Sir John Major served as prime minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from 1990 to 1997.

First elected as the MP for Huntingdon at the 1979 general election, Major served in the House of Commons until 2001. Before his appointment as prime minister, Major held a series of senior cabinet roles in quick succession, including foreign secretary (1989) and chancellor of the exchequer (1989-1990), under Margaret Thatcher.

In the 1992 general election, Major led the Conservatives to their fourth consecutive electoral victory, winning over 14 million votes, which remains the highest total achieved by a British political party in a general election.

Major resigned as leader of the Conservative Party in the wake of the 1997 general election, which resulted in a Labour landslide.

Major is the oldest living former British prime minister.

First term as prime minister (1990-1992)

On 27 November 1990, Major was declared the new leader of the Conservative Party and the next prime minister, following Margaret Thatcher’s dramatic resignation. Major, who had served as chancellor of the exchequer for just over a year, defeated Michael Heseltine and Douglas Hurd in the second ballot of Conservative MPs.

Major, seen as a rising star in the party, entered the 1990 Conservative leadership race after Thatcher failed to win the first ballot outright on 20 November. Heseltine had triggered the contest in the wake of Geoffrey Howe’s scathing resignation speech on 13 November. Thatcher, who was attending a summit in Paris, secured 204 votes (54.8%) to Heseltine’s 152 (40.9%) in the first round. Under the Conservative Party’s leadership contest rules, a candidate required a majority of 15% of the total electorate to win outright. Thatcher’s majority was 52 votes; she needed 56.

Major, the chancellor of the exchequer, and Hurd, the home secretary, declared their candidacies for the Tory leadership mere hours after Thatcher announced her resignation as prime minister. Both cabinet ministers were both seen as eligible candidates to stop Heseltine, a long-standing critic of the outgoing prime minister.

In a joint statement, Major and Hurd said: “We have decided to let both our names go forward in friendly contest so that our party colleagues who take the decision can choose which of us is better placed to unite the party.”

Major worked to position himself as a unity candidate. His campaign, managed by Norman Lamont, successfully mobilised support from “dries” on the Thatcherite right – who viewed him as the best-placed candidate to stop Heseltine – as well as from some “wets”, who welcomed his pledge to review the deeply unpopular poll tax.

Major, who grew up in a rented apartment in Brixton and did not attend university, emphasised his background as symbolising a meritocratic conservatism. Heseltine, a multi-millionaire, and Hurd, an Old Etonian, were seen as weaker candidates in this regard.

Following his victory, Major was formally invited by Queen Elizabeth II to form a government on 28 November 1990. Major, aged 47, became the youngest prime minister since the Earl of Rosebery in 1894.

Speaking on Downing Street shortly after the results were announced on 27 November, Major paid tribute to Hurd and Heseltine “for the way they conducted the election”.

He added: “It is a very exciting thing to become leader of the Conservative Party and particularly exciting I think, to follow one of the most remarkable leaders that the Conservative Party has ever had.

“I believe as time proceeds and Margaret Thatcher’s period as prime minister is seen in a proper perspective, it will be seen that she has been a very great prime minister indeed.”

Major immediately set out to unite the Conservative Party, which had so ruthlessly ousted his predecessor. He appointed Heseltine to his cabinet as environment secretary; Hurd emerged as foreign secretary. Lamont, Major’s campaign manager, was made chancellor of the exchequer.

Major’s initial period in office was marked by a restoration of cabinet government and rising public support – reinforced by the successful conclusion of the Gulf War in 1991 and the negotiation of the Maastricht Treaty.

Major, having pledged to review the deeply unpopular community charge or “poll tax” during the 1990 campaign, quickly set about reversing the policy. Heseltine outlined the new system in a statement to the House of Commons on 21 March 1991. The new system would be based on “two essential elements”: property value and the number of adults living in the paying household. The current council tax system was implemented in 1993.

