Immediate changes Major aimed to consolidate the gains achieved during Thatcher's premiership, whilst also seeking to spread the rise in wealth seen in the Thatcher era across society more widely, so creating "a country at ease with itself." Concerned at the rise of inequality and relative poverty in the 1980s, Major sought to position himself as a '
One Nation' Tory, with a more compassionate attitude to those negatively affected by the social and economic changes enacted during the 1980s. Upon becoming prime minister Major conducted a minor
reshuffle, appointing
Norman Lamont as chancellor, bringing back
Michael Heseltine into Cabinet as
environment secretary and later as
deputy prime minister, and moving
Kenneth Baker to the
Home Office. Major was praised by colleagues for his more consensual Cabinet style, though the Labour Party criticised the lack of any women in his Cabinet. Thatcher, initially supportive of Major, over time came to regret her support for him, often issuing highly publicised criticisms of Major that he found increasingly irritating. Amongst the first issues Major had to deal with upon taking office was replacing the deeply unpopular Poll Tax, a task he delegated to
Michael Heseltine. The potential electoral fallout of keeping it was again underlined when the Conservatives lost a
by-election in Ribble Valley in March 1991. A temporary relief grant of some £1 billion was granted to Local Authorities to offset the costs associated with the Tax. In April 1993 the Poll Tax was replaced with
Council Tax, set at a sliding scale based on property prices, paid for partly by a rise in
VAT. Following a series of high-profile
dog maulings, the
Dangerous Dogs Act was enacted in 1991 to tackle the breeding of aggressive pedigrees.
Citizen's Charter Major was firmly committed to tackling poor performance in the public sector and the often substandard levels of service faced by users, of which Major had personal experience. Major wished not only to improve performance, but also to change the overall culture of the sector into one that was more open, transparent, and consumer-focused. His idea was to create a set of guidelines and benchmarks against which progress could be measured and then published for the public, collectively referred to as the 'Citizen's Charter', which was formally launched on 23 March 1991. Major continued to push the idea despite opposition from within the Civil Service and the sometimes lukewarm support for the concept from his ministers. Tiring of the slow progress on implementation, Major created a Cabinet Office Committee under Andrew Whetnall to force through change and monitor departmental compliance. A major aspect of the Charter process was the introduction of public performance tables so as to 'name and shame' poor performers and thereby spur change; such tables were duly introduced in schools (with league tables), rail (with British Rail publishing performance figures) and the NHS (with waiting lists). Following his 1992 general election victory Major continued with Charter-related reforms, creating the '
Charter Mark' for those departments and organisations that were meeting their Charter targets. One less successful aspect of the reforms was the so-called '
Cones Hotline', a phoneline which motorists could use to report out-of-place coneage, which proved to be an embarrassing failure and a source of much mockery. However, overall the Charter went some way to change the culture of public services in Britain, with most of Major's initiatives in this area being left in place and indeed expanded by the Labour government after 1997.
1992 general election victory ,
James Callaghan,
Harold Wilson, and
Edward Heath with
The Queen and
The Prince and
Princess of Wales, July 1992 The UK economy entered a recession during 1990, which deepened in 1991, with unemployment rising rapidly to 2.5 million. The Conservatives had been consistently behind Labour in the
opinion polls since 1989, and the gap had widened significantly during 1990, with Labour hoping that the economic gloom would convince voters to switch allegiance. However, the Conservatives managed to regain a lead after Thatcher left office, with opinion polls also showing Major as the most popular Prime Minister since
Harold Macmillan in the early 1960s. Major pondered calling a snap election 1991, but poor
local election results in 1991, followed by further by-election losses in
Monmouth,
Kincardine and elsewhere, convinced him to wait. Major also hoped that the economy may have recovered somewhat by 1992 (the last possible date the election could be called), and he was also keen to avoid accusations of exploiting the recent Gulf War victory for electoral advantage. In spite of
Labour Leader Neil Kinnock's repeated calls for an immediate general election after Major became prime minister, it wasn't until 11 March 1992 that Major called an election for 9 April. The Conservatives initially undertook a traditional-style campaign, with a series of set-piece policy launches and 'Meet John Major' public discussions, but Major felt these methods were too stage-managed and were failing to get through to voters. As a result, Major decided to take his campaign directly onto the streets, delivering addresses to the public from an upturned
