Oh the waspish wit of Margaret Thatcher

Former Tory MP Elizabeth Peacock has finally disclosed what Mrs Thatcher said the first time she returned to the Commons backbenches after being toppled as PM in 1990.

Peacock was sitting next to the former PM that day 23 years ago. In her memoirs, Peacock says Thatcher complained that it was hard to hear from her new perch what was being said. She reportedly added: “It will be interesting to see if Neil Kinnock appears as vacuous from this bench as he does from the Despatch Box.”