The nature of Major’s accession in 1990, whereby he symbolised continuity to some Conservative MPs and change to others, was arguably unstable. From 1990 to 1997, Thatcher – who resented those who produced her political downfall – continued to make political interventions. Her reported remark that she would prove a “very good back-seat driver” was prescient in this respect.

Major later remarked of his predecessor: “I found Margaret’s behaviour very puzzling… she seemed to be actively persuading new and relatively impressionable MPs to vote against the government on policy issues.

“And many of her speeches abroad trickled back here with what could only have been construed as criticism of the government policy… She was, if not actively encouraging, certainly looking in a very sunny fashion upon James Goldsmith [founder of the Referendum Party].”

Major added: “In retrospect, I can now say, I think her behaviour was intolerable. And I hope none of my successors are ever treated that way by their predecessors, or indeed by anyone else.”

1992 general election

Major led the Conservative Party to a surprise general election victory in 1992, and a fourth consecutive term in government. The result confounded the pollsters, defying widespread expectations, and marked a devastating blow for the Labour leader, Neil Kinnock. Most opinion polls throughout the campaign had given Labour a narrow lead.

The Conservative campaign in the 1992 general election focused relentlessly on the economy. On 6 January, the party unveiled its “Labour’s Tax Bombshell” campaign with a famous poster. The attack claimed Labour’s plans would mean tax increases of more than £1,000 for the average voter.

Labour responded by producing its tax and spending plans in detail by way of a “shadow budget”. The party proposed an increase in the top rate of tax from 40% to 50%, and removal of the exemption from 9% national insurance contributions on high earners. John Smith, the shadow chancellor, boasted that eight out of 10 taxpayers would feel better off as a result of the plans. But these figures were ammunition for the Conservative campaign which produced a series of uncharitable costings. One poster named “The price of Labour” as “£1,250 a year for every family”.

The Conservative Party’s “Double Whammy” poster warned of “more taxes” and “higher prices” via two bright red boxing gloves. This material was curated by Saatchi and Saatchi, the advertising company that had worked with the Conservative Party since 1978.

Major, who remained a popular figure, also adopted a more sober style of street-level campaigning. Initially, a series of “Meet John Major” events saw the prime minister field questions from an invited audience of 200-300 people. Thatcher, however – an irrepressible back-seat driver –  complained that the Conservative campaign lacked “oomph and steam”.

Major moved beyond his initial stage-managed strategy on 28 March, when he produced his soapbox. From this portable perch, Major preached the perceived virtues of Conservative policy to crowds of Britons.

Major also benefited from blunders committed by the Labour campaign, notably Kinnock’s “Sheffield rally” on 1 April, and the support of the press. Throughout the campaign, the tabloids – and the Sun in particular – slated Labour and its leadership under Kinnock. On polling day, the Sun depicted Kinnock’s head inside a lightbulb. The savage splash added: “If Kinnock wins today will the last person in Britain please turn out the lights”.

In the end, the Conservative Party won 336 seats and a working majority of 21. Major secured over 14 million votes – the highest popular vote ever recorded by any party in a British general election. Labour won 271 seats, up 42, on a turnout of 77.7% – the highest since February 1974.

Kinnock, who had already led his party into the 1987 general election, resigned on 13 April. Labour’s deputy leader, Roy Hattersley, also stood down. Kinnock was succeeded by John Smith as Labour leader in July 1992.

In his resignation statement, Kinnock pinned Labour’s underperformance on those newspapers sympathetic to the Conservatives. “This was how the election was won and if the politicians, elated in their hour of victory, are tempted to believe otherwise, they are in very real trouble next time”, he declared.

The outgoing Labour leader added: “My sorrow is that millions… will suffer because of the election of another Conservative government.”

Lord McAlpine, the former treasurer of the Conservative Party, agreed with Kinnock’s interpretation. “The heroes of this campaign were Sir David English, Sir Nicholas Lloyd, Kelvin MacKenzie and the other editors of the grand Tory press”, he said.

In the wake of the election – with Major’s victory confirmed – one notable headline gloated: “It’s The Sun Wot Won It”.

