After years of revelling in her role as the “Iron Lady,” Mrs Margaret Thatcher yesterday showed the first clear signs of bowing to mounting pressure from party supporters to soften her image.

During Prime Minister’s question time in the Commons, which was strikingly unusual in tone, she struck Conservative MPs with her new, softer, warmer, almost placatory, style.

Gone was the stridency and hectoring which some Conservative MPs say is not only deeply troubling party workers but was mainly responsible for the bad party performance in recent county council elections.

Her new approach did not go unnoticed by the man at the receiving end of past “Iron Lady” attacks, Mr Neil Kinnock, the Labour leader, joked: “She must have a new hypnotist.”

He told journalists at Westminster last night: “Her voice dropped to such sibilant softness I occasionally had difficulty in hearing her, even when she was being heard in silence in the House of Commons. Being heard in silence is a good experience for her, especially silence from her own benches. I do not intend to emulate it.”

The new style appears to be deliberate. It follows a meeting with Mr John Gummer, the party chairman, who conveyed the doorstep message from voters that it was her image rather than government policies that had harmed the party.

One supporter of the Prime Minister remarked last night: “The clear message across the country was that our policies were not unpopular, except on unemployment. But there was a very real worry about Margaret and, in particular, her stridency.”

Some Conservatives hope she will go a step further and instead of displaying a carping attitude to groups such as teachers and nurses, she will emphasize that the vast majority are doing a very good job.