The government is riven by the question of Europe, the Prime Minister is at odds with key members of her Cabinet and at the same time faces threats to her leadership. Sounds familiar?

A set of private papers from 1989 released on Saturday reveals Margaret Thatcher’s personal reaction to the divisions within her party that ultimately led to her downfall - and still reverberate to this day.

The hundreds of documents, published by the Margaret Thatcher Archive, lay bare her response to the behind-the-scenes drama of her penultimate year in power, when she was ambushed by two senior Cabinet colleagues over the question of the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), before having to deal with what she calls the “absurd and reprehensible” resignation of Nigel Lawson, her Chancellor.