Editing Margaret Thatcher (section)

====On the frontbenches====
Thatcher's talent and drive caused her to be mentioned as a future prime minister in her early 20s{{r|runciman20130606}} although she herself was more pessimistic, stating as late as 1970: "There will not be a woman prime minister in my lifetime – the male population is too prejudiced."<ref name="sandbrook20130409">{{Cite news |last=Sandbrook |first=Dominic |author-link=Dominic Sandbrook |date=9 April 2013 |title=Viewpoint: What if Margaret Thatcher had never been? |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22076886 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130608091711/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22076886 |archive-date=8 June 2013 |access-date=16 June 2013 |work=BBC News Magazine}}</ref> In October 1961 she was promoted to the [[frontbench]] as [[Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry for Pensions]] by [[Harold Macmillan]].{{sfnp|Reitan|2003|p=4}} Thatcher was the youngest woman in history to receive such a post, and among the first [[List of MPs elected in the 1959 United Kingdom general election|MPs elected in 1959]] to be promoted.{{sfnp|Scott-Smith|2003}} After the Conservatives lost the [[1964 United Kingdom general election|1964 election]], she became spokeswoman on housing and land. In that position, she advocated her party's policy of giving tenants the [[right to buy]] their [[council house]]s.{{sfnp|Wapshott|2007|p=64}} She moved to the [[Shadow Treasury]] team in 1966 and, as Treasury spokeswoman, opposed Labour's mandatory price and income controls, arguing they would unintentionally produce effects that would distort the economy.{{sfnp|Wapshott|2007|p=64}}

[[Jim Prior]] suggested Thatcher as a [[Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet (United Kingdom)|Shadow Cabinet]] member after the Conservatives' [[1966 United Kingdom general election|1966 defeat]], but party leader [[Edward Heath]] and Chief Whip [[William Whitelaw]] eventually chose [[Mervyn Pike]] as the [[First Shadow Cabinet of Edward Heath|Conservative shadow cabinet]]'s sole woman member.{{sfnp|Scott-Smith|2003}} At the 1966 Conservative Party conference, Thatcher criticised the high-tax policies of the [[Labour government, 1964–1970|Labour government]] as being steps "not only towards Socialism, but towards Communism", arguing that lower taxes served as an incentive to hard work.{{sfnp|Wapshott|2007|p=64}} Thatcher was one of the few Conservative MPs to support [[Leo Abse]]'s bill to decriminalise male homosexuality.<ref>{{Cite Hansard |title=Sexual Offences (No. 2) |house=House of Commons |date=5 July 1966 |volume=731 |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1966/jul/05/sexual-offences-no-2 |page=267 |access-date=22 October 2020}}</ref> She voted in favour of [[David Steel]]'s bill to legalise abortion,{{sfnp|Thatcher|1995|p=150}}<ref>{{Cite Hansard |title=Medical Termination of Pregnancy Bill |house=House of Commons |date=22 July 1966 |volume=732 |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1966/jul/22/medical-termination-of-pregnancy-bill |page=1165 |access-date=22 October 2020}}</ref> as well as a ban on [[hare coursing]].<ref>{{Cite Hansard |title=Hare Coursing Bill |house=House of Commons |date=14 May 1970 |volume=801 |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1970/may/14/hare-coursing-bill |access-date=22 October 2020 |pages=1599–1603}}</ref> She supported the retention of capital punishment<ref>{{Cite Hansard |title=Capital Punishment |house=House of Commons |date=24 June 1969 |volume=785 |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1969/jun/24/capital-punishment |page=1235 |access-date=22 October 2020}}</ref> and voted against the relaxation of divorce laws.<ref>{{Cite Hansard |title=Divorce Reform Bill |house=House of Commons |date=9 February 1968 |volume=758 |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1968/feb/09/divorce-reform-bill |access-date=22 October 2020 |pages=904–907}}</ref>{{sfnp|Thatcher|1995|p=151}}