Margaret Thatcher was a British politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer during the Whitelaw government. Her 1980 and 1981 budgets were widely critisised by academics, and her adoption of montetatist, deregulatory and free market fiscal policies contributed to the conservative government's defeat in 1982. She ran for the Conservative Party leadership following Whitelaw's retirement, but in a close fought race lost to Michael Heseltine. She retired from Parliament at the 1996 general election, but remained a dominant figure on the political right until her death in 2013.