She continued to hold firm against powerful opposition. In 1984, the National Union of Miners went on strike to oppose the closure of their pits. Thatcher refused to give in to union demands - and won. John Campbell describes her leadership style:

"She was tough in all sorts of ways and she was a very aggressive politician, she looked for arguments and wanted to win arguments all the time whereas most politicians are looking for agreement and trying to be consensual… Things like the miners strike, she dug in and wouldn't compromise. One of the really tough things she did was to hold out against the Irish hunger strikers which probably most Prime Ministers would have looked for some way of allowing them to climb down, she let them die."

When interviewed about this time in later years, Thatcher said that she thought women had much more experience of taking tough decisions than men.