Thatcher fallout continues over plans to take away the Irish vote

The 30-year expiry regulations continue to throw up revelations surrounding the governance of former PM Margaret Thatcher, with the latest retrospective scandal being around her desire to take away the vote from UK-based Irish citizens.

Thatcher’s wishes to bring the Irish completely into line within UK immigration regulations were expressed a matter of days before some of the worst IRA incidents of 1979.

Following news that Mrs Thatcher had openly opposed Asian immigration, the newly released document centres on a meeting between the Iron Lady and the secretary for Northern Ireland Humphrey Atkins at 10 Downing Street in August of 1979. Four days later lord Mountbatten was assassinated and 18 British soldiers were murdered at Warrenpoint.

The meeting was related to the proposed visit to Ireland by the governor of New York Hugh Carey. Thatcher had attempted to ban Atkins from meeting with Carey after hearing word that the American would try and pressure her government on the Irish affair, which she likened to telling Jimmy Carter how to deal with America’s black people. Thatcher also suspected the US of financing terrorists and blamed them for the deaths of their own citizens, as happened during the bombing of the Belfast Hilton.

Atkins had also informed Mrs Thatcher that he wished for the IRA to be officially recognised terrorist organisation and that all UK and Irish citizens were threatened. Thatcher dismissed this claiming that the Irish were under no threat from the IRA and that the best way to deal with the security issue was to limit the voting power of the Irish living in the UK.