Major, John

(1943– )

   John Major served in the Cabinets of Margaret Thatcher as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Foreign Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer before succeeding her as Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1990 to 1997. His premiership enjoyed early successes, for he was at the helm at the time of victory in the first Gulf war, negotiated the British opt-outs of the Maastricht Treaty and won the 1992 election. After his victory, he continued with Thatcherite economic policies, extending privatisation to the mines and railways. However, his new administration quickly ran into serious difficulties over ratification of Maastricht and Black Wednesday. The Thatcherite Right attacked him over back to basics, European policy and taxation. He was widely portrayed as an honest but dull and grey man, unable to rein in the philandering, bickering and general sleaze within his party. Following his party’s election defeat in 1997, he retired from the leadership and then left the House of Commons four years later. His quiet retirement was spectacularly disrupted by the revelation in September 2002 that, prior to his promotion to the Cabinet, he had had a four-year extramarital affair with a fellow Member of Parliament, Edwina Currie. Commentators were quick to refer to the back to basics platform and throw charges of hypocrisy.