soapbox as he had done in his days with the Brixton Young Conservatives. This was opposed by many of Major's advisers, not least on security grounds, but Major enjoyed this aspect of the campaign immensely despite the often hostile crowds, and the soapbox orations chimed with the electorate. Major's ordinary background was also emphasised, being used on a poster stating "What does the Conservative Party offer a working class kid from Brixton? They made him Prime Minister" as well as a video entitled 'The Journey', in which Major revisited his childhood homes in Brixton. Major's approach stood in contrast to the Labour Party's much slicker campaign, most notably a US-style political
rally in Sheffield which was widely criticised as being overly bombastic and prematurely triumphalist. The Conservatives also conducted a hard-hitting
negative campaign, stating that Labour would spend excessively resulting in a 'tax bombshell' and a 'double whammy' of higher taxes and a rise in inflation. Much of the press was also hostile to Labour, with
The Sun issuing a notorious front-page on the day of the election featuring
Neil Kinnock's head in a lightbulb under the headline 'If Kinnock wins today will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights'. conceding defeat in 1992. His wife
Glenys and
Bryan Gould to the right of the picture. Despite this it was widely thought that after 13 years of uninterrupted Conservative rule Labour would win the election. 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. However, due to the vagaries of Britain's '
first past the post' electoral system the victory translated poorly into a much-reduced majority of 21 seats in the House of Commons (down from a majority of 102 seats at the previous election). Though this was enough for Major to remain as prime minister and gave the Conservatives their fourth consecutive election victory, the relatively small majority would go on to cause problems for Major throughout his second term. Furthermore,
Chris Patten, Major's closest aide and confidant, lost his Bath seat to the Liberal Democrats. Following the election Kinnock resigned as head of the Labour Party, to be replaced by
John Smith. Major's second honeymoon as prime minister following his election victory did not last long, with the events of 'Black Wednesday' in September seriously damaging the government's reputation for economic competence.
Economy The early part of Major's premiership coincided with a
recession, which saw unemployment hit 3 million at its peak along with a raft of business closures and home repossessions. Inflation had also reached 10.9% in mid-1990. The recession had a knock-on effect on the government's fiscal position, as they had to spend more (to cover the increase in unemployment benefit claimants) at a time of declining tax intake. Furthermore, the government's commitment to the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) constrained its ability to cut interest rates and thereby stimulate the economy. The UK's forced withdrawal from the ERM in September 1992 was succeeded by a partial economic recovery, with a new policy of flexible
exchange rates, allowing lower interest rates and
devaluation, thereby increasing demand for UK goods in export markets. An inflation target of 1–4% was introduced, which was maintained throughout Major's time in office. The recession was declared over in April 1993, when the economy grew by 0.2%. Unemployment also started to fall; it had stood at nearly 3 million by the end of 1992, but by the spring of 1997 it had fallen to 1.7 million. However, the government's 1993 budget, which saw a raft of tax increases, including on domestic fuel, came in for severe criticism, as not raising taxes had been one of the key planks of their 1992 electoral campaign. as well as the growth in the use of
private finance initiatives (PFIs) to help fund public infrastructure projects. The effectiveness of PFIs has been contested, though the idea was enthusiastically taken up by
Tony Blair and their use expanded considerably during his term in office. The power of
trade unions continued to decline during the 1990s, with union membership continuing to fall concurrent with their influence on the political process. Further curbs on union activities were made in 1992 with the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act. The
National Economic Development Council and Wage Councils were also abolished under Major, further eroding union influence over economic policy making. These trends were strengthened by the growth in
globalisation and Britain's continued shift from an industrial, manufacturing-based economy to a more service-based one. Major sought to create a less cumbersome, more agile labour market that could compete more effectively in the new global economy, hence his insistence in the Maastricht negotiations on gaining opt-outs from EU social policies which were seen as interfering with this process. Additionally, efforts were made to reform the benefit system with the introduction of
Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) in 1996, which aimed to incentivise the unemployed to find work and tackle so-called 'benefit scroungers.' Critics of these reforms say that they have created a culture of low-pay, insecure working conditions and an unduly restrictive benefits system which has worsened inequality. However, the decline in trade union influence over left-wing politics also had the knock-on effect of increasing support for Labour by making them appear more electable.
'Black Wednesday' On 16 September 1992, the UK was forced to exit the
European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), a day which would come to be known as 'Black Wednesday', with billions of pounds wasted in a futile attempt to defend the value of sterling. The upheaval caused by the day's events was such that Major came close to resigning as prime minister, preparing an unsent letter of resignation addressed to the Queen. The pound had been facing pressure for several months before Black Wednesday, with Britain's
trade deficit widening and the pound slipping in value against the German
Deutsche Mark (from May–August 1992 it had dropped from DM 2.91 to 2.80). Low interest rates in America were pushing many investors to buy Deutschmarks, and German government spending was high following
reunification in 1990, putting pressure on the pound and other currencies such as the
Italian lira. During this period Major asked German chancellor
Helmut Kohl to ask the
Bundesbank (the German
central bank) to ease the situation, but the Bundesbank was independent of the government, and on 16 July it raised interest rates and the
discount rate. In late July Major and his
chancellor Norman Lamont seriously discussed the options of either devaluing the pound or leaving the ERM so that domestic interest rates could be cut, but they decided not to. Instead both continued to pressure Kohl and the Bundesbank to cut the German interest rates; however, their pleas were ignored and relations deteriorated. In early September Lamont raised a £7 billion loan to aid the pound, but the pressure in the markets continued, with the
Finnish markka falling on 9 September followed by the Italian lira on the 13 September. Investors, convinced that Britain would be next to leave the ERM, continued selling pounds. On the day of Black Wednesday itself (16 September) the government repeatedly raised interest rates (up to 15%) in a bid to stay in the ERM, to no effect; later that evening a humiliated Lamont announced to the press that Britain would be leaving the ERM. Although Major continued to defend Britain's membership of the ERM, stating that "the ERM was the medicine to cure the ailment, but it was not the ailment", the disaster of Black Wednesday left the Government's economic credibility irreparably damaged. Labour leader
John Smith attacked Major in the House of Commons, stating that he was "the devalued Prime Minister of a devalued government." Nevertheless, Major kept his economic team unchanged for seven months after Black Wednesday, before eventually sacking
Norman Lamont, replacing him with
Kenneth Clarke. This came after months of press criticism of Lamont during his 1993 budget and a heavy defeat at a
by-election in Newbury. His delay in sacking Lamont was exploited by Major's critics both inside and outside of his party, who used it to claim Major was too indecisive. Immediately after Black Wednesday, the Conservatives fell far behind Labour in the
opinion polls and Major would never be able to regain the lead for the rest of his time as prime minister, being trounced in local council elections and the
1994 European Parliament election on the way, as well as suffering a string of by-election defeats which gradually wiped out the Conservative majority.
Privatisation of coal Major sought to continue Thatcher's policy of
privatising state-owned industries; he firmly ruled out schools and the
National Health Service (NHS), focusing instead on rail, coal and postal services. There were numerous exploratory attempts at privatising
Royal Mail, a pet cause of
Michael Heseltine, but the issue was deemed too politically sensitive and was shelved in 1994. Major instead focused on coal, with many pits loss-making and requiring a large state
subsidy to continue in operation. After a review
British Coal announced a raft of pit closures on 13 October 1992, which would result in the loss of 30,000 jobs. The severity of the cuts programme resulted in a huge public backlash and was opposed by the Labour Party, as well as many Conservatives angry at the perceived betrayal of
Union of Democratic Mineworkers (UDM), which consisted largely of miners who had refused to join the
1984 miners strike. The miners held a large protest march in London later that year, and the Major government announced a review of some mine closures, extra funding for affected areas, as well as a more generous redundancy package for those miners who would lose their jobs. Nevertheless, the privatisation programme went ahead in 1994.
Privatisation of British Rail Margaret Thatcher had blanched at the idea of privatising
British Rail, though some basic exploratory work on the issue had been conducted from 1990, and the Conservatives' 1992 election manifesto contained a commitment to privatise British Rail. From 1994 to 1997 the railways were privatised, being split up into
franchises to be run by the private sector and a company called
Railtrack which was responsible for the network's infrastructure (track, signals, tunnels etc.). The process was opposed by Labour, the Liberal Democrats and even many Tories. The
effect of privatising the railway is still disputed, with a large growth in passenger numbers and increasing fiscal efficiency matched by a continuing large public subsidy, high ticket prices, often severe overcrowding and concern about foreign companies running British railways. Better received was the
Channel Tunnel, which opened in 1994, linking France and the UK directly via rail for the first time.
Crime Major's government was generally seen as hard-line on law and order issues, especially after
Michael Howard became
Home Secretary in 1993. Howard aimed to reform a criminal justice system he saw as being overly lenient on offenders, famously stating that "prison works", and over the course of the decade prisoner numbers grew by a third. The controversial
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act was passed in 1994 which aimed to crack down on
New Age travellers,
squatters,
fox hunt saboteurs and illegal
raves, as well as ending the '
right to silence' of an accused person, allowing for inferences to be drawn from their silence, and increasing police powers of '
stop and search'. Severe curbs on
handguns were also brought in on the recommendation of the
Cullen Enquiry, set up following a
school shooting in Dunblane, Scotland in 1996 in which 16 children and a teacher were shot dead. Despite the tough line on crime there were several notable failures during Major's time in office. The increase in prisoner numbers resulted in overcrowding, prompting break-outs at
Whitemoor Prison in 1994 and
Parkhurst Prison in 1995. 1991 saw the freeing of the
Birmingham Six, six Irishmen wrongfully convicted in 1975 for the
Birmingham pub bombings, coming a year after the freeing of the
Guildford Four and Maguire Seven who had been prosecuted in similar circumstances. Subsequently, a
Royal Commission on Criminal Justice was established, which resulted in the establishment of the
Criminal Cases Review Commission in 1997 to investigate alleged
miscarriages of justice. Controversy also focused on London's
Metropolitan Police after a bungled undercover investigation into the
murder of Rachel Nickell in 1992, in which the force seemingly attempted to smear an innocent man via the use of a '
honey-trap' operation, as well the catalogue of police failures following the
killing of black teenager Stephen Lawrence, with a subsequent enquiry deeming the force to be 'institutionally racist'.
Culture, sport and social policies Major took a keen interest in culture, the arts and sport whilst in office, after a low ebb for the sector during the Thatcher era, bringing these areas together in a newly created
Department of National Heritage in 1992, dubbed 'the department of fun' by its first
Secretary David Mellor. Major also spearheaded the launch of the
National Lottery in 1994, run by the
Camelot Group, the proceeds of which went to support charities, the arts and heritage projects across the country. Despite some initial concerns at the high levels of pay for Camelot executives, and controversy that some funds went towards what were seen as overly high-brow projects (such as refurbishing the
Royal Opera House), the Lottery did result in a huge source of additional funding for the cultural sector. Major also backed
Manchester's (unsuccessful)
bid to host the
2000 Summer Olympics. The Major Government's planned set of celebrations in 1994 for the 50th anniversary of
D-Day were scaled back after aspects of them were criticised as being inappropriate, However, the commemorations in 1995 of the end of the
Second World War were generally well received. As part of the commemorations Major travelled to France, Poland, Russia and Germany to pay his respects on behalf of Britain. Major was seen as being more socially liberal than many Conservatives, and certainly more so than
Margaret Thatcher. He had little tolerance for
racism, having spent part of his youth living in Brixton and having also worked in Nigeria for a period; for example, he actively supported
John Taylor in his campaign to be MP for
Cheltenham in 1992, which was opposed by several Conservative members allegedly due to Taylor's being black. Major was also supportive of
gay rights, despite
homophobia at that time being widespread both in the Conservative Party and wider society. In 1991 he met with the actor
Ian McKellen, an actor and gay rights activist, to discuss issues facing the gay community, to the criticism of some in his party and the right-wing media. Major later removed restrictions on employing gay people in the
civil service and
army, and in 1994 the
age of consent for gay men was lowered from 21 to 18. In terms of the
rights of disabled people, the government suffered an embarrassing setback after it was revealed that the Civil Rights (Disabled Persons) Bill in 1994 had been deliberately sabotaged by Conservative MPs (possibly with the government's backing) due to the expense it would have laid on businesses charged with providing full access to their premises to disabled persons. After a public outcry, notably from astrophysicist
Stephen Hawking, a less stringent act (the
Disability Discrimination Act) was passed the following year which outlawed discrimination but without the requirement to provide access.
Education Major continued with the reforms in the education sector began under Thatcher with the
Education Reform Act 1988; as part of this he pushed for the creation of
grant-maintained schools which were outside the control of
Local education authority (LEAs). Schools were also given greater powers to specialise in certain subject areas, thus creating greater choice for parents and pupils. In 1992 league tables for schools began to be published and an independent schools inspectorate (
Ofsted) was created, both with the aim of improving standards in line with the Citizen's Charter initiative. Powers were granted to enable 'failing' schools to be taken over from LEA control. Many of these reforms, as well as the compulsory testing of pupils, were opposed by teaching unions, and there were testing boycotts in 1993. Major and
Education Secretary Gillian Shephard pressed on, the sector being regarded by them as too left-leaning and complacent in the face of low standards, to the detriment of pupils. This analysis was seemingly confirmed when it was revealed that several senior Labour politicians - notably
Harriet Harman - sent their children to
private schools. Despite being keen to return to traditional standards in schools, Major did, however, oppose a proposition to reintroduce
caning in autumn 1996. In the tertiary sector the split between
universities and
polytechnics was ended with the
Further and Higher Education Act in 1992, with most polytechnics re-branding themselves as universities. Over the course of his premiership university student numbers continued to grow, with a third of school-leavers going on to study at degree level by the time he left office. Controversy was also engendered after attempts by
Health Secretary Virginia Bottomley to streamline London's hospitals, which would have meant closing the historic
St Bartholomew's; after a public outcry the plans were significantly scaled back.
BSE outbreak In March 1996 Major had to deal with a serious public health scare following a scientific announcement of a possible link between
bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, colloquially referred to as 'mad cow disease') and a
form of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD), a serious and potentially fatal brain disease in humans. The press reported heavily on the issue, resulting in a steep fall in the amount of
beef bought in the UK. Soon after the EU banned imports of British beef into other member states and then the wider world, much to Major's fury, as almost all potentially risky meat had been previously destroyed. A huge cattle slaughter programme was introduced in a bid to restore faith in Britain's beef industry, but the EU ban remained in place, and was later extended to cover various bovine-derivative products as well. As a result, in May 1996 Major decided to withhold British cooperation on all EU-related matters until the beef situation had been resolved. After some progress was made in negotiations Major ended the non-cooperation stance in June. Further cattle culling took place, though the ban on British beef was not lifted until August 1999, two years after Major left office. As of 2014, 177 people in Britain had died of vCJD.
Local Government Relations between central and local government had been poor in the 1980s, with
Margaret Thatcher seeking to rein in the excesses of so-called '
loony left' councils. Major, backed by
Environment Secretary Michael Heseltine, continued to push forward with local government reform, with several unloved creations of the 1970s (such as
Humberside,
Avon and
Hereford and Worcester) being abolished and split up, often into new
Unitary Authorities (UAs), which were designed to streamline council services and dispense with the old two-tier council system. Further UAs were created throughout the 1990s (notably
Rutland), and the system was later extended to cover the whole of
Scotland and
Wales. Efforts were also made by
Michael Heseltine to tackle urban blight with the use of City Challenge funding and later the Single Regeneration Budget. Several of the 1960s-70s
council estates were by now in a poor state of repair, and efforts were made to demolish the worst of them and encourage a greater mixture of tenure in these areas via
Housing action trust schemes. The '
right-to-buy' legislation bought in under Thatcher was extended with the 'rent-to-mortgage' scheme, whereby council tenants could take a form of
shared ownership of the property.
Scotland The government under
Margaret Thatcher had been deeply unpopular in Scotland, boosting support for Scottish devolution and
independence. Major opposed devolution, arguing that it would merely be a stepping stone to full independence and the eventual break-up of the United Kingdom. Major was also sensitive to the potential risks of stoking English resentment, due to issues such as the
West Lothian question and the greater per capita public spending in Scotland. Major set out his pro-union message in a speech in
Glasgow on 22 February 1992, later making the theme a key one in his 1992 general election campaign, stating that "The United Kingdom is in danger. Wake up my fellow countrymen, wake up before it's too late". That election saw the Conservatives gain a slight rise in Scottish seats, from 9 to 11. Despite being opposed to devolution, Major did agree to devolve some additional powers to the
Scotland Office and the
Scottish Grand Committee in 1993, as well taking the symbolic step of returning the
Stone of Scone to
Edinburgh in 1996. However, the moves failed to improve Conservative prospects in Scotland; the party was wiped out in the
1995 local elections, and in the 1997 general election they failed to win a single Scottish seat following Labour's promise of a
referendum on a
Scottish Parliament.
Wales Wales, where support for devolution was much weaker, presented less of a worry to Major than Scotland; some additional powers were granted to the
Welsh Grand Committee, and the
Welsh Language Act was passed in 1993 which strengthened the status of
Welsh in public life. As in Scotland, Conservative support in Wales ebbed away during Major's time in office, with most voters changing to Labour who championed the idea of an autonomous
Welsh Assembly. Conservative prospects in Wales were not aided by
Welsh Secretary John Redwood, who was unpopular in Wales and, in Major's words, "did not take to the Welsh people, nor they to him." Though some damage was done to the building there were no casualties, and later that month Major undertook his first visit to the Nation. Little progress had been made with peace talks in the 1980s, with
Margaret Thatcher largely viewing the conflict as a security issue, and her main attempt at a peace deal (the
Anglo-Irish Agreement) gaining little whilst encountering fierce Unionist opposition. In 1990
Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Brooke stated publicly that Britain had no "selfish strategic or economic interest" in Northern Ireland and would accept
Irish unification, if the majority of people in Northern Ireland so wished it. In March 1991 tentative peace talks began involving the main 'constitutional' parties of Northern Ireland (i.e. those who adopted purely democratic means, thereby excluding
Gerry Adams's
Sinn Féin which supported the IRA's use of violence). The talks would focus on three stands: restoring internal self-government to Northern Ireland on a power-sharing basis, relations between Northern Ireland and the
Republic of Ireland, and relations between the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Despite declaring to the House of Commons in November 1993 that "[to] sit down and talk with Mr Adams and the Provisional IRA ... would turn my stomach", the British government were in fact conducting secret 'back channel' discussions with the IRA. Thinking within Republican circles had been evolving in the 1980s, with the clear failure of the 'armed struggle' to achieve a united Ireland and the increasing electoral success of Sinn Féin indicating that their aims could perhaps be better realised politically. Gerry Adams had also been exploring options for a peaceful way forward with
John Hume, leader of the
Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), then the largest Nationalist party in Northern Ireland. In February 1993 Major had received a message from the IRA stating that "The war is over, but we need your help to end it." Nevertheless, discussions faltered over the precise terms of the Sinn Féin/IRA entry into peace talks and the decommissioning of arms; frustrated at the slow progress of negotiations, Sinn Féin leaked the existence of the back channel to the media in November 1993, severely embarrassing the British government. The IRA continued its armed campaign throughout this period, with killings and bombings in Northern Ireland almost a daily occurrence, resulting in retaliatory attacks by
Loyalist paramilitaries (the
Shankill Road bombing and subsequent
Greysteel massacre in October 1993 being one of the deadliest of such tit-for-tat killing cycles). The IRA also took its campaign to mainland Britain, aiming to increase pressure on the British government; the most notable of these attacks were the
bombing of London's Baltic Exchange in April 1992, a
bomb in Warrington in March 1993 which killed two young boys, and the
Bishopsgate bombing in April 1993. Discussions were also being held with
Albert Reynolds, the Irish
taoiseach (prime minister), with whom Major had a friendly relationship. This resulted in the
Downing Street Declaration of 15 December 1993, in which both governments publicly committed themselves to Irish unification only with the consent of a majority of the people in Northern Ireland (i.e. effectively giving the Northern Irish Unionists a veto on a united Ireland) and the inclusion of any non-violent party in peace talks (paving the way for Sinn Féin to enter talks if the IRA decommissioned its weapons). Though opposed by the hardline
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) of
Ian Paisley, the declaration was cautiously welcomed by Sinn Féin, the SDLP and the
Ulster Unionist Party (then the largest Unionist party in the province). On 31 August 1994 the IRA declared a ceasefire, followed by Loyalist paramilitaries on 13 October. A
broadcasting ban on Sinn Féin was also lifted in both Britain and the Republic of Ireland. Controversy continued, however, over the future decommissioning of the IRA's military arsenal. Following the seeming momentum of 1993–94, progress then slowed. Reynolds was replaced by
John Bruton as Taoiseach in November 1994, and
David Trimble became the leader of the UUP (replacing
James Molyneaux) in August 1995. Major was incensed when US president
Bill Clinton granted Gerry Adams a visa to visit the States in January 1994, despite Adams not yet having ruled out the IRA's continuing use of violence; after Adams visited the country in March 1995 Major refused to answer Clinton's phone calls for several days. A Joint Framework Document on a possible future peace settlement was launched in February 1995, though it was rejected by the UUP and DUP as being excessively 'green'. Talks also foundered over arms decommissioning, with the issue being referred to
George J. Mitchell (
United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland), resulting in the '
Mitchell Principles', which reiterated that all paramilitaries should disarm. The Sinn Féin/IRA interpretation of this was that they could join peace talks whilst simultaneously negotiating on decommissioning (the so-called 'twin track' approach), but this was opposed by Major and the Unionist parties. With negotiations stalled, the IRA ended its ceasefire on 9 February 1996 by
bombing the London docklands. A further
massive bomb destroyed the centre of
Manchester in June 1996. The year wore on with little progress being made, with the uncertainty caused by the looming UK general election (which the Conservatives were widely tipped to lose) meaning that little headway could be made. However, Major's dedication to the peace process was vital in establishing the building blocks which led to the
Good Friday Agreement under his successor
Tony Blair in 1998, which finally brought an end to 'the Troubles'. Despite their often strained relationship, Northern Ireland was an issue on which Major and Blair agreed wholeheartedly, and Blair later invited Major to the pro-Good Friday Agreement campaign trail in 1998. In his memoirs, Major wrote that "working for a Northern Ireland settlement was the most difficult, frustrating and, from 1993, time-consuming problem of government during my premiership. It was also the most rewarding. I have never regretted my decision to get involved in such a direct way."
Back to Basics and 'sleaze' At the 1993
Conservative Party Conference, Major launched the '
Back to Basics' campaign, which he intended to be about a wide variety of issues including the economy, education and policing, but which to Major's chagrin was interpreted by many (including some right-leaning Conservative cabinet ministers) as a call for a return to traditional moral and
family values that they associated with the Conservative Party. and the '
Homes for votes scandal' in Conservative-controlled
Westminster City Council. In the
Pergau dam affair the government was found to have acted unlawfully in granting aid to an economically unviable project in Malaysia, as a sweetener for the potential sale of arms to that country. In addition to the above one-off scandals, many of which were quickly forgotten, there were several on-going 'sleaze'-related stories such as '
Arms-to-Iraq', which was an enquiry into how government ministers, including
Alan Clark, had encouraged a business called Matrix Churchill to supply arms-manufacturing machinery to
Iraq during the
Iran–Iraq War of the 1980s, in breach of the official arms embargo. It was alleged that senior ministers had, on legal advice, attempted to withhold evidence of this official connivance via the use of
public interest immunity certificates when the directors of Matrix Churchill were put on trial for breaking the embargo. Major set up the
Scott enquiry to look into the matter, at which Major himself gave evidence in 1994, which issued a final report in 1996 which was highly critical of the government's handling of the issue. Another ongoing scandal was '
Cash for Questions', in which Conservative MPs (first
Graham Riddick and then
David Tredinnick) accepted money to ask questions in the
House of Commons in a newspaper "sting". Later the MPs
Tim Smith and
Neil Hamilton were found to have received money from
Mohamed Al-Fayed, also to ask questions in the
House. The MP
David Willetts later resigned as
Paymaster General after he was accused of rigging evidence to do with 'Cash for Questions'. Although Tim Smith stepped down from the House of Commons at the 1997 general election, Neil Hamilton sought re-election for his seat, being defeated by former BBC Reporter
Martin Bell who stood as an anti-sleaze candidate, with both the Labour and Liberal Democrat candidates withdrawing in his favour. As with 'Arms-to-Iraq' Major set up an independent enquiry into the matter under
Michael Nolan, which resulted in the establishment of the
Committee on Standards in Public Life. An initial report recommended a limit on outside work and transparency in earnings by MPs, angering some Conservative MPs into voting against it, which further muddied the party's image in the popular consciousness. Further public anger arose over the so-called 'revolving door' of Conservative ex-ministers taking high-paying jobs in companies they had helped privatise whilst in office. Major later commented in his memoirs on the "routine" with which he would be telephoned over the weekend to be warned of the latest embarrassing story due to break. He wrote that he took a stern line against financial impropriety, but was angered at the way in which a host of scandals, many of them petty sexual misdemeanours by a small number of MPs, were exploited by the press and Opposition for political advantage. He also conceded that the issue "fed the public belief that the Conservative(s) ... had been in government too long, and had got into bad habits" and quoted Labour's claim in 1997: "Nothing better encapsulates what people think of this government. Sleaze will be one of the things which brings this government down."
1995 leadership election Following his 1992 election victory Major's fortunes took a turn for a worse, with the ignominy of 'Black Wednesday' and the bruising battles to pass the Maastricht Treaty exposing the increasingly acrimonious divisions within the Conservative Party. Major's own personal ratings in opinion polls were low, and he was now being reviled on an almost daily basis by newspapers whose support the Conservatives had once taken for granted. Critics from all corners were also attacking his 'consensus' approach to politics, with
Norman Lamont, after being sacked as Chancellor delivering a stinging critique of Major's government in the House of Commons on 9 June 1993, stating that it "gives the impression of being in office but not in
power." In addition to the above, a string of defeats at by-elections, the
European elections in June 1994 and
local elections in May 1995 saw a severe decline in support for the Conservatives. There were constant rumours of a leadership challenge, exacerbated in June 1995 when the
second part of
Margaret Thatcher's memoirs were published, containing a chapter which was fiercely critical of Major's premiership. On 13 June 1995 Major had an extremely ill-tempered meeting with right-leaning backbenchers, which Major cites as the moment he decided on a leadership contest, stating that "the situation as it stood was intolerable to me personally, and corrosive to the party." The situation was not helped when, a few days later at a
G7 summit in Canada, Major was overheard to have stated to German chancellor
Helmut Kohl that "I run a coalition of government of my own." On 22 June 1995, tired of the continual threats of leadership challenges that never arose, Major resigned as Leader of the Conservative Party and announced that he would contest the resulting leadership election, telling his opponents that "it is time to put up or shut up"; he continued to serve as prime minister whilst the leadership was vacant.
