The speech which I then rose to deliver does not read in Hansard as a particularly eloquent one. It is a fighting defence of the Government’s record which replies point by point to the Opposition’s attack, and which owes more to the Conservative Research Department than to Burke. For me at that moment, however, each sentence was my testimony at the bar of history. It was as if I were speaking for the last time, rather than merely for the last time as Prime Minister. And that power of conviction came through and impressed itself on the House.
After the usual partisan banter with Opposition hecklers, I restated my convictions on Europe and reflected on the great changes which had taken place in the world since I had entered No. 10. I said:
Ten years ago, the eastern part of Europe lay under totalitarian rule, its people knowing neither rights nor liberties. Today, we have a Europe in which democracy, the rule of law and basic human rights are spreading ever more widely: where the threat to our security from the overwhelming conventional forces of the Warsaw Pact has been removed: where the Berlin Wall has been torn down and the Cold War is at an end.
These immense changes did not come about by chance. They have been achieved by strength and resolution in defence, and by a refusal ever to be intimidated. No one in eastern Europe believes that their countries would be free had it not been for those western governments who were prepared to defend liberty, and who kept alive their hope that one day eastern Europe too would enjoy freedom.
My final reflection was on the Falklands and Gulf Wars, the second of which we were just then gearing up to fight.
There is something else which one feels. That is a sense of this country’s destiny: the centuries of history and experience which ensure that, when principles have to be defended, when good has to be upheld and when evil has to be overcome, Britain will take up arms. It is because we on this side have never flinched from difficult decisions that this House and this country can have confidence in this Government today.
Such was my defence of the record of the Government which I had headed for eleven and a half years, which I had led to victory in three elections, which had pioneered the new wave of economic freedom that was transforming countries from eastern Europe to Australasia, which had restored Britain’s reputation as a force to be reckoned with in the world, and which, at the very moment when our historic victory in the Cold War was being ratified at the Paris conference, had decided to dispense with my services. I sat down with the cheers of colleagues, wets and dries, allies and opponents, stalwarts and faint hearts, ringing in my ears, and began to think of what I would do next.
But there was one more duty I had to perform, and that was to ensure that John Major was my successor. I wanted – perhaps I needed – to believe that he was the man to secure and safeguard my legacy. So it was with disquiet that I learned a number of my friends were thinking of voting for Michael Heseltine. They distrusted the role which John Major’s supporters like Richard Ryder, Peter Lilley, Francis Maude and Norman Lamont had played in my downfall. They also felt that Michael Heseltine, for all his faults, was a heavyweight who could fill a room in the way a leader should. I did all I could to argue them out of this. In most cases I was successful.
Before then, however, I was to spend my last weekend at Chequers. I arrived there on Saturday evening, travelling down after quite a jolly little lunch with the family and friends at No. 10. On Sunday morning Denis and I went to church, while Crawfie filled a Range Rover with hats, books and a huge variety of personal odds and ends which were to be delivered to our house in Dulwich. Gersons took away our larger items. Denis and I entertained the Chequers staff for drinks before lunch to say farewell and thank you for all their kindness over the years. I had loved Chequers and I knew I would miss it. I decided that I would like to walk round the rooms one last time and did so with Denis as the light faded on that winter afternoon.
From the time that I had announced my resignation, the focus of public interest naturally switched to the question of who would be my successor. I did all that I could to rally support for John without publicly stating that I wanted him to win. From about this time, however, I became conscious that there was a certain ambiguity in his stance. On the one hand, he was understandably anxious to attract my supporters. On the other, his campaign wanted to emphasize that John was ‘his own man’. A joke – made in the context of remarks on the Gulf – about my skills as a ‘back-seat driver’ provoked a flurry of anxiety in the Major camp. It was, unfortunately, the shape of things to come.
However, I was truly delighted when the results came through – John Major 185 votes, Michael Heseltine 131 and Douglas Hurd 56. Officially, John was two votes short; but within minutes Douglas and Michael had announced that they would support him in the third ballot. He was effectively the new Prime Minister. I congratulated him and joined in the celebrations at No. 11. But I did not stay long: this was his night, not mine.
Wednesday 28 November was my last day in office. The packing was now all but complete. Early that morning I went down from the flat to my study for the last time to check that nothing had been left behind. It was a shock to find that I could not get in because the key had already been taken off my keyring. At 9.10 I came down to the front hallway. (I was due shortly at the Palace for my final Audience with the Queen.) As on the day of my arrival, all the staff of No. 10 were there. I shook hands with my private secretaries and others whom I had come to know so well over the years. Some were in tears. I tried to hold back mine but they flowed freely as I walked down the hall past those applauding me on my way out of office, just as eleven and a half years earlier they had greeted me as I entered it.
Before going outside, and with Denis and Mark beside me, I paused to collect my thoughts. Crawfie wiped a trace of mascara off my cheek, evidence of a tear which I had been unable to check. The door opened onto press and photographers. I went out to the bank of microphones and read out a short statement which concluded:
Now it is time for a new chapter to open and I wish John Major all the luck in the world. He will be splendidly served and he has the makings of a great Prime Minister, which I am sure he will be in a very short time.
I waved and got into the car with Denis beside me, as he has always been; and the car took us past press, policemen and the tall black gates of Downing Street, away from red boxes and parliamentary questions, summits and party conferences, budgets and communiqués, situation room and scrambler telephones, out to whatever the future held.
Photo Inserts
My father.
My mother as a young woman.
My father’s shop in Grantham, where I grew up.
With my father.
With my sister Muriel. I am on the right of the picture.
In the garden at the house of some friends during the summer of 1935, aged ten.
Muriel, father, mother and me on the day my father became mayor of Grantham.
At Somerville College, Oxford, with the 1943 intake.
At work as a research chemist.
With Denis on our wedding day.
My 1951 election address.
As MP for Finchley in 1962.
With Ted Heath at the Conservative Party Conference in 1970.
Visiting a primary school as Secretary of State for Education.
With Denis, Carol and Mark.
Meeting the press at Conservative Central Office, 11 February 1975, the day I became Leader of the Conservative Party.
The State Opening of Parliament in 1976. Seated on the front bench, from l-r: Geoffrey Howe, Keith Joseph, Willie Whitelaw, myself, Jim Prior, Francis Pym, Humphrey Atkins.
Delivering the ‘Iron Lady’ speech in Kensington Town Hall in January 1976.
On a walkabout in Huddersfield during the 1979 election campaign.
On the stairs at Central Office following the election victory, with Peter Thorneycroft, Denis, Carol and Mark.
With Denis outside No. 10 on the day I became Prime Minister.
W
ith Denis at the funeral of Airey Neave in April 1979.
Presenting the deeds to one of the first tenants to buy their home under the Government’s new ‘right to buy’ scheme in September 1979.
Addressing the Conservative Party Conference in Brighton, on 10 October 1980, when I delivered the famous line ‘The lady’s not for turning’ .
Visiting my old school in Grantham.
HMS Invincible returning to Portsmouth at the end of the Falklands War.
Presenting medals on board HMS Hermes , 21 July 1982.
On the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral following the memorial service for the Falklands War, July 1982, with Lord Lewin, Chief of Defence Staff, standing beside me.
With Cecil Parkinson at Central Office on the night of our victory in the 1983 general election.
At my desk in No. 10.
The Grand Hotel in Brighton after it was bombed in October 1984.
Leaving the hotel with Denis, following the blast.
Photocall at Chequers with the Gorbachevs during their first visit to Britain in December 1984.
Meeting Den Xiaoping in Peking in December 1984.
With President Reagan at Camp David in December 1984.
Signing the Anglo-Irish Agreement at Hillsborough Castle, 15 November 1985, with Dr Garret FitzGerald, the Irish Taoiseach.
Greeting the Queen outside No. 10.
Signing and exchanging the Channel Tunnel Agreement with President Mitterrand in 1986.
Some of the Commonwealth leaders who attended the Special Commonwealth Conference in London, August 1986. From l-r: back row Rajiv Gandhi, Brian Mulroney, Sonny Ramphal, Bob Hawke, Robert Mugabe; front row myself, Sir Lynden Pindling, Kenneth Kaunda.
In the kitchen at No. 10, being filmed for a BBC series.
On holiday with Denis in Cornwall, 1987.
Launching the 1987 general election manifesto with Willie Whitelaw and Norman Tebbit at Central Office.
Talking to the media from the Conservative Party ‘battle bus’ during the 1987 general election campaign.
Outside No. 10 with Denis after the historic third election victory.
