8 July 2025, 15:54

By Iain Dale

Norman Tebbit was a giant among Conservative politicians of the late twentieth century.

His image on Spitting Image as the ‘Chingford Skinhead’ belied the reality that he was an immensely kind, softly spoken man, who sadly never reached his full political potential.

Had he not been so severely injured in the IRA bomb attack on the Conservative Conference in 1984, he would undoubtedly been a serious contender to succeed Margaret Thatcher in 1990. Indeed, I know he thought about running, but his devotion to his beloved wife Margaret meant that he felt he had no alternative but to stand aside.

Margaret was made a tetraplegic on that horrific night and there was a big part of Norman than blamed himself for the fact that she was to spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair.

Had he not gone into politics, had he not been at the conference. What if, what if. He went through some very dark moments in the years that followed. He remained in the Cabinet but stood down after the 1987 election........

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