Norman Tebbit Dies at 94: The ‘on yer bike’ Legacy

Norman Tebbit was the first politician I ever met.

Sure, local MPs visited my school on occasions – but I was too young to understand.

Lord Tebbit, as he was then, visited to speak to us economics and business students when I was about 15 years old. As someone whose political interest had first been sparked by Brexit a year earlier, this was the first time I understood the gravitas of hearing stories from a politician.

But only now do I appreciate what an honour it was to spend some time with a political figure as titanic as Norman Tebbit – who lived and died in my home town.

The polecat with nine lives

Norman Tebbit served in Margaret Thatcher’s Cabinet during the 1980s, being one of her most loyal supporters.

Then-Labour Secretary of State for Employment Michael Foot dubbed Tebbit a “semi house-trained polecat”, in reference to Thatcher deploying Tebbit as her attack dog in Parliament.

Tebbit certainly lived up to the ‘cat with nine lives’ saying after most famously surviving the IRA-planted Brighton bomb at the 1984 Conservative Party Conference. Tebbit was severely injured, and his wife Margaret was left permanently disabled.

Tebbit’s unwanted legacy is being a victim of this attack – and, 40 years later, he remained unable to forgive the IRA. Would you, if it was your wife who was left paralysed forever? I think not.

Whilst it is naturally saddening that Tebbit’s legacy feels defined by the Brighton bomb, one can only imagine the courage it took to return to the 1985 Conservative Party Conference – one year after the bomb attack – as Party Chairman.

‘On yer bike’: the working-class bruiser who took on the trade unions

This was, however, Norman Tebbit’s working-class reputation as “The Chingford Skinhead” upon a backdrop of Etonian dominance across British politics. Tebbit was a no-nonsense political warrior, who was a critical part of getting Margaret Thatcher’s Cabinet’s ducks in order after the non-Thatcherite ‘wets’ were replaced by ‘dries’ in Thatcher’s infamous 1981 Cabinet reshuffle.

Tebbit became Employment Secretary – replacing James Prior, who had fundamentally failed to get Britain’s trade unions under control.

This was a monumental part of Thatcher’s legacy. Britain had almost 13.5 million trade union members in 1979 when Thatcher entered office – 58% of the working population. Compare that to 2024, where trade union membership was down to just 3.9 million – a mere 11% of the workforce.

Tebbit took on the unions with tough legislation, including making strike ballots compulsory and outlawing the ‘closed shop’, which had required employees in certain workplaces to remain trade union members to keep their jobs. Tebbit himself was forced to join a union as a 16-year-old trainee journalist at The Financial Times – fuelling his determination to break up the closed shop.

In response to riots, Tebbit famously spoke of his unemployed father in the 1930s. “He didn’t riot,” he said. “He got on his bike and looked for work.”

I suspect many people will find this insensitive and lament the decline of Britain’s trade unions. However, let me gently remind you that the principle of ‘getting on your bike and looking for work’ is currently being adopted – albeit haphazardly – by Keir Starmer’s Labour government. In attacking PIP and benefit claimants – albeit missing the target and instead hitting disabled people – Starmer is attempting (albeit failing) to promote work over welfare.

This is not to suggest Starmer is somehow Tebbit’s successor – absolutely not. However, it demonstrates the prominence of working to earn in British culture, which was also a critical part of Tony Blair’s Labour governments in the 2000s.

Trade unions in the 1980s were antithetical to this principle. Closed shop unions and destructive strike action almost ground Britain to a halt.

Tebbit – proudly Margaret Thatcher’s “polecat” – took on the unions and won, finally releasing Britain from the shackles of trade union barons.

Norman Tebbit: the ‘on yer bike’ legacy

So, whilst Tebbit’s legacy is naturally characterised by surviving the Brighton bomb, his political legacy is very much about getting up in the morning and going to contribute to Britain’s economy and society.

Although, as far as I’m aware, the infamous ‘on yer bike’ is a misquotation, I feel it appropriately characterises Tebbit’s approach as Employment Secretary.

And I feel we could do with more of this attitude post-Covid, where it has become so easy to stay at home, or lazily reach up above the sofa for the oxygen mask that is state benefits. 

Keir Starmer is attempting to do this. Regardless of his policy failures, it takes a strong character to shift the mood of the nation and oil the engine of the economy to roar once again.

Unfortunately, Starmer is not a Thatcher. And he’s not a Tebbit. He does not have the ability to repaint the national picture, to turn the tanker, as Thatcher and Tebbit did to curb the then-unfettered power of Britain’s trade unions.

That’s what Norman Tebbit was about – a working-class guy done good, who wanted others to do the same rather than throw the towel in. And that’s why he will be dearly missed.

Illustration by Will Allen/Europinion