Margaret Thatcher takes office as British prime minister

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Margaret Thatcher takes office as British prime minister

Published: 04 May. 2026, 00:05

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Roh Jeong-tae

The author is a writer and senior fellow at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.

Britain is a constitutional monarchy. Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Party won 339 seats in the May 3, 1979, general election, defeating Prime Minister James Callaghan’s Labour Party, which secured 268 seats. The victory returned the Conservatives to power.

Then-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher points skyward as she receives a standing ovation at the Conservative Party Conference in this October 13, 1989, file photo. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

The day after the election, Thatcher’s first official engagement was an audience with the monarch. Under British convention, the sovereign formally invites the leader of the majority party to form a government, and that invitation is accepted as a matter of honor. After completing this constitutional process, Thatcher entered Downing Street for the first time as prime minister on May 4, 1979.

There was no grand inauguration ceremony, nor a lengthy inaugural address. Instead, a brief exchange with reporters on her way to work, lasting barely a minute, came to be remembered as her first speech.

In those remarks, Thatcher invoked the words of Saint Francis of Assisi, urging unity where there is discord, truth where there is error, faith where there is doubt and hope where there is despair. She emphasized national unity and a shared sense of duty.

“I would like to say to all the people of Britain, no matter how you voted, that now the election is over, we must work together to serve this country, which we are proud to belong to,” she said.

There were clear reasons for such an appeal. Britain was facing stagflation, marked by low growth and high inflation, as well as what was widely described as the “British disease.” Militant trade unions were staging strikes that disrupted industries, while deep social divisions persisted.

Just weeks before the election, on March 30 that year, Conservative lawmaker Airey Neave was killed in a car-bomb attack carried out by the Irish National Liberation Army, underscoring the severity of political violence and polarization.

Quoting Neave, Thatcher concluded her brief remarks with a simple line: “Now we have work to do.”

Thatcher’s embrace of free market policies and conservative principles remains a subject of enduring debate. Yet she is widely remembered as a decisive leader who mobilized public resolve and pursued structural reforms during a period of crisis.

Her early message of unity and responsibility continues to resonate for countries confronting economic uncertainty, geopolitical tensions and demographic challenges today. The experience suggests that political leadership, grounded in clarity and collective purpose, can help societies navigate profound disruptions while maintaining democratic legitimacy and social cohesion in times of deep uncertainty.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.