UK Conservative Cabinet 1990-97

On 22 November 1990, British Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher resigned after serving as Prime Minister for over 11 years. She had been a quintessential leader and her policies had promoted a free market economy, privatised industries and public services and introduced 'popular capitalism'. She had secured three consecutive victories for the Conservative Party in the 1979, 1983 and 1987 general elections, but was persuaded to stand down in 1990, following a leadership challenge. She gave her reasons for resignation as not being able to count on support from her own MP's, and that the Tories were more likely to win the next general election with a new leader.
The victor of the consequent Conservative Party leadership contest was Thatcher's Chancellor of the Exchequer, John Major, who took over on 27 November 1990.
Major adopted a different Prime Ministerial style to that of Mrs. Thatcher, which was essentially far more collegial. Major was a great user of his cabinet team and encouraged discussion of government policy in order to gain opinions and feedback. Under Major, the cabinet had greater influence over the direction of policy than had been the case with previous Conservative administrations. This was a different approach from that of Mrs. Thatcher, who regularly started her cabinet meetings by announcing the government's policy and sometimes kept some issues away from the attention of her cabinet ministers. Since the Conservative government was elected in 1979, the Prime Minister had chosen to complete detailed policy work in cabinet committees or in bilateral meetings with the head of a department and limit her use of her cabinet team.
The Tory government's popularity improved after Major became prime minister. They had trailed behind Labour in most of the opinion polls since mid 1989, and by the time of Mrs Thatcher's resignation Labour had been up to 10 points ahead of the Tories in the polls. Controversy over the Poll Tax had dented Tory popularity, as had the beginning of a recession. However, they managed to top several opinion polls after the change of leader, and throughout 1991 there were continued calls by Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock for an election to be held. Despite the deepening recession and rising unemployment, the Tories continued to top many opinion polls but Major still refused to call an election, leading to Kinnock branding him a "ditherer". Although the recession ultimately lasted until the end of 1992, there was genuine reason for optimism during 1991 that it would end sooner and that John Major's promises the economic recovery was just around the corner would be fulfilled.

Having asserted himself upon his party and the country as Prime Minister, John Major called a general election in 1992, from which he secured a decisive victory on 10 April 1992. This was a surprise outcome, as Labour popularity had picked up again since the previous autumn and most of the pollsters had predicted either a Labour election win or a hung parliament. His win was also a record for the Conservative Party, as it was their fourth consecutive general election victory.
The senior members of Major's cabinet team and ministers who held the 'great offices of state' in the British political system, for the duration of his premiership, were the following;
Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service:
John Major
Chancellor of the Exchequer and Second Lord of the Treasury:
Norman Lamont (1990-93), Kenneth Clarke (1993-97)
Deputy Prime Minister and First Secretary of State:
Michael Heseltine (1995-97)
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs:
Douglas Hurd (1989-95), Malcolm Rifkind (1995-97)
Secretary of State for the Home Department:
Kenneth Baker (1990-92), Kenneth Clarke (1992-93), Michael Howard (1993-97)
On March 17, 1997, approaching the five year limit on a UK parliament, Major went to Buckingham Palace to seek a dissolution from the Queen. He then scheduled a general election for May 1 and entered into a six week long election campaign.
At the time of the campaign, the economy was improving with inflation decreasing, taxes decreasing and employment increasing. The Conservative government being returned to power was feasible because their economic management in the later years of John Major's time as Prime Minister was acceptable, especially since they had rescued the economy after Britain's exit from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) on 'Black Wednesday', 16 September 1992. Since this decable, however, Labour had comfortably led all of the main opinion polls and the strong economic recovery spearheaded by the Tories had done very little to improve hopes of a fifth successive Tory election win.
Prime Minister Major's main rival was the leader of the Labour Party, Tony Blair. Blair had taken over as leader of the opposition in 1994 since the death of previous leader John Smith and had done much to modernise the Labour Party, since it lost office in 1979.
When the general election came on May 1, Labour won a large victory with 418 seats, leaving the Conservatives to form the official opposition with 165 - as an "England only" party with all seats in Wales and Scotland lost.
The last time Labour had won a general election was in the October 1974 election.
On May 2, 1997, John Major left 10 Downing Street and travelled to Buckingham Palace to tender his resignation as Prime Minister. The Queen accepted and invited Tony Blair to kiss hands as Britain's new premier. Blair consequently became the first Labour leader to enter Downing Street since James Callaghan in 1976. Blair was also the youngest Prime Minister since Lord Liverpool in 1812.
In June 1997, Major was replaced as Conservative leader by William Hague, who remained in power for four years.

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