257. Iron Lady out, Grey Man in

With the poll tax, Thatcher took one bad decision to many.

From the point of view of orthodox Thatcherite thought, it sounded like a good idea. She’d been working for years to shrink the state but, while she could herself cut public spending at national level, local government could keep racking it up if it so chose. She’d introduced rate capping to limit how far local councils could raise local taxes.

The poll tax – officially the Community Charge – was the next step. In the old system, with local taxation based on house values, it was the rich that paid the most even though it was the poor that mainly benefited from local services. A flat rate tax per head – which the Community Charge was, hence the derogatory name Poll Tax – would, the theory suggested, give poor voters a direct relationship with local taxation and expenditure, making them less likely to vote for council candidates who would push for increased local spending.

In fact, the tax was seen as unfair and its introduction led angry protests that on occasion led to rioting.

It wasn’t, though, the poll tax that directly ended Thatcher’s time at the top. Instead, it was another row with one of her closest colleagues. Already Michael Heseltine, in 1986, and Nigel Lawson, in 1989, had been significant figures – so-called ‘big beasts’ – leaving her government. Now, in the autumn of 1990, she fell out with Geoffrey Howe. He too resigned and in his resignation speech talked about how his loyalty was divided between Thatcher herself and the country or party.

The day after his resignation, Heseltine announced he would challenge Thatcher for the Tory leadership. In the resulting election, like Heath against her, she won the first round but by too narrow a margin to prevent a second round. Like Health against her, she resigned.

It wasn’t Heseltine, however, who replaced her. On the contrary, much to many people’s surprise, it was John Major, who’d only been elected to parliament in 1979 and only served in cabinet since 1986, who came through as the compromise candidate Tory MPs could rally behind. He became party leader and Prime Minister.

And then, much to everyone’s surprise again, he went on, partly helped by campaigning errors by Neil Kinnock’s Labour Party, to win the election in 1992. The Tories had won four general elections in a row. But now that would return the grey man to Downing Street rather than the Iron Lady.

A very different proposition…

Illustration: Geoffrey Howe delivering his resignation speech to the Commons, 13 November 1990, with Nigel Lawson sitting next to him. Photo PA from the Guardian.

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License