The National:

A BREXITEER MP who tweeted to celebrate the UK leaving the European Union shared a picture of a life-sized cut-out of Margaret Thatcher, which he appears to own.

Tory MP for Southend West, David Amess, shared the picture alongside the words: “Whilst Margaret didn’t live long enough to see this day, I am sure that she is rejoicing in heaven.

“At last we ‘got Brexit done’!”

The photo also reveals a barcode on the cardboard figure under a handwritten note saying: “We got Brexit Done!” So perhaps it was a gift? Getting a life-size image of Thatcher would be the Christmas present that just summed up 2020 for most of us.

Amess however, seems to love it. The photograph’s setting, outside the ladies’ toilet in what looks like a hotel, has led some social media users to suggest the MP might love it a bit too much.

One wrote: “Now Brexit is done our Conservative MPs can do what they've wanted to do for years, go to a Travelodge and bang a cardboard cut-out of Thatcher.”

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Other social media users said that the former prime minister is “not in Heaven, David” and shared images of skeletons in flames.

Columnist Paul Kavanagh wrote: “Naw mate, she's not in Heaven. Your sex doll's rubbish, by the way.”

Janey Godley simply asked: “Mate...you ok?”, while journalist John Elledge added: “These people are actually mad.”

Still more people took issue with Amess’s apparent attempt to rewrite history, pointing out that Thatcher was actually pro-Europe.

One user wrote: “It seems my local MP has a) forgotten that Thatcher was quite pro-Europe and, b) seems to be living in a Premier Inn with her cut-out.”

Political editor Tim Walker added: “Mrs Thatcher campaigned vigorously to join the EU, publicly stated she thought it would be disastrous to leave it, and would I think have thought it disturbing that anyone would want to keep a life-size cut out of her in his home for God only knows what purpose.”

READ MORE: WATCH: Nicola Sturgeon demolishes Scottish Tories over their Brexit sell out

Although Thatcher’s growing Euroscepticism was the reason for her ultimate removal as leader of the Tory party, she never seemed to stop supporting the idea of the UK having a role in Europe.

While it is easy to find a wealth of quotes from her attacking the idea of a federal Europe in particular, it was specific policies (like a common currency) she took issue with, not the EU as a whole.

As Dr David Ramiro Troitino writes in “Margaret Thatcher and the EU”: “[Thatcher had] almost the same approach as Charles de Gaulle … Thatcher, like the French president, was involved in Europe, and neither of them retreated their countries from the European Communities. Both were conscious of the benefits for their countries as members of the EC, and neither of them wanted to destroy the European building process.”

Perhaps Amess didn’t read the small print. But then if Boris Johnson’s time as Prime Minister has taught us anything, it’s that Tories don’t really do detail. They seem to have missed some key points in their own Brexit deal anyway (like how all the fuss over fish only ended with an agreement that “does not restore sovereign UK control over fisheries”, according to the Scottish Fishermen's Federation).

READ MORE: 'Fundamental error': Scottish Fishermen's Federation rips apart Tory Brexit deal

Responding to the MP’s tweet, author Irvine Welsh added: “You got ‘done’ by Brexit you dopey c*nt. Even Thatcher would have seen that.”

Amess has sat as a Tory MP since 1983, and so served under Margaret Thatcher for seven years of her 11 year premiership. Whether that makes his cardboard cut-out of her weirder or not is for you to decide. Would you keep one of your old boss?

Either way, Amess wasn’t the only Tory to share a thoroughly cringey post about Thatcher yesterday. Daniel Kawczynski, the MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham, also joined in the fun.

Sharing a picture of the former prime minister’s face, Kawczynski wrote: “In honour of the late Baroness Thatcher she has finally been proved right on EU and Michael Heseltine has been proven wrong.

“Indeed future generations of Britons will realise just how right she was and just how wrong he was proven to be. We thank her for her extraordinary foresight.”

We’ll leave that without comment.