What caused the fall of Margaret Thatcher?

1. What caused the fall of Margaret Thatcher? Starter activity – Who is the man in this image? Why is he holding a rose? What has he done to it? Challenge – what is the cartoonist arguing in this answer? Neil Kinnock, leader of the Labour Party, he has cut off the thorns of the rose. This represents him cutting out the militant tendencies and Bennite left from Labour and bringing them more to the centre of politics. This would make them less “prickly” to the British public.

2. What caused Thatcher’s downfall? Economic problems – stock market crashed in 1987 following the ‘Big Bang’. Due to Lawson’s 1988 budget there was a rapid expansion of the economy in the ‘Lawson Boom’ which resulted in a Balance of Payments issue. By 1990, inflation was at 10.9% (higher than in 1980). Political problems – Many within her party feared defeat the next election. They were losing by-elections such as Eastbourne in October 1990. Unpopularity at local level caused by economy and Poll Tax. Thatcher was advised to drop the scheme but pressed on. Her cabinet was weakened when two of its members resigned – Nigel Lawson and Geoffrey Howe. Many in the party disagreed with her growing Euroscepticism. Challenge from within – After Howe resigned, it sent ripples throughout the party to replace Thatcher. Michael Heseltine challenged Thatcher for her position in 1990 and narrowly lost out. In response, Thatcher resigned so her party could place a more popular candidate against Heseltine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y6aBbyEPOI

3. Why was Thatcher’s government so unpopular by 1990? Opposition to Thatcher's policies on local government taxation, her Government's perceived mishandling of the economy (in particular the high interest rates of 15% that eroded her support among home owners and business people) and the divisions opening in the Conservative Party over European integration made her seem increasingly politically vulnerable and her party increasingly divided. A poll in October 1990 showed that while Thatcher remained personally respected there was overwhelming opposition towards her final initiatives—83% disapproved of the Government's management of the National Health Service, 83% were against water privatisation, and 64% were against the Community Charge, while various polls suggested the party was trailing Labour by between 6 and 11 points. Moreover, the Prime Minister's distaste for "consensus politics" and willingness to override colleagues' opinions, including that of her Cabinet, emboldened the backlash against her when it did occur

4. The impact of Howe’s resignation speech On 1 November 1990, Sir Geoffrey Howe, one of Thatcher's oldest and staunchest supporters, resigned from his position as Deputy Prime Minister in protest at Thatcher's European policy. In his resignation speech in the House of Commons two weeks later, he suggested that the time had come for "others to consider their own response to the tragic conflict of loyalties" with which he stated that he had wrestled for perhaps too long. In his 18 minute speech, he spoke of Mrs Thatcher's "nightmare image" of Europe, asking: "What kind of vision is that for our business people, who trade there each day, for our financiers, who seek to make London the money capital of Europe, or for all the young people of today?“ In possibly the most savage passage, he said of Mrs Thatcher's attitude towards Europe and how her Chancellor and Bank of England officials could cope: "It is 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.“ He ended by warning that the Prime Minister's perceived attitude towards Europe was "running increasingly serious risks for the future of our nation".

5. Learning Task • Collect a piece of card and slice it into 5 cards. On each, write the factors below: • Challenges from within party • Economic problems • Unpopular domestic policies • Instability of the cabinet • Divisions over Europe • Revival of the Labour Party • Rank these in order, from the most important to the least important. • Down one side, draw arrows away from each factor and give precise examples to explain how it brought down her leadership of the party by 1990. • Down the other, explain why number 1 is more important than the others. Challenge: Target A-B ‘Geoffrey Howe, the close cabinet ally who became Thatcher’s assassin’ – why do you think Andrew Rawnsley describes Howe like this?

6. Checkpoint: Can you explain why Thatcher resigned in 1990?

7. The Rise of John Major After Thatcher was unable to win enough support to prevent a second ballot, she announced her resignation as Prime Minister and Conservative Leader. Major subsequently announced on 22 November that he would stand in the second ballot Unlike in the first ballot, a candidate only required a simple majority of Conservative MPs to win, in this case 187 of 375 MPs. The ballot was held on the afternoon of 27 November; although Major fell two votes short of the required winning total, he polled far enough ahead of both Douglas Hurd and Michael Heseltine to secure immediate concessions from them. With no remaining challengers, Major was formally named Leader of the Conservative Party that evening and was duly appointed Prime Minister the following day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZifWqG2413U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFNrc3YtAZ4

8. Issues facing Major’s government The UK economy entered a recession during 1990, which deepened in 1991, with unemployment rising rapidly. The Conservatives had been consistently behind Labour in the opinion polls since 1989, and the gap had widened significantly during 1990. Within two months of Major becoming Prime Minister, Major was required to lead Britain through the first Gulf War. Britain and America invaded Iraq in 1991 following Saddam Hussein’s refusal to withdraw from Kuwait. Major playing a key role in persuading US President George H. W. Bush to support no-fly zones. He also negotiated the Maastricht Treaty in December 1991which put an end to the conflict. During this period, Major and his Cabinet survived an IRA assassination attempt by mortar attack. The Conservatives managed to regain a lead in the opinion polls after this period, with polls also showing Major as the most popular Prime Minister since Harold Macmillan in the early 1960s. In spite of Labour Leader Neil Kinnock's repeated calls for an immediate general election after Major became Prime Minister, it wasn't until February 1992 that Major called an election for 9 April. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAX9yuvwBx4

9. The 1992 General Election Major took his campaign onto the streets, delivering many addresses from an upturned soapbox as he had done in his days on Lambeth Council. This approach stood in contrast to the Labour Party's seemingly slicker campaign and it chimed with the electorate During the campaign, both parties were either tied or within one point of each other in opinion polls, leading to uncertainty over who would win – or whether there would be an outright election winner at all. On the night of the election, exit polls indicated a very slim Labour lead, which most observers predicted would translate into either a hung parliament or a small Labour majority, with Major's best hope of retaining power being with the Tories remaining in government as a minority government or as part of a coalition. Despite these predictions, the Conservatives won the election outright, gaining in excess of 14 million votes, the highest popular vote ever recorded by a British political party in a general election to date. Although this translated into a much-reduced majority of 21 seats in the House of Commons (down from a majority of 102 seats at the previous election)