THE BARONETCY BITES BACK

Michael Trend talks to

Sir Anthony Meyer, today's chief stalking-horse

THE disturbance in the Conservative Party at Westminster has evoked comparisons with that which surrounded the Westland crisis in 1986. Then, as now, a party which was in the process of pulling itself into shape for a forthcoming general election found itself thrown into a confusion that it had not expected. How inspiring many of the party faithful found Mr Baker's call for team-work in Blackpool only a few weeks ago! How hollow it sounds now!

But there are important differences be- tween what happened in 1986 and current developments. During the Westland crisis there was a moment when it did seem likely that Mrs Thatcher might not be able to ride out the storm; this time such an idea has not really entered anyone's head. Yet in 1986, once the smoke had cleared, Conservative MPs quickly fell hack into line behind their leader; this time the reimposition of the iron law of party loyalty does not seem to be working to anything like the same effect.

The question that now concerns Con- servative party managers, and especially its Whips, is 'how best to clear the air?' Would it be better to encourage a chal- lenge to the Prime Minister's leadership of the party in order to demonstrate conclu- sively her grip on the loyalty of Tory MPs? Or might the opposite happen and the plan backfire? One recent poll of Conservative Members in the Independent suggested that many of them — about one in fou would not vote for Mrs Thatcher in a leadership election.

The reasons why Conservative MPs from the most senior to the most junior levels — are allowing themselves the lux- ury of even considering the possibility of a contest (although most do not actually believe one will take place) are varied. The curiosity is that it would not be possible were it not for a figure normally sur- rounded by the greatest obscurity, Sir Anthony Meyer, Bt. Sir Anthony has tried this manoeuvre before without success. At the time of Francis Pym's disastrous Centre Forward 'movement' in 1985 there were press reports that they had tried to raise the question of the leadership; in February 1986 he tried again, suggesting that if Mrs Thatcher did not step down she would face a leadership challenge in the autumn.

I recently had the chance to talk to the 'stalking horse', as Sir Anthony is being called at Westminster (his unkinder col- leagues refer to him as the 'stalking donk- ey'). Sir Anthony is a self-confident 'ex- treme moderate' (in his own words), un-

troubled by the criticisms that have, inevit- ably, come his way over the years from the right wing of his party. He comes from a wealthy family. His grandfather was born in Germany but found his fortune in London with the Rothschilds; he was a lieutenant of the City of London and was given a baronetcy for his support of the original project for the National Theatre. Sir Anthony's father was chairman of the British end of the De Beers empire and served as MP for Yarmouth in the 1920s. Sir Anthony himself was at Eton (where like his father — and, later, his son — he was Captain of the Oppidans) and New College, Oxford. In the Second World War he was wounded in action at Caen after the Normandy landings. After a spell in the Civil Service — Treasury and Foreign Office — he captured Eton and Slough for

the Conservative cause in 1964 from Fen- ner Brockway by a majority of 11 votes. He lost the seat two years later and did not return to Westminster until 1970.

Sir Anthony's difficulties with his own party go back at least this far. He told me that in looking for another seat after 1966 he had been turned down by more associa- tions than anybody else he knew of. He put in a stint as an unpaid member of the Conservative Research Department and founded a magazine, Solon, under the editorship of T. E. Utley. This short-lived publication, designed to show, Sir Anthony told me, his right-wing creden- tials on economic matters, may have play- ed a part in getting the nomination for the old Flint West constituency. Others say that it was 'gifted' to him by Nigel Birch, the MP stepping down there. If this was the case, then it must have been one of the last of these once quite widespread 'transfers'.

Many of his colleagues at Westminster regard Sir Anthony as something of a throwback and a crank; but they recognise too that he can bite hard when he wants to — as in the way in which he saw off Beata Brookes' challenge for the new seat of Clywd North-West following the boundary changes before the 1983 general election.

On the whole, however, Sir Anthony is isolated at Westminster. He was the only Conservative voice publicly to express doubts about the use of armed force in regaining the Falklands. He also spoke out forcibly about British involvement in the bombing of Libya by the Americans. He has been among the die-hard rebels on almost every occasion. His views on the community charge, for instance, have in- cluded remarks that the new local tax is `unfair, unworkable and unwise', and that its implementation would be 'sheer luna- cy'. Sir Anthony told me that he still regards himself as a Heathman. But he has come to recognise, as have many of his generation of Tories, that Mr Heath's behaviour in Parliament makes it impossi- ble to form any sort of coherent opposition around him. Sir Anthony told me that he favours Michael Heseltine as the next leader of his party and would like to see him in control 'as soon as possible'.

The airing of such sentiments in public is a great rarity in today's Conservative par- ty. One cannot help feeling that in Sir Anthony's case we see some lingering vestige of the once traditional bite of the baronetcy — that body of men who could afford to buy their own way into the top class of the country. Their heirs and successors tend, too, to be of an indepen- dent turn of mind. (One thinks also of the careers of three of the last of the baronets remaining in Parliament — Sir Ian Gil- mour, Sir George Young and Sir Thomas Dalyell of the Binns, Bt — or just plain Tam, as he prefers.) Sir Anthony has no wish for, and no hope of, preferment. I got the impression that he regards his mission to annoy the Prime Minister as a kind of

duty. His recent period of rebellion dates from the time of the European elections in the summer. Sir Anthony, an obsessive pro-European, was at the count for the Welsh seat that includes his constituency when he was called upon to give his verdict on the defeat of the Conservative candi- date — the same Miss Brooks. He told a television reporter that there was one reason for the debacle — 'Mrs Thatcher'. So when I met him I asked him what the reason for this antipathy was. 'It is her style', he replied, 'her way of doing things.' I asked him then how he actually got on with her when they met. 'Oh, she's always been very kind to me; and one cannot help admire her very much. But I still don't like her'.

Sir Anthony has not yet decided if he will run against the Prime Minister in a ballot of Tory Members. Obviously no serious challenge can be expected from him, as he agreed when I spoke to him. What he is actually doing is something rather different; he is setting up a smoke screen to see if a more serious contender will come forward at the last moment, when the Whips and Conservative Central Office will have precious little time to set about their work of stiffening the back- bones of potentially wayward voters. The longer he can keep the screen in place the better it will be from his point of view; that is why he keeps creating confusion along the line of 'will he/won't he run?'

And Mrs Thatcher herself has unwitting- ly helped Sir Anthony's cause along by saying recently that she might not run again. This has set the leading contenders for her title thinking; in particular they remember that one of the main lessons of the 1975 Conservative party leadership race was that there is nothing to be gained from holding back in a modest sort of a way (as Willie Whitelaw did). While it is almost inconceivable that any of them will run against her this time, press speculation about their position as part of Sir Anthony's exercise is unlikely to do them any harm, and may well do them some good later. At any rate, it is hard to point to any senior Tory voices urging the troops into line behind the Prime Minister.