Mel C on whether Margaret Thatcher was the ‘first Spice Girl’

Mel C has criticized Margaret Thatcher in an interview two decades after Spice Girls bandmate Geri Halliwell infamously claimed the former prime minister had “girl power”.

In an interview with The Independent on the eve of the release of her memoirs Who am I?Melanie C explained that Halliwell’s views on politics were not her own, proudly declaring: “I’m from Liverpool.”

In the notorious interview with Spectator in 1996, Halliwell called the Spice Girls “Thatcherites” and said Thatcher was “the first Spice Girls”.

“We, the Spice Girls, are real Thatcherites. She was the first Spice Girl, the pioneer of our ideology – Girl Power,” she said.

Melanie C opened The Independent about being called an “angry Tory” after that interview, saying that in her eyes Thatcher was “absolutely not” the “first Spice Girl”.

“In the past, Gerry has been very vocal about her support for Margaret Thatcher. I’m from Liverpool. It was a name that was not celebrated in that region,” she said.

“They were never the thoughts and feelings I shared. People who know me from what I do understand what kind of person I am. I don’t think people think I’m a raging Tory!”

She added that her upbringing made her “well aware” of the level of fame and success the Spice Girls brought her.

“When I was a child, money was scarce. There was no excess,” she said.

Mel C added that many family members and friends “are still working really, really hard to make ends meet, so I still know that side of it well.”

In the interview, the star also talked about a more difficult experience, from being was sexually assaulted the night before the Spice Girls’ first ever showto be asked about her sexuality on live television to feel “burned out” at the end of the Spice Girls’ 1998 tour.

Comparing experience with pressure Judy Garland experienced before her tragic death, she said: “You become a commodity. You make other people money. So they have to keep you in that place where you can do that. And I don’t think it’s done with your human interests at heart.”

She added: “My time with the Spice Girls was incredible and exciting, literally my wildest dreams come true. But also…it broke me, you know. Physically, mentally, emotionally. It was very, very difficult.”

Mel C explained that after that, “nothing is planned, organized or confirmed.” the band reportedly broke up for good in February of this year.