A senior Tory yesterday rejected Baroness Thatcher's prediction that Labour will win the next British general election. Mr Stephen Dorrell accused her of an "unconvincing rewriting of history".
He was joined by a former chancellor of the exchequer, Lord Lamont, who also insisted the Tories could regain power at the next election.
Lady Thatcher had stirred up a row through an interview with Saga, a magazine for older people, in which she predicted a Labour victory at the next election, blaming Tory colleagues who forced her departure from office.
"The people who brought about that incident are responsible for the biggest defeat the Conservative Party has ever had. They have let the Labour Party in, and big! You won't turn that round in one election," she said.
It "was catastrophic for me because I got things right and that defeat stemmed from that incident".
Her comments come just weeks before she faces the present Tory leadership at the party's annual conference in Bournemouth.
Mr Dorrell, a former cabinet minister who comes from the Euro-friendly wing of the party Lady Thatcher blames for her downfall, yesterday dismissed her claim that the Tories' election defeat was due to her being ousted as leader.
Mr Dorrell said that, on the contrary, party divisions stemming from her administration had led to rejection by the voters. He also urged the Tories to stop arguing about what happened in 1990 when she was overthrown.
"Everybody surely agrees that the biggest single weakness of the Conservative Party in 1997 was the fact that it was divided.
"Now, the divisions that we suffered from in the middle 1990s had their roots in her late years as prime minister," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
He rejected the idea that the Tories could not block a second victory by Mr Tony Blair, insisting Mr John Major had come from behind in the opinion polls to win the 1992 election.
The Euro-sceptic Lord Lamont also rejected her analysis.
"I am sure Lady Thatcher did not really mean the Conservatives couldn't win. She just meant they had a difficult task," he said.
He is named in Lady Thatcher's autobiography as one of the ministers who told her she could not win the Tory leadership contest against Mr Michael Heseltine if it went to a second ballot.
Elsewhere in her interview, Lady Thatcher (72) offered an insight into domestic life with her husband, Sir Denis (83), who has arthritis in his hands and "hasn't been able to grasp a golf club for about a year now".
The Tory leader, Mr William Hague, declined to comment on Lady Thatcher's latest outburst.
Mr Blair became the first serving British Prime Minister to visit the Western Isles when he opened a bridge linking two island communities yesterday. He and his wife, Cherie, were greeted by a cheering crowd of 1,000 as their helicopter landed on the tiny island of Scalpay.
After opening the £6.4 million, 300-metre bridge linking the island's population of 400 to Harris, the Prime Minister became the first man to walk its length.
When asked about Baroness Thatcher's claim that the Conservatives have little chance of winning the next general election, he said: "I never take anything for granted."