Editing William Whitelaw (section)

===Home Secretary, 1979–1983===
Thatcher admired Whitelaw and appointed him Home Secretary in her first Cabinet, later writing of him "Willie is a big man in character as well as physically. He wanted the success of the Government which from the first he accepted would be guided by my general philosophy. Once he had pledged his loyalty, he never withdrew it".<ref>[[Margaret Thatcher]], ''The Downing Street Years'' (HarperCollins, 1993), p. 27.</ref> Thatcher was rumoured to have said that "every Prime Minister needs a Willie" and Whitelaw was seen as Thatcher's ''de facto'' [[Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Deputy Prime Minister]] between 1979 and 1988 (though he never formally held the office), to the extent that the then [[Cabinet Secretary (United Kingdom)|Cabinet Secretary]], [[Robert Armstrong, Baron Armstrong of Ilminster|Robert Armstrong]], said that had Thatcher been killed in the [[Brighton hotel bombing]], he thought he would have advised Queen [[Elizabeth II]] to send for Whitelaw.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Norton |first=Philip |date=2017 |title=A temporary occupant of No.10? Prime Ministerial succession in the event of the death of the incumbent |journal=[[Public Law (journal)|Public Law]] |pages=26, 28}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Brazier |first=Rodney |title=Choosing a Prime Minister: The Transfer of Power in Britain |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2020 |isbn=9780198859291 |location= |pages=80–81}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Norton |first=Philip |title=Governing Britain: Parliament, Ministers and Our Ambiguous Constitution |publisher=[[Manchester University Press]] |year=2020 |isbn=9-781526-145451 |pages=143}}</ref>

As home secretary, Whitelaw adopted a hard-line approach to law and order. He improved police pay and embarked upon a programme of extensive prison building. His four-year tenure in office, however, was generally perceived as a troubled one. His much vaunted "[[short, sharp shock]]" policy, whereby convicted young offenders were detained in secure units and subjected to quasi-military discipline, won approval from the public but proved expensive to implement.{{citation needed|date=January 2012}} He was home secretary during the six-day [[Iranian Embassy siege]] in April–May 1980.

In March 1981, he approved [[Wolverhampton]] Metropolitan Borough Council's 14-day ban on political marches in the borough in response to a planned [[National Front (United Kingdom)|National Front]] demonstration there.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=xgdfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=4Y0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=6565,4462303&dq=wolverhampton+million+unemployment&hl=en |title=New Sunday Times – Google News Archive Search |website=news.google.com}}</ref>

[[Inner city]] decay, unemployment and what was perceived at the time as heavy-handed policing of [[ethnic minorities]] (notably the application of what some called the "notorious" [[sus law]]) sparked [[1981 England riots|major riots]] in London, Liverpool, Birmingham and Leeds, and a spate of disturbances elsewhere. The [[Provisional IRA]] escalated its bombing campaign in England.

He contemplated resigning after an intruder broke into the Queen's bedroom in 1982 but was dissuaded from doing so. "We couldn't do without Willie," Margaret Thatcher reflected in later years. "He was a wonderful person."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ñ9Wc8kG_1vcs |title=Queen & Country pt3 |website=[[YouTube]] |date=23 May 2020 }}</ref>