Second term as prime minister (1992-1997)

Mere months after his election triumph, Major’s standing was severely damaged by “Black Wednesday” in September 1992 – which forced Britain out of the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM). The event shattered the government’s reputation for economic competence and cost the UK taxpayer an estimated £3.3 billion.

The UK joined the ERM in October 1990 as the central plank of the Conservative government’s anti-inflation strategy, pegging the pound to the German Deutsche Mark at a rate of DM 2.95. However, the high interest rates required to maintain this peg, coupled with a deep domestic recession, put the pound under immense pressure. In the weeks leading up to the crisis, international currency speculators – most famously the financier George Soros’ Quantum Fund – built up a significant short position in sterling. These speculators then prepared to sell off sterling, betting that the British government could not sustain the overvalued exchange rate.

The crisis came to a head on 16 September. In an attempt to defend the pound’s position as it tumbled through its ERM floor, the Bank of England spent billions of pounds of its foreign currency reserves buying sterling. The chancellor, Norman Lamont, announced an emergency rise in the interest rate from 10% to 12% at 11:00 am. A further rise to 15% was announced in the afternoon. These decisions were taken by a small group of senior Conservative ministers: Major, Lamont, Michael Heseltine, Douglas Hurd and Kenneth Clarke. Clarke later referred to the process as Major “dipping our hands in the blood”.

But the panic measures failed to stop the selling. That evening, Lamont was forced to concede defeat. In a famous statement outside the Treasury, he announced that Britain was suspending its membership of the ERM and that the 15% interest rate would not take effect. “Today has been an extremely difficult and turbulent day”, Lamont began.

Under immense pressure, on 24 September, Major led a commons debate on the subject of the government’s economic policy. John Smith, in his contribution, memorably referred to Major as “the devalued prime minister of a devalued government”.

In the end, the pound’s devaluation and the freedom to cut interest rates may have helped the UK economy exit recession and begin a long period of growth. But for Major, the political price was the summary destruction of his authority.

Seven months later in May 1993, Lamont was sacked. Major appointed Clarke as chancellor in his place. Lamont emerged as an outspoken critic of the government and Major’s leadership. On 9 June, he delivered a searing indictment of the government’s position in a personal statement to the House of Commons. He referred to the Major government as giving “the impression of being in office but not in power”.

With his authority weakened, Major struggled to manage deep divisions within his party – especially over Europe. The Maastricht Treaty, which entailed a significant deepening of European integration, badly divided the Conservative Party during Major’s tenure as leader – triggering rolling rebellions from a determined group of eurosceptic backbenchers (the “Maastricht rebels” or “euro-rebels”). Major’s majority stood at around 20 after the 1992 general election – meaning internal party discipline was crucial to the proper function of government.

The passage of the Maastricht Treaty through parliament began on 21 May 1992 with the second reading of the European Communities (Amendment) Bill. In the end, Major was only able to secure parliamentary approval for the Maastricht Treaty by linking it to a formal vote of confidence in the government and threatening an early general election. “The boil must be lanced, and it must be lanced today”, Major told MPs on the morning of 23 July 1993.

The prime minister stated: “At the conclusion of this debate, either the government will have won the vote of confidence and we can proceed with our policy… or we shall have lost and I shall seek a dissolution of parliament.”

John Smith, the Labour leader of the opposition, said Major had been “backed against the wall and forced, in order to survive, to threaten his own party with electoral suicide.”

Major survived the vote of confidence by 339 to 299.

In the wake of the debate, Major subjected himself to a series of broadcast media interviews. Following his interview with ITN’s political editor, Michael Brunson, Major jokingly questioned “why such a complete wimp like me keeps winning everything”. Unaware that his microphone was still running, Major further referred to three eurosceptic cabinet colleagues as “bastards”. He was widely understood to be referring to Michael Howard, the home secretary; Peter Lilley, the social security secretary; and Michael Portillo, the chief secretary to the Treasury.

Major stated: “I could bring in other people. But where do you think most of this poison is coming from? From the dispossessed and the never-possessed. You can think of ex-ministers who are going around causing all sorts of trouble.

