Quoted by Ian Aitken in "Points of Order" The Guardian (29 January 1988).

Attributed statement made at the retirement party of her deputy Lord Whitelaw (known as Willie). A page on the Margaret Thatcher Foundation website "MT's private files for 1989 - (6) Life at No.10" states: "'Every Prime Minister needs a Willie' is a quote impossible to pin down; she probably did say it, in some private setting, but when and where? There are press references as early as March 1989 ..."