Margaret Thatcher's former press secretary has savaged a claim by the veteran pro-European Tory MP Ken Clarke that she would have voted to remain in the EU in the 2016 referendum.
Mr Clarke, 78, said last week that Mrs Thatcher, who died in 2013 and whom he served under as health and education secretary, was 'never in favour' of leaving the European Union.
Speaking in an interview with The Guardian, he said that in the 2016 referendum, Mrs Thatcher would have 'voted remain, just as she campaigned very heavily to remain' in the 1975 referendum.
He conceded that Mrs Thatcher had had a 'bad temper towards Europe towards the end [of her time in office'], but that was because of a poor relationship with other European leaders rather than a desire to leave the bloc.
Margaret Thatcher's former press secretary Sir Bernard Ingham (pictured) has savaged a claim by the veteran pro-European Tory MP Ken Clarke that she would have voted to remain in the EU in the 2016 referendum
However, Sir Bernard Ingham, who served as Mrs Thatcher's press secretary throughout her time in office from 1979 to 1990, strongly rejected Mr Clarke's claims.
He told MailOnline that the claims were 'self-serving arrogance'.
'I think it is ridiculous to claim she would have voted Remain just because, like me, she voted to confirm our membership of the Common Market in 1975.
Sir Bernard instead argued that developments within the EU since Mrs Thatcher left office may have prompted her to 'threaten to leave'.
He pointed to the adoption of the Euro single currency, which he argued has 'devastated southern Europe', and the moves towards a 'single foreign policy' and 'Euro-army' as factors which might have changed Mrs Thatcher's mind.
'All this ran against the grain of Mrs T's convictions and anyone, Ken Clarke or others, who suggests she would have sat unmoved by this nonsense is incredible,' he said.
'It is true she regarded referenda as the tool of
