Not just love, she also wanted Thatcher’s job

Edwina Currie was not content being the lover of former British PM John Major, but wanted to lead the Conservatives and succeed Margaret Tha...

Edwina Currie was not content being the lover of former British PM John Major, but wanted to lead the Conservatives and succeed Margaret Thatcher, upstaging even the ‘‘gray man’’. According to her diaries, she contemplated having an early ‘‘crack at the leadership’’ after a survey showed she was the most recognised politician, apart from Thatcher, in 1988.

Major, however, replaced Thatcher at 10, Downing Street here in 1990.

Despite her rank as a Jr Health Minister, Currie’s flair for publicity had given her an extraordinarily high political profile in the five years since entering Parliament. ‘‘I have come to realise, and somewhat unwillingly, that I will have a crack at the leadership as soon as I can. This is because I am in touch with real people, and because I can offer leadership and a view to the future,’’ said an entry date on Oct 7, 1988.

Kenneth Baker, Douglas Hurd and Kenneth Clarke were ahead in the succession stakes, according to her diary entries.

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About Major, dubbed as ‘‘gray man’’ for his dull demeanour, she wrote ‘‘he is tough and brainy and nice underneath. But there is a definite lack of charisma: I reckon I would run him close in a straight fight after a few more years of government.’’ ‘‘A survey in The Economist last Friday helped me decide of a representative sample shown photos of various politicians, 78 per cent could name me — which makes me the best-known politician in the country after the PM,’’ she said.

Currie also revealed in an interview with The Guardian, daily last night that Major was not her first lover as she rose to power in Westminster. She, however, refused to reveal if the man was a politician, but fingers will be pointing in Westminster today, with many no doubt re-reading her two parliamentary novels in the hope of decoding further indiscretions.