Norman Tebbit - Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

In 1975, six men (the 'Ferrybridge Six') were dismissed from their jobs because of the introduction of a closed shop and were denied unemployment benefit. The Secretary of State for Employment, Michael Foot, commented: "A person who declines to fall in with new conditions of employment which result from a collective agreement may well be considered to have brought about his own dismissal". Tebbit accused Foot of "pure undiluted fascism and left Mr. Foot exposed as a bitter opponent of freedom and liberty". The next day (2 December) The Times first leader —titled ""—quoted Tebbit and went on:

Mr. Foot's doctrine is intolerable because it is a violation of the liberty of the ordinary man in his job. Mr. Tebbit is therefore using fascism in a legitimate descriptive sense when he accuses Mr. Foot of it. We perhaps need to revive the phrase "social fascism" to describe the modern British development of the corporate state and its bureaucratic attack on personal liberty. The question is not therefore: "is Mr. Foot a fascist?" but "does Mr. Foot know he is a fascist?"

During the Grunwick dispute—where workers struck over pay, working conditions and the owner George Ward's refusal to recognise their trade union—there was a split in the Conservative Shadow Cabinet between the conciliatory approach of Jim Prior, the Shadow Employment Secretary, and Keith Joseph. Tebbit involved himself in that dispute by making a controversial speech on 12 September 1977, in which he said:

Inside Britain there is a...threat from the Marxist collectivist totalitarians...Just to state that fact is to be accused of 'union-bashing'...Such people are to be found in the Conservative, Liberal and Labour Parties. Their politics may be different but such people share the morality of Laval and Pétain...they are willing not only to tolerate evil, but to excuse it...Both Jim Prior and Keith Joseph know that George Ward and Grunwick are not perfect, nor was Czechoslovakia perfect in 1938. But if Ward and Grunwick are destroyed by the red fascists, then, as in 1938, we will have to ask, whose turn is it next? Yes, it is like 1938. We can all see the evil, but the doctrine of appeasement is still to be heard.

Tebbit was accused of comparing Prior to Laval and at that year's Conservative Party conference Tebbit attempted to avoid personalising the issue, and openly splitting the party, without retracting what he had said. Tebbit said of these differences: "I'm a hawk — but no kamikaze. And Jim's a dove — but he's not chicken".

During a debate in Parliament on 2 March 1978 Michael Foot labelled Tebbit a "semi-house-trained polecat" in response to a question from Tebbit asking if he accepted that the legislation being proposed that made it compulsory for people to join a Trade Union was an act of Fascism. Later in the debate Tebbit asked Foot whether he would "put a bridle on his foul-mouthed tongue".