Skip to main content
The Morning Star Shop
Leading figure in Thatcher’s Conservative Party dies aged 94
Margaret Thatcher with Norman Tebbit appeals to delegates to stop the applause after his speech at the opening of the annual Tory conference at the Winter Gardens, Blackpool, October 8, 1985

THATCHER-ERA hard-man Lord Norman Tebbit, who spearheaded Tory attacks on trade unionism, has died aged 94.

Mr Tebbit became a leading figure in Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Party, with an abrasive political style that in many ways prefigured the rise of the populist right.

He was described by then Labour cabinet minister Michal Foot as a “semi-house-trained polecat,” a description he embraced, and was also dubbed the Chingford Skinhead, in reference to the London constituency he represented from 1970 to 1992.

As employment secretary from 1982, Mr Tebbit built on an established reputation as an anti-union fanatic to drive through legislation radically undermining collective rights — laws which have survived largely unchanged to this day.

He was famous for telling the unemployed to “get on your bikes” to look for work, as his own father had done in the 1930s.

Ironically, he had himself been an active trade unionist during his pre-politics career as an airline pilot.

Mr Tebbit also served as Tory Party chairman and industry secretary under Thatcher.

He later became notorious for suggesting a “cricket test” be applied to people of migrant heritage, with the team they supported being used to gauge their integration into British life.

Mr Tebbit was a victim of the 1984 bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton by the IRA, an action which nearly succeeded in its aim of killing Thatcher.

He survived but his wife Margaret, who died in 2020, was disabled for the rest of her life.

Tributes to Mr Tebbit were led today by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who said: “Norman gave me a lot of help in my early days as an MEP and was a great man.”

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
IN FOR THE LONG HAUL: Leanne Wood takes part in a march calling for Welsh independence in the centre of Cardiff, Wales in October 2022
Features / 5 July 2025
5 July 2025

The historic heartland of anti-fascist resistance and mining militancy now faces a new battle — stopping Nigel Farage. ANDREW MURRAY meets ex-Labour MP Beth Winter and former Plaid leader Leanne Wood, the two socialists leading the resistance

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer delivers a speech during a reception for public sector workers, at 10 Downing Street, London, July 1, 2025
Politics / 3 July 2025
3 July 2025

Starmer struggles to save leadership amid polling calamity

Similar stories
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage during a visit to Ramsgate in Kent, whilst on the local election campaign trail, April 24, 2025
Editorial: / 29 April 2025
29 April 2025
EVEN FURTHER RIGHT: Margaret Thatcher
meets the press outsid
Features / 16 February 2025
16 February 2025
KEITH FLETT looks back 50 years to when the Iron Lady was elected Tory leader…
Labour MP Jas Athwal
Eyes Left / 4 September 2024
4 September 2024
When there are more landlords in Parliament on the Labour benches than the Tories', whatever happens to her portrait, Thatcher is having the last laugh, writes ANDREW MURRAY