“We don’t want another three more of the bastards out there. What’s Lyndon Johnson’s maxim?”

The “maxim” comment was a reference to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, whom US president Lyndon Johnson declined to sack on the basis that “it’s probably better to have him inside the tent p****** out than outside pissing in”.

The term “bastards” description became a political shorthand for the eurosceptic rebels who continued to plague Major’s government. The exchange also reflected Major’s fear of creating a right-wing standard bearer, exposing his weak position in his own party.

In June 1993, John Smith savaged Major as “the man with the non-Midas touch”, declaring: “It is no wonder that we live in a country where the Grand National does not start and hotels fall into the sea.”

Major’s attempt to reunite his party with a classically conservative strategy – his “back to basics” campaign – basically backfired. The campaign, launched at Conservative conference in October 1993, was styled as a response to rising crime and what Major described as a decline in traditional moral and social value. Addressing Conservative delegates on 8 October 1993, Major began by noting recent infighting over Europe and the Maastricht Treaty. “Disunity leads to opposition”, he declared.

The 62-minute speech was initially well-received in the conference hall. However, its emphasis on “traditional values” soon emerged as a glaring weakness for the government which, contemporaries observed, struggled to live up to its own pronouncements on permissiveness. In January 1994, Major explicitly stated that the campaign was not “a crusade about personal morality”. However, the speech’s traditionalist tenor left the government vulnerable to accusations of hypocrisy.

In the years that followed, a series of Conservative MPs and ministers were implicated in sex scandals.

In January 1994, Tim Yeo was forced to resign as environment minister. Yeo, who had spoken of reducing single-parent families, was forced to step down after admitting he had fathered an illegitimate child.

And the scandals were not limited to personal morality. On 20 October 1994, the Guardian published a story alleging that Hamilton and fellow Conservative MP Tim Smith had accepted bribes from Al Fayed. Smith was said to have received cash payments of between £18,000 and £25,000; he immediately resigned as a junior Northern Ireland minister. Hamilton staunchly denied the Guardian’s claims. He joked during a photo opportunity at a school that he needed to declare a biscuit he was eating. Despite his denials, however, Hamilton was forced to resign as minister for corporate affairs on 25 October 1994.

In response to the “cash-for-questions” scandal, Major established the committee on standards in public life (the Nolan committee). The committee’s original terms of reference were to “examine current concerns about standards of conduct of all holders of public office, including arrangements relating to financial and commercial activities, and make recommendations as to any changes in present arrangements which might be required to ensure the highest standards of propriety in public life.”

This inquiry led to the famous “Nolan principles” in 1995.

Arguably the most high-profile ministerial resignation, however, was that of Jonathan Aitken, the chief secretary to the Treasury. In July 1995, he left his cabinet post to sue the Guardian after the paper had published allegations of significant impropriety. He vowed in a press conference to wield “simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of British fair play”. His libel case collapsed, and Aitken was later convicted of perjury.

On 22 June 1995, Major resigned as leader of the Conservative Party, triggering an immediate leadership contest. The move was a direct attempt to definitively reassert his authority after years of Conservative infighting. Speaking in the garden of 10 Downing Street, Major said his patience had been exhausted with the constant division and relentless leadership speculation. He issued a direct ultimatum to his detractors, who he accused of damaging the party and the government.

Major declared: “The Conservative Party must makes its choice. Every leader is leader only with the support of his party. That is true of me as well.

“That is why I am no longer prepared to tolerate the present situation. In short, it is time to put up or shut up. I have nothing more to say this afternoon.”

The challenge was designed to call the bluff of his opponents and force them into an open contest. The only cabinet minister to take up the challenge was the secretary of state for Wales, John Redwood, a leading Thatcherite figure on the party’s eurosceptic right. Other potential challengers, including Michael Portillo and Michael Heseltine, chose not to stand. Both backed Major.

The first and final ballot, held after a short campaign on 4 July, saw Major win with 218 votes to Redwood’s 89.

