STORY OF O 1992 THE SERIES1 10 FULL
He ended his speech with a call-to-arms: “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.” You can read Howe’s resignation speech in full here. Howe concluded that his “conflict of loyalty” to the prime minister and to what “I perceive to be the true interests of the nation, has become all too great”. Geoffrey Howe leaves his London home for the House of Commons to give his famous resignation speech criticising Margaret Thatcher, 13 November 1990. Responding to calls for greater central control in Europe, Thatcher declared “No, no, no”. He also really did quote a British businessman trading in Brussels “who wrote to me last week, stating: ‘People throughout Europe see our prime minister’s finger-wagging and hear her passionate, “No, no, no”, much more clearly than the content of the carefully worded formal texts.’” Here Howe was referring to Thatcher’s famous defiance in the Commons on 30 October. Over the course of 18 minutes Howe attacked Thatcher’s dealings towards Europe, which he described as a “tragedy”, and told the House: “The Prime Minister’s perceived attitude towards Europe is running increasingly serious risks for the future of our nation.”Īs is shown in The Crown, Howe described Mrs Thatcher’s attitude to British negotiations in Europe as “rather like sending your opening batsmen to the crease, only to find… their bats have been broken before the game by the team captain”. Howe delivered his blistering resignation statement in the House of Commons on 13 November 1990. Upon his death in 2015, then-prime minister David Cameron described him as “the quiet hero of the first Thatcher government”. He was appointed a Companion of Honour in 1996. Howe continued to be a major political player following his resignation: he was made a life peer in 1992 and continued to argue in favour of Europe. Howe’s famous 1990 resignation was the catalyst for Margaret Thatcher’s downfall as prime minister. He first entered the House of Commons as the MP for Bebington in 1964 and he was appointed a QC in 1965.
Having fought Thatcher for the leadership of the party in the 1975 contest, he went on to serve as her chancellor of the exchequer, foreign secretary and deputy prime minister, as well as leader of the House of Commons.īorn in Port Talbot in south Wales, Howe read law at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, before being called to the bar in 1952. Hailed as one of the greats of the Conservative Party, Geoffrey Howe (1926–2015) was Margaret Thatcher’s longest-serving cabinet minister.