Won’t Seek 4th Term, Thatcher Indicates

LONDON —  Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has signaled that she is likely to quit after the next general election, but one of her closest advisers says she will tolerate no challenge to her leadership before then.

Thatcher, trying to ride out one of the worst political crises of her 10 years in power, acknowledged for the first time in an interview she saw an end to her stay in office after the next election due by mid-1992.

She said after her third election triumph in 1987 that she planned to “go on and on.”

Asked by the Sunday Correspondent newspaper if she aimed for a fourth term in office, the 64-year-old Conservative prime minister replied: “No, because I think people would think it time for someone else to carry the torch. But I want the torch still to be burning and burning bright.”

She said there were several people who could replace her when the time was right, but gave no names.

Asked if she would lead the Conservative Party into the next election, she replied, according to the paper, “Yes, I hope so.”

Party chairman Kenneth Baker underlined Thatcher’s determination to keep her hold on power despite turmoil following Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson’s resignation 10 days ago in an economic policy dispute.

“She’s made of ‘The Right Stuff,’ ” he told the Sunday Express newspaper, and in a thinly-veiled warning to potential rivals weary of her combative style of leadership, added:

“It will take more than an alliance of the disgruntled, the disenchanted and the sour to challenge her leadership of this country.”

Lawson, whose resignation pitched the government into disarray and thrust the opposition Labor Party 10 percentage points ahead in opinion polls, was expected to criticize Thatcher in cautious terms. But it seemed unlikely he would make any direct attack on her leadership.

Several junior Conservative legislators have questioned Thatcher’s forceful leadership style, though potential challengers such as former Defense Secretary Michael Heseltine have publicly pledged their loyalty.