Margaret Thatcher’s former press secretary savages Ken Clarke’s claim she would vote to stay in EU

Margaret Thatcher’s former press secretary has savaged a claim by the veteran pro-European Tory MP Ken Clarke that she would have voted to remain in the EU in the 2016 referendum.

Mr Clarke, 78, said last week that Mrs Thatcher, who died in 2013 and whom he served under as health and education secretary, was ‘never in favour’ of leaving the European Union.

Speaking in an interview with The Guardian, he said that in the 2016 referendum, Mrs Thatcher would have ‘voted remain, just as she campaigned very heavily to remain’ in the 1975 referendum.

He conceded that Mrs Thatcher had had a ‘bad temper towards Europe towards the end [of her time in office’], but that was because of a poor relationship with other European leaders rather than a desire to leave the bloc.

Margaret Thatcher’s former press secretary Sir Bernard Ingham (pictured) has savaged a claim by the veteran pro-European Tory MP Ken Clarke that she would have voted to remain in the EU in the 2016 referendum

However, Sir Bernard Ingham, who served as Mrs Thatcher’s press secretary throughout her time in office from 1979 to 1990, strongly rejected Mr Clarke’s claims.

He told MailOnline that the claims were ‘self-serving arrogance’.

‘I think it is ridiculous to claim she would have voted Remain just because, like me, she voted to confirm our membership of the Common Market in 1975.

Sir Bernard instead argued that developments within the EU since Mrs Thatcher left office may have prompted her to ‘threaten to leave’.

He pointed to the adoption of the Euro single currency, which he argued has ‘devastated southern Europe’, and the moves towards a ‘single foreign policy’ and ‘Euro-army’ as factors which might have changed Mrs Thatcher’s mind.

‘All this ran against the grain of Mrs T’s convictions and anyone, Ken Clarke or others, who suggests she would have sat unmoved by this nonsense is incredible,’ he said.

‘It is true she regarded referenda as the tool of dictators and that she never said to me either before or after 1990 that we should leave the EC.

‘My best guess – and this is only a guess – is that she would have eventually challenged – and harried – the EU to drop its damaging federalism and go for a loose, wider freely co-operating group of nation states.

Mr Clarke (pictured) said in the wide-ranging Guardian interview that Mrs Thatcher was 'never in favour' of leaving the European Union' and had instead been 'exploited' by 'hardline Eurosceptics'

Mr Clarke (pictured) said in the wide-ranging Guardian interview that Mrs Thatcher was ‘never in favour’ of leaving the European Union’ and had instead been ‘exploited’ by ‘hardline Eurosceptics’

‘I would not have put it past her, given no movement on the part of Brussels, to threaten to leave if it did not reform.

‘I think anybody who thinks she would never have acted on her threat is totally ignorant of what made her,’ he added.

Mrs Thatcher famously opposed plans by the European Community – the forerunner to the EU – for further centralisation of decision making.

In a speech in Bruges in 1988, she said: ‘We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them re-imposed at a European level, with a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels’.

But Mr Clarke said in the wide-ranging Guardian interview that Mrs Thatcher was ‘never in favour’ of leaving the European Union’ and had instead been ‘exploited’ by ‘hardline Eurosceptics’.

Sir Bernard Ingham told MailOnline Mr Clarke's claims were 'self-serving arrogance'. He said: 'I think it is ridiculous to claim she would have voted Remain just because, like me, she voted to confirm our membership of the Common Market in 1975. (Margaret Thatcher pictured in 1986)

Sir Bernard Ingham told MailOnline Mr Clarke’s claims were ‘self-serving arrogance’. He said: ‘I think it is ridiculous to claim she would have voted Remain just because, like me, she voted to confirm our membership of the Common Market in 1975. (Margaret Thatcher pictured in 1986)

‘When she was in office she was very pro-Europe economically, [even if deeply suspicious of political Europe,’ he said.

He also said that the 2016 referendum was ‘stunt’ and ‘silly whim of David Cameron’, called only to ‘get some short-term, party political advantage’.

Mr Clarke has also served as home secretary and chancellor and was Justice Secretary between 2010 and 2012.

He voted against triggering the Article 50 process nearly two years ago but has backed Theresa May’s Brexit deal three times.

He has been the MP for Rushcliffe since 1970 and is currently the Father of the House – the member with the longest continuous service.

Mr Clarke’s strong pro-EU views are widely believed to have been the main reason behind his failure to become leader of the Conservative Party.

He has contested the role on three occasions; in 1997, 2001 and 2005.

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk