Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

CHANGE IN BRITAIN

CHANGE IN BRITAIN; THATCHER SAYS SHE'LL QUIT; 11 1/2 YEARS AS PRIME MINISTER ENDED BY PARTY CHALLENGE

CHANGE IN BRITAIN; THATCHER SAYS SHE'LL QUIT; 11 1/2 YEARS AS PRIME MINISTER ENDED BY PARTY CHALLENGE
Credit...The New York Times Archives
See the article in its original context from
November 23, 1990, Section A, Page 1Buy Reprints
TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers.
About the Archive
This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.

Her leadership of the Conservative Party slipping away, Margaret Thatcher announced today that she would resign as Prime Minister as soon as a new leader was elected next week, ending an extraordinary era in British politics that lasted 11 1/2 years.

Her immediate successor will be one of three men: Michael Heseltine, the 57-year-old former Defense Minister; Douglas Hurd, 60, the Foreign Secretary, or John Major, 47, the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

It was Mr. Heseltine who broke Mrs. Thatcher's hold on the leadership by winning the votes of 152 of the 372 Conservative members of Parliament in an initial leadership ballot on Tuesday. Mr. Hurd and Mr. Major entered the race today after the 65-year-old Prime Minister withdrew from the second ballot.

The winner will be chosen either by a simple majority in the second ballot next Tuesday, or, if none of the three wins a majority then, in a runoff ballot next Thursday. Surprise and Relief

Mrs. Thatcher's resignation was greeted with surprise and sadness, but by wide relief in the ranks of her divided party. The immediate cause of the split was her resistance to European economic and political union, but the roots of discontent lay in her combative personality and leadership tactics.

The leader of the opposition Labor Party, Neil Kinnock, said the news was "good, very, very good indeed" and called again for an immediate general election that public opinion polls say Labor would easily win if it were held now. The no-confidence motion by which Labor sought to force snap elections was defeated tonight by a vote of 367 to 247, but general elections must be held by mid-1992.

Abroad, many government officials paid warm tribute to her leadership. President Bush, in Saudi Arabia, described her as an "outstanding ally for the United States" and said he would miss her personally. But in much of Europe her resignation was taken as a hopeful sign that the pace of European unification would quicken. [ Page A14. ]

Iraq's Information Minister said she had "lost her party, her job and even her reputation" even as her Government announced that it would send 14,000 more British troops to the Persian Gulf as part of the allied effort to force Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait. As part of a vigorous defense of her policies in the House of Commons debate on Mr. Kinnock's no-confidence motion this afternoon, Mrs. Thatcher warned that the time was "fast approaching" for "more decisive action" against Iraq.

The manner of Mrs. Thatcher's going was as extraordinary as her long career. The Prime Minister who led Britain to victory in the war to recapture the Falkland Islands from Argentina in 1982, who only a year and a half ago was unchallenged, universally respected and prepared to go "on and on," was being disavowed by her own party even as Britain prepared for a much larger war in the Persian Gulf.

"It's a funny old world," aides reported her saying to the hushed Cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street this morning at which she announced her decision, "that here I have won a majority but feel I have to go."

But she put her feelings behind her and put on a game performance in Parliament this afternoon, after going to Buckingham Palace to inform Queen Elizabeth II of her decision to resign. Self-Confident in Parliament

In the debate in the Commons the Prime Minister displayed her usual combativeness and self-confidence, but was relaxed enough to let her sense of humor show, though she sounded hoarse and tired.

When a Labor member suggested that she might now become Governor of the Bank of England, she said, "What a good idea!" In that position, she said, she could prevent the independent central European bank and single European currency that she so vigorously opposes as an intrusion into British national sovereignty.

"I'm enjoying this, I'm enjoying this," she said, though it seemed doubtful that she was.

After hearing the conflicting advice of friends, party leaders, and Cabinet ministers who came to the Prime Minister's residence at No. 10 Downing Street on Wednesday night to advise her, she decided early this morning to resign, going back on earlier pledges to fight on to victory. Released at 9:34 A.M.

"A whole range of Cabinet ministers said, 'Look, we don't think you're going to win, and it would be better if you didn't run,' " said Sir Norman Fowler, a former Cabinet minister himself. It was known that Mrs. Thatcher's support among Conservative legislators was eroding, but it was not known whether she saw this as merely an ominous trend or whether a tally by her aides actually showed Mr. Heseltine winning the vote.

Mrs. Thatcher reached her decision at 7:30 this morning, aides said, and then informed her Cabinet. The announcement was released to a stunned British public at 9:34 this morning.

"The Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Margaret Thatcher, F.R.S., has informed the Queen that she does not intend to contest the second ballot of the election for leadership of the Conservative Party and intends to resign as Prime Minister as soon as a new leader of the Conservative Party has been elected," it said.

Appended was a personal statement by Mrs. Thatcher: "Having consulted widely among colleagues, I have concluded that the unity of the party and the prospect of victory in a general election would be better served if I stood down to enable Cabinet colleagues to enter the ballot for the leadership. I should like to thank all those in Cabinet and outside who have given me such dedicated support."

The news filled the radio and television airways all day and was even relayed to riders on the London Underground by intercom. They took the news in silence. Later a small crowd gathered outside the gates to Downing Street, and some people brought bouquets and wreaths of flowers. Caretaker Prime Minister

A few hours later, now as caretaker Prime Minister, Mrs. Thatcher appeared in the House of Commons to argue against the Labor Party's call for immediate elections and to hear many allies and opponents alike pay tribute to her courage, though most also said that she had done the right thing by deciding to go.

Though her departure seemed tragic to old friends like Lord William Whitelaw, her first Home Secretary, it was sadly deserved in the view of many, former allies and opponents, who had felt the sting of her sharp tongue in Cabinet meetings and parliamentary debates over the last decade.

"Those who live by the sword shall perish by the sword," said Lord Callaghan, who as James Callaghan became Labor Prime Minister in 1976 after Harold Wilson stepped down as that party's leader, the last time a British Prime Minister resigned as a result of discontent within the governing party.

Mr. Heseltine, who walked out of Mrs. Thatcher's Cabinet as Defense Minister five years ago, was determined to unseat her partly because of the way he said she had steamrolled him in Government debates. He made his move against her last week after a wounded former friend of the Prime Minister, Sir Geoffrey Howe, resigned as Deputy Prime Minister and denounced her hostile attitude to Europe in a House of Commons speech that many viewed as his revenge on her for removing him as Foreign Secretary in July of 1989, for urging her too hard to accede to European monetary union.

Mr. Heseltine is widely seen as the front-runner to win next week, because of his success in getting 152 votes in the first round. He will need 187 votes, a majority, to win in the second round next Tuesday. If no one gets a majority, a third ballot would be held next Thursday, in which Conservative legislators would be asked to select first- and second-choice candidates from among the three. If no candidate receives a majority of first-choice ballots, the weakest candidate will be dropped and the next Prime Minister will be decided on the strength of second-choice support for the two survivors.

Mr. Hurd and Mr. Major, Thatcher supporters in the first-round vote, made clear today that they had entered the contest to try to stop Mr. Heseltine. Attack From Kinnock

"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," they said in a joint statement. But separately, each said he had the best chance of doing so, and it was not clear whether their candidacies would weaken support for Mr. Heseltine or merely divide opposition to him.

In today's debate in Parliament on the no-confidence motion, the 48-year-old Mr. Kinnock, who would become Prime Minister if Labor won, attacked the Conservative Government's divisions on Europe and catalogued a long list of Conservative failures: an inflation rate of 10.9 percent; the "community charge," an unpopular new head tax for local government services; rising unemployment, and cuts in public spending for social benefits.

"What a record! Eleven oil-rich years, with a recession at each end and a miracle in between," he said. "How can anyone have confidence in a Government with Cabinet ministers who in the last week have been privately telling the press that the Prime Minister is finished and then minutes later supporting her position in the television studios or going off to a private meeting in order to contrive the coup against the Prime Minister?"

"In a democracy," he said, "there is only one fitting conclusion to today's events -- a general election." Thatcher Defends Herself

Mrs. Thatcher, rising to her own defense with Tory ranks doing their best to try to support her, looked back to the situation she said she had inherited from a Labor Government when she won her first election on May 4, 1979.

"Eleven years ago we rescued Britain from the parlous state to which socialism had brought it," she said. "Once again Britain stands tall in the councils of Europe and of the world. Over the last decade, we have given power back to the people on an unprecedented scale. We have given back control to people over their own lives and over their livelihoods, over the decisions that matter most to them and their families. We have done it by curbing the monopoly power of trade unions to control, even victimize the individual worker.

"We have been the driving force behind the single market," she said, referring to the European Community's decision to drop all internal trade and tariff barriers by the end of 1992. "With all this we have never hesitated to stand up for Britain's interests."

"They want a Europe of subsidies, a Europe of socialist restrictions, a Europe of protectionism," she said of the Labor Party. "They want it because that's how they would like to run, or is it to ruin, this country."

Even on Europe, she did not retreat a single inch. But Europe was the issue that finally brought her down.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 1 of the National edition with the headline: CHANGE IN BRITAIN; THATCHER SAYS SHE'LL QUIT; 11 1/2 YEARS AS PRIME MINISTER ENDED BY PARTY CHALLENGE. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT