Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (1925-2013) was the Conservative MP for Finchley 1959-92 and the first woman to become leader of a major political party in the UK. She was the longest serving British Prime Minister of the twentieth century.

The sculpture is located in the Members’ Lobby of the House of Commons on one of four plinths, together with Attlee, Lloyd George and Churchill. It was commissioned by the Speaker’s Advisory Committee on Works of Art whose Chairman at the time was Tony Banks (later Baron Stratford). The purpose of the sculpture was to celebrate her election as the first female British Prime Minister. It was unveiled by Thatcher herself, who commented after the ceremony ‘I might have preferred iron but bronze will do, and it won’t rust…’.

Location: Members' Lobby, Palace of Westminster, London.