Sir John Major has claimed Margaret Thatcher’s dementia was behind her criticism of his leadership after he took over as Prime Minister.
Sir John, who replaced Baroness Thatcher in 1990 after she resigned following a leadership challenge from Michael Heseltine, said subsequent “sniping” from his predecessor “didn’t sound to me like the Margaret I had come to know".
The former Conservative PM said he understood “as a matter of common humanity” why his rival may have harboured ill feeling towards him.
But he said his belief that she was ill meant he could bear the criticism “though it was uncomfortable”.
Speaking at The Politics Festival at Kings Place in central London, he said: “Margaret was...