Margaret Thatcher on Euro

Margaret Thatcher was a staunch opponent of the idea of a single European currency, which she articulated clearly in private discussions around 1990. She famously told her Irish counterpart that the European Commission president Jacques Delors must have had a "rush of blood to the head" for proposing the unified currency and explicitly stated, "We are not going to have a single currency." Her core concerns revolved around the loss of national sovereignty, particularly the inability to control one's own monetary policy and taxation powers, which she believed would lead to economic chaos, mass migration, and the growth of extremism. She preferred to maintain the UK’s ability to fight inflation, wanting to keep an effective gold standard, like the Germans had with the Deutschmark, rather than ceding control to a central bank prioritizing growth and employment equally with inflation.

Her skepticism hardened significantly after she left office in 1990, making her a leading voice against further European integration. While she had supported the Single European Act and the Single Market Programme in the mid-1980s, the push for monetary union proved anathema to her governing philosophy. Her opposition to a single currency deeply divided her administration, ultimately contributing to her departure as Prime Minister. After leaving office, she became a mentor for Eurosceptics, warning that the proposed currency would cripple the continent economically by failing to synchronize disparate economies.