ABSTRACT
Margaret Thatcher’s meeting with Schmidt in Downing Street on 10 May 1979 proved to be more congenial from her perspective than she had anticipated. Thatcher said that her approach to the Community, and that of her Government, was entirely different from that of her Labour predecessors. The underlying truth was that our membership of the EEC was at stake in the Government’s insistence on a result that was reasonable and fair though, if it ever came to the point, the advantages, as well as the disadvantages, of membership would need to be very carefully weighed.” Christopher Soames accepted that the Government might ultimately need to withhold payments to the EEC. Ian Gilmour secured agreement that he would rest on the PM’s statement after the Dublin meeting that the Government were looking for a genuine compromise in which they had limited room for manoeuvre.
