ridley in my Cabinet.'
🚨 A reminder of how superb an actress Margaret Thatcher was.
🌍 With those from The North surely recognising many of her characteristics from the women amongst whom they grew up.
Peter Just retweeted
📋 As we argued in our paper on Stanley Baldwin's life after Downing Street, the people best placed to judge Prime Ministers are other Prime Ministers.
🚨 So it was that some of his successors led the charge on rehabilitating Baldwin, to the extent, in their eyes, he needed it.
📋 As we argued in our paper on Stanley Baldwin's life after Downing Street, the people best placed to judge Prime Ministers are other Prime Ministers.
🚨 So it was that some of his successors led the charge on rehabilitating Baldwin, to the extent, in their eyes, he needed it.
🚨 Harold Macmillan was another former Prime Minister who did not abide by Stanley Baldwin's pledge not to speak to the man on the bridge and not to spit on the deck.
🗣️ Margaret Thatcher would later use his House of Lords Maiden Speech in defence of her own.
🚨 Great to see Stanley Baldwin quoted in this speech by @LordNortonLouth.
🔍 Very useful for my ongoing research on Baldwin's life after Downing Street, both as an individual and as an idea.
💡 Our current views of this 'after life' need to be revisited.
✅ And corrected.
My speech opening the debate in the Lords on Monday on the subject of citizenship education
hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/…
🚨 What connects Margaret Thatcher with Bill Clinton attending a meeting with Tony Blair and his Cabinet in May 1997?
📰 This great front page story in the Sunday Times, with some glorious headline ordering of the events in Blair's diary.
ALT Newspaper article from The Sunday Times dated 25 May 1997 and headlined, 'Blair in secret talks with Thatcher; Clinton to address cabinet at No 10'.
🚨 'Putting pen to paper' was one of five themes identified by Kevin Theakston in his seminal work, 'After Number 10: Former Prime Ministers in British Politics'.
📘 Hot on the heels of Gordon Brown's recent book, here's another from a fellow ex-PM, with Brown on the cover.
🗓️ This day, 19 October, in 1963, was Harold Macmillan's first full day as an ex-Prime Minister.
🚨 Despite what he claimed, he remained politically active.
🗣️ He made speeches, 10 in Parliament.
👨🏻🦱 Had conversations.
📺 Spoke on TV.
🌏 Travelled the world.
📚 Wrote books.
ALT Harold Macmillan.
🚨 65 years ago today, on 18 October 1961, two former Prime Ministers, Clement Attlee (Earl Attlee) and Anthony Eden (The Earl of Avon) spoke in a debate on 'The International Situation'.
🗣️It had been opened the day before by a future former Prime Minister, The Earl of Home.
ALT Clement Attlee and Anthony Eden.
🚨 Shortly before he resigned, Tony Blair was asked what he would be when out of office.
🗣️ 'A former celebrity,' he said, perhaps tellingly.
🍺 This story about Keir Starmer highlights a key fact about former Prime Ministers.
⚡️ The fame being PM gave them is inescapable.
It's BEER Starmer! Former Prime Minister Keir enjoys a pint or two at luvvies' famous Hampstead pub loved by Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Sam Smith and Liam Gallagher trib.al/kIVwJfS
🗣️ 'Mrs Thatcher had to work on herself *for years* to reach this level.'
🚨 In addition to her luck, an important point in Margaret Thatcher's story, too often overlooked, is *how hard* she had to work to get to where she got too - and how hard she worked in and out of office.
The @Conservatives leader pays tribute to “badass teachers like Katharine Birbalsingh @Miss_Snuffy” to fervent applause. I must say, as a communicator, @KemiBadenoch is head and shoulders above all other party leaders right now. Her speech has texture, nuance, colour, and political depth. She radiates ‘badass’ sincerity. Mrs Thatcher had to work on herself *for years* to reach this level. Kemi Badenoch seems to have it all for nothing. #CPC26
