Mel C: “Margaret Thatcher was not the original Spice Girl”

Mel C has given her view on comments made by her bandmate Geri Halliwell in 1996 in which she dubbed Margaret Thatcher “the first Spice Girl”.

Halliwell told the Spectator 26 years ago: “We Spice Girls are true Thatcherites. Thatcher was the first Spice Girl, the pioneer of our ideology – Girl Power.”

However, Mel C has now denied that the whole band felt the same way as Halliwell about the divisive figure. “Abbbbbsolutely not!” Sporty Spice told the Independent. “Geri, in the past, was very vocal about her support for Margaret Thatcher. I’m from Liverpool. It was a name that was not celebrated in that region.”

She added: “They were never the thoughts or feelings that I shared. People knowing me, from the things I do, are quite aware of what kind of person I am. I don’t think people think I’m a raging Tory!”

The star continued to say that because the interview made it seem like the whole group shared Halliwell’s position, she had been worried about returning to her hometown at the time. “There have been a couple of times in my career when I’ve been nervous about going home,” she said. “And that was one of them.”

Last week (September 22), Mel C gave an update on another potential Spice Girls reunion tour. The group – minus Victoria Beckham – hit the road for the first time in 11 years back in 2019, playing a run of stadium concerts across the UK and Ireland.

In 2020, it was reported that the band were set to embark on a world tour to mark their 25th anniversary. However, the singer said no tour dates would be announced imminently. “I wish I could say there were shows coming,” she said. “But I can’t, sadly. We do want to do shows, they’re just not arranged yet.

“We’re constantly talking trying to work it out and make it work for everybody. But that yeah, that’s my number one wish.”