Boris Johnston urges Oxford University to honour Margaret Thatcher

Boris Johnson has called for Oxford University to endow a college in honour of Margaret Thatcher to make up for denying her an honorary doctorate.

In 1985 Oxford dons refused to grant the honour to the then premier, who studied at Somerville College, in protest at her education policies.

But the London Mayor, also an Oxford alumni, said by allowing universities to charge overseas students she had changed the way higher education institutions were funded.

He said: “They had decided, unprecedentedly, not to give her a doctorate even though she was an Oxford prime minister, an alumni of that university and the first female prime minister of this country,” he said. “In the last year alone, non-EU students have made a contribution of £870 million in tuition fees to this city, to say nothing of their contribution to the wider economy, estimated at £8 billion.”