There's been public claims about it, and honestly thinking that they wouldnt do it once they have the power to seems naive?
https://www.zdnet.com/article/thatcher-ordered-echelon-surve...
> Ex-spy Mike Frost told the CBS 60 Minutes programme that Thatcher had ordered surveillance on two cabinet colleagues according to excerpts released on Thursday. The allegation comes in the same week that a European Parliament report said Echelon, a surveillance system run by the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand, was used for industrial espionage.
"pushed back"? Like how the director of the NSA "pushed back" on congressional questions of whether the NSA was broadly collecting any data from American citizens?
> "pushed back against the notion that it was collecting abroad to “get around” legal limits imposed by domestic surveillance laws"