Editing Norman Tebbit (section)

===First Thatcher ministry===
[[File:Informele conferentie industrieministers van EEG in Groningen, Minister Van Aardenne (r) met Britse minister van Industrie Tebbit op Schiphol, Bestanddeelnr 931-4198.jpg|thumb|left|Tebbit (left) with then Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs [[Gijs van Aardenne]] (right) in 1981]]
After the Conservative Party regained power after the [[1979 United Kingdom general election|general election of 1979]], Tebbit was appointed Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Trade.

In the [[First Thatcher ministry#September 1981 to June 1983|September 1981 Cabinet reshuffle]], Thatcher appointed Tebbit as [[Employment Secretary]]. This was seen as a shift to a 'tougher' approach to the trade unions than had been the case under Tebbit's predecessor, [[Jim Prior]]. Tebbit introduced the [[Employment Act 1982]] which raised the level of compensation for those unfairly dismissed from a closed shop and prohibited closed shops unless 80% of relevant workers approved the arrangement in periodic ballots. It also removed trade unions' immunity from liability in tort – i.e. made trade unions liable for civil damages if they committed unlawful acts, and made injunctions possible against such acts. In his memoirs Tebbit said that the 1982 Act was his "greatest achievement in Government".<ref>Tebbit, p. 233.</ref>

In March 2021 Tebbit was reported by ''[[The Times]]'' to have said, during a [[Zoom (software)|Zoom]] meeting, that Special Branch had regularly spied on union leaders while he was employment secretary.<ref>{{Cite news|last= Maguire |first=Patrick |title=Special Branch spied on union leaders, Norman Tebbit admits |language=en |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/special-branch-spied-on-union-leaders-norman-tebbit-admits-xv20rkmzw |newspaper=[[The Times]] |access-date=22 March 2021|issn=0140-0460}}</ref>

In the aftermath of the 1981 riots in [[1981 Handsworth riots|Handsworth]] and [[1981 Brixton riot|Brixton]], Tebbit responded to a suggestion by the [[Young Conservatives (UK)|Young Conservative]] National chairman, [[Iain Picton]] that rioting was the natural reaction to unemployment:

<blockquote>I grew up in the '30s with an unemployed father. He didn't riot. He got on his bike and looked for work, and he kept looking till he found it.</blockquote>

As a result, Tebbit is often misquoted as having directly told the unemployed to "get on your bike", and he was popularly referred to as "Onyerbike" for some considerable time afterwards.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Blackall |first=Shareen |title=OnyerBike Tories: We want jobs NOW! |language=en |url=https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/militant/1982/588-12-02-1982.pdf |access-date=22 March 2021 |newspaper=[[Militant tendency|Militant (newspaper)]] |date=12 February 1982}}</ref>

The former Conservative Prime Minister [[Harold Macmillan]] once remarked of Tebbit: "Heard a chap on the radio this morning talking with a cockney accent. They tell me he is one of Her Majesty's ministers".<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/may/10/redbox.houseofcommons|title=When Labour MPs wore miners' helmets|first= Chris |last= Moncrieff |date=10 May 2001 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Grant |first=Don |title=CLUBBING: Pratts? If you say so, sir |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4159/is_20031026/ai_n12749113 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090215011259/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4159/is_20031026/ai_n12749113 |url-status=dead |archive-date=15 February 2009 |access-date=24 August 2018 |newspaper=[[The Independent on Sunday]] |date=26 October 2003 }}</ref> Peter Dorey of [[Cardiff University]] wrote that "it was Norman Tebbit... who was perhaps the public face or voice of [[Essex man]], and articulated his views and prejudices".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.uc.edu/bpg/bpg120pagemaker.pdf |title=British Politics Group Newsletter, Spring 2005 |access-date=17 August 2014}}</ref>