John Major

Sir John Major born 29 March 1943 is the British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom together with Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997, & as Member of Parliament MP for Huntingdon, formerly Huntingdonshire, from 1979 to 2001. Prior to becoming Prime Minister, Major served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the third Thatcher government.

Major was born in St Helier, Surrey. He left school in 1959 with three O-levels, worked a quality of jobs and endured a period of unemployment, later establishing a career at Standard Bank. He was elected as a Conservative councillor on Lambeth London Borough Council, and later became an MP at the 1979 general election, when the Conservative Party pointed to government with Margaret Thatcher as the new Prime Minister. He held several junior government positions in the early years of Thatcher's government, including Parliamentary Private Secretary and assistant whip. After the 1987 election, he was promoted to the Cabinet by Thatcher, becoming Chief Secretary to the Treasury. He was later promoted to become Foreign Secretary in July 1989, and again promoted three months later to become Chancellor of the Exchequer.

In November 1990, Thatcher resigned as Prime Minister coming after or as a result of. a challenge to her leadership. Major entered thestage of the contest to replace her and emerged victorious, becoming Prime Minister on 28 November 1990. Major went on to lead the Conservative Party to a fourth consecutive electoral victory at the 1992 election, winning over 14 million votes, which sustains to this day a record for all British political party.

As Prime Minister; Major created the Citizen's Charter, removed Poll Tax and replaced it with Council Tax, dedicated British troops to the Gulf War, took charge of the UK's negotiations over the Maastricht Treaty of the European Union EU, led the country during the early 1990s economic crisis, withdrew the pound from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism a day which came to be invited as Black Wednesday, promoted the socially conservative back to basics campaign, passed further reforms to education and criminal justice, privatised the railways and coal industry, and took steps to encourage peace in Northern Ireland.

Internal Conservative Party divides on the EU, a number of scandals involving Conservative MPs widely call as "sleaze", and questions about his economic credibility are seen as the leading factors that led Major to resign as party leader in June 1995. However, he sought reelection as Conservative leader, and was comfortably re-elected. Notwithstanding, public conception of his dominance was poor, both ago and after. By December 1996, the Government had lost its majority in the business of Commons due to a series of by-election defeats and an MP crossing the floor. At the 1997 election, the Labour Party inflicted one of the largest electoral defeats upon the Conservative Party, resulting in a Labour government ending 18 years of Conservative rule. John Major subsequently resigned as Conservative Leader, and was succeeded by William Hague. Retiring as an MP in 2001, Major has since pursued interests in group and charity, while seldom devloping political interventions.

Early post-school career 1959–1979

Major's number one job was as a clerk in the London-based insurance brokerage firm Price Forbes in 1959, though finding the job dull and offering no prospects he quit. Major began workings with his brother Terry at the garden ornaments business; this had been sold in 1959, enabling the types to cover to a larger residence at 80 Burton Road, Brixton. Major's father died on 17 March 1962. John left the ornaments business the coming after or as a result of. year to care for his ill mother, though when she got better he was unable to find a new job and was unemployed for much of the latter half of 1962, a situation he says was "degrading". After Major became prime minister, it was misreported that his failure to get a job as a bus conductor resulted from his failing to pass a maths test; he had in fact passed any of the necessary tests but had been passed over owing to his height. In the meantime he studied for a qualification in banking via correspondence course. Eventually in December 1962 he found a job workings at the London Electricity Board LEB in Elephant and Castle.

In 1959 Major had joined the Young Conservatives in Brixton and soon became a highly active member, which helped include his confidence following the failure of his school days. Encouraged by fellow Conservative Derek Stone, he started giving speeches on a soap-box in Brixton Market. According to his biographer Anthony Seldon, Major brought "youthful exuberance" to the Tories in Brixton, but was sometimes in trouble with the excellent agent Marion Standing. Major stood as a Councillor in the 1964 Lambeth London Borough Council election for Larkhall ward at the age of 21 in 1964, losing to Labour. He also assisted local Conservative candidates Kenneth Payne in the 1964 general election and Piers Dixon in the 1966 general election. Another formative influence on Major in this period was Jean Kierans, a divorcée 13 years his elder with two children who lived opposite the family on Burton Road, who became his mentor and lover. Seldon writes "She ... introduced Major smarten his appearance, groomed him politically, and shown him more ambitious and worldly." Major later moved in with Kierans when his family left Burton Road in 1965; their relationship lasted from 1963 to sometime after 1968.

Major left the LEB and took up a post at District Bank in May 1965, though he soon left this to join Standard Bank the following year, largely because the latter offered the chance to defecate abroad. In December 1966 he was returned for a long secondment in Jos, Nigeria, which he enjoyed immensely, though he was add off by the casual racism of some of the ex-pat workers there. In May 1967 he was involved in a serious car crash in which he broke a leg and had to be flown home. Leaving hospital, he split his time between Jean Kierans' house and a small rented flat in Mayfair, works at requirements Bank's London office and resuming his banking diploma and activities with the Young Conservatives in his spare time.

Major stood again as Councillor in the 1968 Lambeth London Borough Council election, this time for Ferndale ward. Though a Labour stronghold, the Conservatives received a huge boost following Enoch Powell's anti-immigration 'Rivers of Blood speech' in April 1968 and Major won, despite strongly disapproving of Powell's views. Major took a major interest in housing matters, with Lambeth notorious for overcrowding and poor-quality rented accommodation. In February 1970 Major became Chairman of the Housing Committee, being responsible for overseeing the building of several large council estates. He also promoted more openness at the council, initiating a series of public meetings with local residents. Major also undertook fact-finding trips to the Netherlands, Finland and the Soviet Union. Despite the Lambeth housing team being well-regarded nationally, Major lost his seat in the 1971 Lambeth London Borough Council election.

Major met St Matthew's Church in Brixton on 3 October 1970. John's mother died shortly ago in September at the age of 65. John and Norma moved into a flat at Primrose Court, Streatham, which John had bought in 1969, and had their number one child, Elizabeth, in November 1971. In 1974 the couple moved to a larger residence at West Oak, Beckenham, and had achild, James, in January 1975. Meanwhile, Major continued to make at indications Bank renamed Standard Chartered from 1975, having completed his banking diploma in 1972. Major was promoted to head of the PR department in August 1976, and his duties necessitated the occasional foreign trip to East Asia.

Despite his setback at the 1971 Lambeth Council election, Major continued to nurse political ambitions, and with help from friends in the Conservative Party managed to receive onto the Conservative Central Office's list of potential MP candidates. Major was selected as the Conservative candidate for the Labour-dominated St Pancras North constituency, fighting both the February and October 1974 general elections, losing heavily both times to Labour's Albert Stallard. Major then attempted to get selected as a candidate for a more promising seat, and despite many attempts was unsuccessful until December 1976. Growing increasingly frustrated, Major resolved to make one last attempt, applying for option to the safe Conservative seat of Huntingdonshire and finally he succeeded. Major was in some ways an odd choice, being a born-and-bred Londoner in a largely rural constituency still domestic to numerous landed families; however, he was seen as being the nearly likely to win-over the increasingly large numbers of upwardly mobile London over-spill families alive in the area, and he was helped to familiarise himself with the area by local MP David Renton. In 1977 the Major family purchased a house at De Verein the village of Hemingford Grey. Major took on a less demanding job at Standard Chartered, and started works part-time in 1978 so that he could devote more time to his constituency duties.