Says He Wasn’t Offered Good Job : Heath Rails at Thatcher in Angry Letter to Editor

Former British Prime Minister Edward Heath returned to the attack today in his feud with the woman who ousted him as his party’s leader, Margaret Thatcher.

In an acid letter to the Sun, Britain’s biggest newspaper and a fervent Thatcher supporter, Heath said the prime minister never offered him any ministerial post after coming to power in 1979.

He said the only job she ever offered him--after he had announced that he would stay in Parliament--was as ambassador to the United States, which would have meant quitting Parliament.

Heath, premier from 1970 to 1974 and ousted as Conservative Party leader in 1975, was replying to an attack by the Sun accusing him of “sulking in his tent” and sniping at Thatcher.

The paper said other former prime ministers had accepted posts from their successors.

“Yes,” Heath shot back. “They were offered them.”

Heath, a regular critic of Thatcher’s economic policies, accused the Sun of lying and “unmitigated spite.” He said the paper, owned by Australian magnate Rupert Murdoch, was “the lackey of its financial bosses.”