The Margaret Thatcher I knew by the man who shaped her image

Margaret Thatcher’s fixer and confidant for 35 years, Lord Bell is proving a robust Keeper of the Flame. He speaks to Cristina Odone. 

 

Lord Bell had been at the late prime minister’s side for more than 35 years Photo: Tom Stockill

When Margaret Thatcher died last Monday, it was Lord Bell of Belgravia who broke the news. It was he who spoke for her children, Mark and Carol, and he who conveyed the Iron Lady’s wishes for her funeral.

It seems only fitting that he should act as Keeper of the Flame. Confidant, fixer, chaperone and adviser, Lord Bell had been at the late prime minister’s side for more than 35 years. He spent Christmas with her, went shopping with her, and laughed at Morecambe and Wise and Yes, Minister with her.

In the Mayfair offices of Bell Pottinger Private, his PR company, Lord Bell exudes a corporate confidence. At 71, he still cuts a debonair figure in his Jermyn Street suit and Hermes tie. It's easy to see how he once played Essex to Thatcher’s Virgin Queen. He was the naughty younger man who flirted with the susceptible (but ultimately untouchable) boss. She doted on him.

She relied on him, too. In the mid-Seventies, Tim Bell, then an adman with Saatchi and Saatchi, and Sir Gordon Reece, the cigar-wielding television producer who had become head of communications at Conservative Central Office, decided that the MP for Finchley had a future.

The two were impressed by her convictions: free enterprise, unobtrusive government, a great Britain.