WI/PC: Thatcher Makes a Comeback

After the disasters of John Major's premiership, what's the plausibility that Thatcher makes a comeback and is able to secure a second round as Tory leader of the 90s?
If it is plausible, could she have a chance at beating New Labor?

I'll take the first crack.
I thinks is doable, but extremely difficult. The way I see it happening is if Thatcher could somehow unite the party around opposing the Maastricht Treaty.
 
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I'm not sure she'd be up to it!

My Mother was a devout Thatcherite who met her a few times: she holds that Thatcher was deeply demoralized by the events leading up to her resignation and felt betrayed, I agree. I don't feel she'd want to go through it all again let alone whether she could.
 
The problem i see is that Thatcher returned to the backbenches as MP for Finchley for only two years after leaving the premiership.
She retired from the House of Commonat the 1992 election, aged 66, saying that leaving the Commons would allow her more freedom to speak her mind.

I sadly believe that after John Major looses the 1997 election, Thatcher being 71 and 5 years out of the loop, against Tony Blair, the party turned to 36 year old Northerner, William Hague, who had the public backing of Baroness Thatcher.

By the time Hague looses the 2001 General election, Thatcher is 75 and I am afraid that she is too old and with her views about Tony Blair being Labour Party leader, Thatcher praised Blair in an interview as "probably the most formidable Labour leader since Hugh Gaitskell. I see a lot of socialism behind their front bench, but not in Mr Blair. I think he genuinely has moved".

So how does the Opposition leader compete against a Prime Minister, they have praised.
 
Even if it is plausible, I doubt that she would ever have a chance of beating New Labour. The Tories would have been in power for 18 years by that point, and she would not give them the traditional poll boost a new leader provides, given that she had already been doing it for 11 years beforehand and by the end had come to be perceived as stubborn and out of touch by large sections of the public.

Most people on this board think that Kinnock in 1992 would have been a challenge for her, and she may have ended up losing. Given that Blair was a far more formidable opponent, and the Tories had been in power for five more years by 1997, there is every chance she would be on the receiving end of a mauling, perhaps even worse than in OTL.

I think a second period in Downing Street for Thatcher would actually be more likely to stop New Labour not via the ballot box, but by butterflying there existence through Smith's heart attack not happening, or just by Labour deciding the Tories are so vulnerable that there is no need to bother with the rebranding. Unlikely, but I would still say more possible than Thatcher beating Blair in 1997.
 
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