With Neil Kinnock at the State Opening of Parliament in June 1987.
Walking across a desolate urban landscape near Stockton-on-Tees in September 1987.
With President Reagan outside No. 10 when he visited Britain in June 1988.
At the dinner at No. 10 held in honour of President Reagan; on the right is George Shultz.
Test driving the new Challenger tank during a visit to Germany in September 1988.
Arriving at Camp David by helicopter for talks with President Bush, November 1989.
With Helmut Kohl at a press conference in February 1990.
With Boris Yeltsin at No. 10 in April 1990.
With Nelson Mandela during his visit to Britain in July 1990.
Addressing the United Nations General Assembly in November 1989.
Receiving a standing ovation at the Party Conference in October 1989.
With members of the Cabinet and Denis at the Carlton Club for a dinner to mark my tenth anniversary as Prime Minister, May 1989.
Answering questions in the House of Commons in October 1990.
Driving away from Buckingham Palace having handed over the seals of office, 28 November 1990.
Leaving No. 10 for the last time.
CHRONOLOGY, 1955–1990
1955
5 April Churchill resigned as Prime Minister; succeeded by Eden.
26 May General election: Conservative majority sixty.
1956
26 July Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal.
29 October Israel invaded Sinai.
30 October Joint Anglo-French ultimatum to Egypt and Israel; Soviet troops invaded Hungary.
5 November British and French landings at Port Said; intervention aborted two days later under US pressure.
1957
9 January Eden resigned as Prime Minister; Macmillan succeeded him.
25 March Treaty of Rome signed, establishing EEC.
25 July Macmillan: ‘Most of our people have never had it so good.’
19 September Thorneycroft increased Bank Rate from 5 to 7 per cent.
1958
6 January Treasury Ministers (Thorneycroft, Powell and Birch) resigned from the Government over public expenditure plans; Macmillan left the following day for a Commonwealth tour, describing the resignations as ‘little local difficulties’.
3 July Credit squeeze relaxed.
31 August Notting Hill and Nottingham riots.
1959
7 April Budget: 9d reduction in income tax.
8 October General election: Conservative majority 100; MT first elected MP for Finchley.
28 November Gaitskell called for reform of Clause IV of Labour’s constitution – forced to retreat the following year.
1960
3 February Macmillan in South Africa: ‘A wind of change is blowing through the continent.’
5 February MT’s maiden speech.
February–October Parliamentary passage of MT’s Public Bodies (Admission of the Press to Meetings) Bill.
1961
25 July Deflationary emergency budget; ‘Pay Pause’ for government employees.
31 July Macmillan announced beginning of negotiations for Britain to join EEC.
13 August East Germany sealed the border with West Berlin; Berlin Wall begun.
9 October Reshuffle: MT appointed to her first government post – Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance.
1962
14 March Orpington by-election: Liberals took Conservative seat, overturning a majority of 14,760.
13 July ‘Night of the Long Knives’ – seven of twenty-one Cabinet ministers fired by Macmillan.
October Cuban missile crisis.
November Vassall affair.
21 December US agreement to sell Britain Polaris.
1963
14 January De Gaulle rejected first British application to join the EEC.
14 February Harold Wilson elected Labour Leader following death of Hugh Gaitskell.
4 June Profumo resigned.
1 July Philby named as ‘the third man’.
10 October Macmillan resigned as Prime Minister during Conservative Party Conference in Blackpool.
19 October Douglas-Home became Prime Minister; Iain Macleod and Enoch Powell refused office.
1964
July Legislation enacted to abolish Resale Price Maintenance.
15 October General election: Labour won a majority of four; Wilson became Prime Minister.
28 October MT became Opposition spokesman on Pensions.
November Sterling crisis.
1965
24 January Churchill died, aged ninety.
12 July Crosland’s circular 10/65 on comprehensive schools: LEAs to submit plans within a year to reorganize on comprehensive lines; Government’s aim declared to be ‘the complete elimination of selection and separatism in secondary education’.
22 July Douglas-Home resigned as Conservative Leader; Heath elected to succeed him, defeating Maudling and Powell.
16 September Labour’s National Plan published.
5 October Reshuffle of Opposition spokesmen: MT moved to Shadow Housing and Land.
8 November Abolition of capital punishment.
11 November Rhodesia: Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI).
Margaret Thatcher: The Autobiography Page 96
