Union leader set alarm clock earlier 'so I could hate Margaret Thatcher for an hour longer'

A senior union leader has said he detested the late former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher so much he set his alarm clock an hour early so he could “hate her for an hour longer” each day.

Tosh McDonald, president of train drivers union Aslef, told the Labour Party conference that while Jeremy Corbyn could “rise above” hate, he could not.

Delegates at the Liverpool convention booed at the mention of Baroness Thatcher, who Mr McDonald said came to power a month before he started work on the railway in 1979.

“I hated her. I wish I could be like Jeremy and rise above it, but I can’t," he said.

“I did set my alarm clock an hour earlier than I needed just so I could hate her for an hour longer.

“Since she died I don’t do that anymore, I just set my alarm at the right time, but I still wake up an hour earlier — I can’t help it.”

Baroness Thatcher – who was prime minister from 1979 to 1990 – is credited with overseeing the mass privatisation of nationalised industries, increasing home ownership, and reducing the power of trade unions.

Her Conservative government reduced union industrial action through various measures including introducing obligatory ballots before strikes and restricting secondary action.

Today, union membership is around half what is was when Baroness Thatcher came to power. The reduction has directly contributed to increasing income inequality, a study by the centre-left Institute for Public Policy Research found in June.