Speaking after the result was declared, Major stated: “I believe that has put to rest any question and speculation about the leadership of the Conservative Party up to and beyond the next general election.”

However, the “put up or shut up” gambit – like the ‘Back to Basics’ strategy – failed to address either the Conservative Party’s deep ideological wounds or the series of sleaze scandals that would ultimately contribute to its landslide defeat in 1997.

Blair, New Labour and the 1997 election

John Smith, the Labour leader of the opposition, died on the morning of 12 May 1994 after suffering a serious heart attack.

Smith’s sudden death at the age of 55 prompted a wave of national mourning. He was widely seen as a prime minister-in-waiting, with Labour consistently ahead of Major’s government in the opinion polls. Smith’s passing came just one week after the Conservative Party was reduced to its worst defeat in the British council elections in over 30 years.

The commons convened on 12 May 1992 so tributes could be paid to Smith by parliamentarians from across the House. In his contribution, Major described Smith in parliament as “one of the outstanding parliamentarians of modern politics”.

The prime minister added: “He had no malice. There were things that he cared for passionately. He lived for them; he fought for them; he cared for them. But he carried his fight fairly, without malice, without nastiness.

“The bruises that existed soon faded after a dispute with John Smith.”

Smith’s death triggered the 1994 Labour leadership contest and the election of Tony Blair. As leader of the opposition, Blair oversaw the creation of the “New Labour” project – a process of rapid modernisation and ideological repositioning.

Blair was an effective opposition leader and frequently bested Major in the House of Commons. On 25 April 1995, during a famous session of prime minister’s questions (PMQs), Blair dismissed Major with a famous riposte, declaring: “I lead my party, he follows his.”

Blair made Major’s relative lack of political strength a central theme of his communications strategy. On 30 January 1997, during another notable session of prime minister’s questions, Blair derided Major as “Weak. Weak. Weak.”

Major, who won the 1992 general election in a surprise result, had previously outscored Neil Kinnock as “best prime minister” by 15 points. By 1997, however, Blair outscored Major by 14 points.

That said, in the years leading into the 1997 election, Major and the Conservatives presided over a period of steady growth, low inflation and falling unemployment.

The Tory manifesto for the 1997 election, entitled You can only be sure with the Conservatives, stated: “We have turned around our economic fortunes. We have fewer people out of work and more in work than any other major European economy. British people now have the opportunity of a prosperous future.”

But the political damage was done.

Labour ran a highly disciplined and professional campaign, masterminded by Peter Mandelson. Labour’s message of change was summed up by its campaign anthem, D:Ream’s “Things Can Only Get Better”. Labour also set out to defuse the “tax bombshell” that Conservative strategists dropped on Kinnock’s 1992 campaign by committing, in the immediate term, to Tory spending plans. Labour’s manifesto, entitled New Labour, New Life for Britain, conceded that the Conservatives got “some things” right.

The issue of Europe continued to divide Major’s party throughout the campaign.

The new Referendum Party, led by James Goldsmith, campaigned for a referendum on the United Kingdom’s relationship with the European Union. Despite securing no seats, the party finished fourth overall in terms of vote share on 2.7%. It acted as a “spoiler” option in many constituencies Conservative candidates were defending. Notably, Goldsmith’s party only stood against those it deemed ‘europhiles’, including Major and chancellor Kenneth Clarke.

Meanwhile, a total of 200 Tory candidates broke with official Conservative policy to oppose British membership of the single European currency. The move forced Major to respond. “Whether you agree with me or disagree with me; like me or loathe me, don’t bind my hands when I am negotiating on behalf of the British nation”, he said.

On top of this, the Conservative argument that New Labour was a facade concealing “Old Labour” instincts – symbolised by the famous ‘New Labour, New Danger’ poster – did not cut through.

The scale of the 1997 defeat for the Conservatives was immense. Blair’s party won 418 seats, its highest ever total, while the Conservatives were reduced to just 165 seats – their worst result since 1906.

