Tory leadership hopeful named his daughter Thatcher
Robert Jenrick says he made the move because he respects “strong women.”
Here’s one way to win over Conservative Party members.
Robert Jenrick, in the running to lead Britain’s embattled Tory Party, made a startling admission at the Conservative conference Tuesday: his daughter’s middle name is “Thatcher.”
Speaking to GB News’ Christopher Hope for an on-stage grilling in front of the Tory faithful, Jenrick — who has three daughters — revealed that one of them shares a name with the late Conservative prime minister.
“Oh, you’re embarrassing her now,” Jenrick said as he was pressed on the name.
“It is Margaret Thatcher … It’s Thatcher. She was born the year that Margaret Thatcher died.”
Jenrick said he’d picked the name because he respects “strong women.”
“I thought it was a good way of reminding her of a good prime minister,” he added.
It’s unlikely to do Jenrick, the bookmakers’ favorite to lead the Conservative Party after a hefty election defeat, much harm.
A 2021 poll found that the free-market Thatcher, who led the Tories to three successive election wins and reshaped the British state during the 1980s, ranks behind only Winston Churchill in Brits’ estimations of who was best in the top job.