John Redwood resigned as
Secretary of State for Wales to stand against him, with some hoping he would act as a '
stalking horse' candidate, clearing the way for a more substantial figure such as
Michael Portillo or
Michael Heseltine to enter a second round.
The Sun newspaper, still at this stage supporting the Conservative Party, had lost faith in Major and declared its support for Redwood, running the front-page headline "Redwood versus Deadwood". The vote took place on 14 July, with Major winning by 218 votes to Redwood's 89, with 12 spoiled ballots, eight 'active' abstentions and two MPs abstaining, enough to easily win in the first round. The amount was three more than the target he had privately set himself, having earlier resolved to resign if he could not carry the support of at least 215 of his MPs, the two-thirds threshold of his own parliamentary party. Following his victory Major conducted a mini-reshuffle, replacing Redwood with
William Hague as Welsh Secretary, promoting
Michael Heseltine to
deputy prime minister, and moving
Michael Portillo to
Defence.
1997 general election defeat There was a brief boost in Major's fortunes following his victory in the self-declared leadership election in 1995. However, this did not last, and his premiership continued to be undermined by Conservative MPs defecting to other parties, further by-election defeats, ongoing 'sleaze'-related scandals and party disunity, most notably over Europe. By December 1996 the Conservatives had lost their majority in the House of Commons. Meanwhile, the Labour Party, re-branded as '
New Labour' by its new leader Tony Blair (
John Smith having suddenly died in May 1994), seemed vibrant and fresh; having shifted decisively to the political centre (notably with the jettisoning of
Clause Four of the party constitution, which committed them to
common ownership of industry), it seemed a much more appealing prospect to many floating voters. Labour remained far ahead in the
opinion polls as the general election loomed, despite the economic boom and swift fall in unemployment that had followed the end of the early 1990s recession (later dubbed a 'voteless recovery' for the Tories). (
pictured in 1996), leader of the Labour Party, beat Major in the 1997 election. Major faced 1997 knowing that he would have to call an election at some point before May. He considered conducting an early election in March, but decided against it following a Conservative defeat at a
by-election in Wirral in February. On 17 March Major announced that the election would be held on 1 May, hoping that a long campaign would enable him to benefit from the continuing economic recovery and expose 'New Labour' as a shallow marketing gimmick, via the slogan '
New Labour, New Danger'. However, Major refused to conduct a 'dirty campaign', only reluctantly green-lighting the infamous poster showing Blair with 'demon eyes', and vetoing the use of a similar TV advert showing Blair making a
Faustian-style pact with a shadowy spin doctor. In his memoirs Major admitted that he knew the election was a lost cause from the outset: "people believed Labour were bound to win before the campaign even started. They were right." Major stated that the public were tired of 'sleaze' and Conservative Party bickering over Europe, and following the fourth consecutive Conservative election victory in 1992 even he thought that they had perhaps "stretched the democratic elastic too far." There was also only lukewarm support for Major from the Tory press, with
The Sun switching its support to Labour. Major launched the Conservative manifesto on 2 April (entitled 'You Can Only be Sure with the Conservatives'), which lauded the performance of the economy, and proposed tax benefits for married couples, pensions reform and a referendum on the
Euro. The latter proved particularly divisive, with many Conservative candidates publicly condemning Major's 'wait and see' policy on the single currency, prompting him to implore them not to "bind my hands when I am negotiating on behalf of the British nation." Major also brought back his soapbox, hoping to recapture some of the of the 1992 campaign, though with little success. Labour meanwhile ran a much slicker professional campaign, with a highly organised media team under
Alastair Campbell ensuring that all its candidates were consistently on message. An
electoral pact with the Liberal Democrats in parts of the country further aided their cause. As the results came in after the vote on 1 May 1997, it became clear that Labour had won by a landslide, with the Conservative Party suffering the worst electoral defeat by a ruling party since the
Reform Act 1832. In the new Parliament, Labour held 418 seats, the Conservatives 165, and the Liberal Democrats 46, giving Labour a majority of 179; it was the lowest number of Conservative seats in Parliament since 1906, and the new political landscape appeared likely to guarantee Labour at least two successive parliamentary terms in government. Major himself was re-elected in his own constituency of Huntingdon with a reduced majority of 18,140, but 133 other Conservative MPs were defeated, including present and former Cabinet Ministers such as
Norman Lamont,
Malcolm Rifkind,
David Mellor and
Michael Portillo. The huge election defeat also left the Conservatives without any MPs in Scotland or Wales for the first time in history. Major then announced to the press that he intended to go with his family to
The Oval to watch
Surrey play cricket. ==International==