The party lost all its parliamentary seats in Scotland and Wales; and seven cabinet ministers were turfed out by the electorate, including the foreign secretary, Malcolm Rifkind; the trade and industry secretary, Ian Lang; the Scottish secretary, Michael Forsyth; the leader of the House of Commons, William Waldegrave; the former chancellor, Norman Lamont; and perhaps most famously, the defence secretary, Michael Portillo.

As expected, Major responded to the seismic defeat by resigning as Tory leader. In a statement, he said it had been an “immense privilege to serve as prime minister of the United Kingdom over the past six and a half years.”

The outgoing prime minister added: “I hope, as I leave Downing Street this morning, that I can say with some accuracy that the country is in far better shape than it was when I entered Downing Street.

“The economy is booming, interest rates are low and inflation is low and unemployment is falling…

“When the curtain falls it is time to get off the stage and that is what I propose to do.

“I shall, therefore, advise my parliamentary colleagues that it would be appropriate for them to consider the selection of a new leader of the Conservative Party to lead the party through opposition through the years that lie immediately ahead.”

William Hague succeeded Major as leader of the Conservative Party in June 1997, becoming, at the age of 36, its youngest leader since William Pitt the Younger in 1783.

John Major: rise to prominence (1968-1990)

Major served as a Conservative councillor on Lambeth London Borough Council from 1968 to 1971. He stood as a Conservative candidate in the February and October 1974 general elections (in St Pancras), but failed to enter parliament on both occasions.

Major was ultimately successful at the 1979 general election, having secured selection as the Conservative candidate for the safe seat of Huntingdonshire (later Huntingdon).

Major was appointed as an assistant government whip in 1983, and served in the whips’ office until 1985. He subsequently served as parliamentary under-secretary at the Department of Health and Social Security (1985-1986) and minister of state for social security (1986-1987).

In the wake of the 1987 general election, which resulted in a third consecutive Conservative victory, Major was appointed as chief secretary to the Treasury. This marked Major’s first cabinet-ranking role.

Major’s remarkable rise to prominence was a consequence of the rolling crises that afflicted Margaret Thatcher in 1989/1990. He was appointed as foreign secretary in July 1989, succeeding Geoffrey Howe. Thatcher chose to demote Howe, with whom she disagreed on European integration, to the post of commons leader. Major was then appointed as chancellor of the exchequer on 26 October, replacing Nigel Lawson. The outgoing chancellor resigned over the influence of Alan Walters, Thatcher’s personal economic adviser. Walters – unlike Howe and Lawson – opposed Britain’s entry into the Exchange Rate Mechanism.

Over time, Major became convinced that the UK’s membership of the ERM was necessary to combat inflation and restore macroeconomic stability. Alongside Douglas Hurd, his replacement as foreign secretary, he too set about convincing Thatcher. The Major-Hurd axis was ultimately more effective than its Howe-Lawson predecessor in influencing Thatcher’s thinking. On 4 October 1990, she reluctantly agreed to Britain’s entry into the ERM at a rate of DM 2.95 to £1.00.

Major also proposed a compromise on the thorny issue of monetary union. In June 1990, he formally proposed the creation of a new common European currency, the “hard ECU”, as a practical alternative to the vision of a single currency. The proposal was launched as European leaders, spearheaded by the European commission president Jacques Delors, were pushing for a rapid move towards full economic and monetary union, complete with a single currency and central bank. This initiative was stridently opposed by the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, and Conservative eurosceptics. Major’s plan was designed to offer a ‘gradualist’ alternative that maintained the pound, and therefore the principle of subsidiarity, while ensuring Britain continued to be engaged in the debate.

Under the British proposal, a hard ECU (European Currency Unit) would provide a common or dual currency, managed by a European Monetary Fund, that would circulate in parallel with existing national currencies like the pound, the franc, and the Deutschmark. It would be designed never to devalue against other member currencies, ensuring its value. The idea was that citizens and businesses could choose to use it in their transactions, and its success or failure would be determined by the market, rather than political mandates. If it proved popular, it could eventually evolve into a single currency.

