Denis Thatcher 1979 general election to become the first female Prime Minister in British history. Denis Thatcher became the first husband of a British Prime Minister. In 1953, they had twin children (Carol and Mark), who were born on 15 August, seven weeks premature. Thatcher was watching the 1953 Ashes series at the time of the birth. Not long after the 1964 general election, Denis Thatcher suffered a nervous breakdown which put a severe strain on their marriage. The breakdown was probably caused by the increasing pressure of running the family business, caring for his relatives, and his wife's preoccupation with her
Premiership of Margaret Thatcher Meyer. As Meyer was a virtually unknown backbench MP, he was viewed as a "stalking horse" candidate for more prominent members of the party. Thatcher easily defeated Meyer's challenge, but there were sixty ballot papers either cast for Meyer or abstaining, a surprisingly large number for a sitting Prime Minister. Her supporters in the Party, however, viewed the results as a success, claiming that after ten years as Prime Minister and with approximately 370 Conservative MPs voting, the opposition was surprisingly small. Thatcher was fiercely committed to a new tax—commonly called the "poll tax"—that would apply in equal amounts to