London - The former defence secretary, Mr Michael Portillo, yesterday rounded on Mrs Margaret Thatcher by accusing her of becoming "reckless" after 1987. He placed part of the blame for the Conservatives' current problems on his former leader.
"There were two Margaret Thatchers," he wrote in yesterday's Spectator magazine, "cautious until 1987, and reckless thereafter". His comments were made in a review of a new book on the Tory party since 1830, An Appetite For Power by Prof John Ramsden.