However, the plan failed to attract universal support either domestically or among Britain’s European partners. Indeed, the crucial downside of the plan, politically, was that neither europhile nor eurosceptic could enthusiastically embrace its inherent compromises.

In a commons statement on 30 October 1990, better known for Thatcher’s “No, no, no” retort to European federalism, the prime minister said that the “hard ECU would be a parallel currency, not a single currency… a single currency is not the policy of this government.”

Thatcher told the House: “It would possibly most widely used for commercial transactions. Many people would continue to prefer their own currency.”

For one Geoffrey Howe, the last remaining member of Thatcher’s original 1979 cabinet, this pronouncement proved to be the last straw. He resigned in protest at the prime minister’s stance on Europe and opposition to a single European currency, believing her rhetoric undermined the government’s negotiating position.

In his resignation letter, addressed to the prime minister, Howe cited “the growing difference which has emerged between us on the increasingly important issue of Britain’s role in Europe.”

On 13 November 1990, Howe delivered his highly anticipated personal statement in the House of Commons to a packed chamber. He argued that Thatcher had made Major’s “hard ECU” proposal “untenable” by appearing to rule out “any compromise at any stage on any of the basic components” of monetary union.

He declared: “How on earth are the chancellor [Major] and the governor of the Bank of England, commending the hard ECU as they strive to, to be taken as serious participants in the debate against that kind of background noise?”

In the speech’s most famous passage, he said Thatcher’s position was “rather like sending your opening batsmen to the crease only for them to find, the moment the first balls are bowled, that their bats have been broken before the game by the team captain.”

Howe ended his speech with an appeal to his former cabinet colleagues: “The time has come for others to consider their own response to the tragic conflict of loyalties, with which I have myself wrestled for perhaps too long.”

Howe’s speech galvanised existing opposition to Thatcher’s premiership. Most significantly, it spurred Michael Heseltine, the former defence secretary, to launch a leadership challenge.

Major: late political career and retirement

Major stood down from parliament at the 2001 general election.

Upon leaving parliament, Major has focused on writing, business interests and charity work. He is a cricket enthusiast and served as president of Surrey County Cricket Club from 2000 to 2001.

Major received a knighthood as a Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter in 2005.

Major continues to intervene intermittently in political debates. He was a prominent proponent of Remain during the 2016 referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union, and has since voiced vehement criticism of Brexit.

In July 2022, Major delivered oral evidence to the House of Commons public administration and constitutional affairs committee, arguing that Boris Johnson’s government had damaged the UK.

He stated: “The point is this: democracy is not inevitable, it can be undone, step by step, action by action, falsehood by falsehood. It needs to be protected at all times.

“It seems to me that if our law and our accepted conventions are ignored, we’re on a very slippery slope that ends with pulling our constitution to shreds.”

Major is listed as a patron of the Tory Reform Group (TRG) – a pressure group within the Conservative Party that represents the “one nation” tradition of political thought. Historically associated with senior party figures such as Kenneth Clarke and Michael Heseltine, the TRG was established in 1975 to champion socially progressive and centrist policies – acting as an intellectual counterweight to the emerging free-market, Thatcherite wing of the party.

Early life and background

Major was born on 29 March 1943 in St Helier, Surrey, and raised in Brixton. His father was a music hall performer.

Major attended Cheam Common School and Rutlish School. He left school shortly before his 16th birthday in 1959.

Major worked as a clerk in the London-based insurance brokerage firm Price Forbes and later for his family’s garden ornaments business. He joined the Young Conservatives in 1959, and campaigned in the 1964 and 1966 general elections.

Major took a job at District Bank in May 1965, before moving to Standard Bank.

Personal Life

Major married Norma Johnson in 1970. The couple has two children.

In 2002, former Conservative MP Edwina Currie revealed she had conducted an affair with Major. The four-year affair ended in 1988.

Trivia

In 1997, Major was appointed a special guardian to Princes William and Harry following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.