Geoffrey Howe
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs | |||||||||
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In office 11 June 1983 – 24 July 1989 | |||||||||
Prime Minister | Margaret Thatcher | ||||||||
Preceded by | Francis Pym | ||||||||
Succeeded by | John Major | ||||||||
Chancellor of the Exchequer | |||||||||
In office 4 May 1979 – 11 June 1983 | |||||||||
Prime Minister | Margaret Thatcher | ||||||||
Preceded by | Denis Healey | ||||||||
Succeeded by | Nigel Lawson | ||||||||
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Personal details | |||||||||
Born | Richard Edward Geoffrey Howe 20 December 1926 Port Talbot, Glamorgan, Wales | ||||||||
Died | 9 October 2015 Idlicote, Warwickshire, England | (aged 88)||||||||
Political party | Conservative | ||||||||
Spouse | |||||||||
Children | 3 | ||||||||
Education | |||||||||
Alma mater | University of Cambridge | ||||||||
Occupation |
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Signature | |||||||||
Military service | |||||||||
Branch/service | British Army | ||||||||
Rank | Lieutenant | ||||||||
Unit | Royal Corps of Signals | ||||||||
Richard Edward Geoffrey Howe, Baron Howe of Aberavon,
Born in
Howe became Chancellor of the Exchequer upon Thatcher's victory in the
Howe retired as an MP in 1992 and was made a life peer in June of that year. Following his retirement from the Commons, Howe took on several non-executive directorships in business and advisory posts in law and academia. He retired from the House of Lords in May 2015 and died in October of the same year, aged 88.
Early life and education
Howe was born in 1926 at Port Talbot, Wales, to Benjamin Edward Howe, a solicitor and coroner, and Eliza Florence (née Thomson) Howe. He was to describe himself as a quarter Scottish, a quarter Cornish and half Welsh.[1]
He was educated at three private schools: at Bridgend Preparatory School in Bryntirion, followed by Abberley Hall School in Worcestershire and by winning an exhibition to Winchester College in Hampshire.[2] Howe was not sporty, joining the debating society instead. It was during wartime, so he was active in the Home Guard at the school and set up a National Savings group. He was also a keen photographer and film buff. A gifted classicist, Howe was offered an exhibition to Trinity Hall, Cambridge in 1945 but first decided to join the army. He did a six-month course in maths and physics. Then he did national service as a lieutenant with the Royal Corps of Signals in East Africa, by his own account giving political lectures in Swahili about how Africans should avoid communism and remain loyal to "Bwana Kingy George"; and also climbed Mount Kilimanjaro.[3]
Having declined an offer to remain in the army as a
Choosing a parallel career in politics, Howe stood as the Conservative Party candidate in his native
Harold Macmillan believed that trade union votes had contributed towards the 1951 and 1955 election victories and thought that it "would be inexpedient to adopt any policy involving legislation which would alienate this support".[8] Through a series of Bow Group publications, Howe advanced free market ideas, primarily inspired by the thinking of Enoch Powell, which was later to be known as Thatcherism.
Early political career
Backbencher
Howe represented
Howe returned to the bar. He participated in the 1966
He returned to the House of Commons as the MP for
Shadow Cabinet
In 1974, the Reigate boundary changes redrew the seat as East Surrey, and Heath appointed him as spokesman for social services. Howe contested the second ballot of the 1975 Conservative leadership election, in which Margaret Thatcher was elected as party leader. She saw him as a like-minded right-winger, and he was appointed Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer. He masterminded the development of new economic policies embodied in an Opposition mini-manifesto The Right Approach to the Economy.[5]
At the same time, in response to the 1976 sterling crisis, Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer Denis Healey had requested a loan of $3.9 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF); at the time, it was the largest loan request the IMF had ever received. In 1978, Healey said Howe's criticism was "like being savaged by a dead sheep".[12] Nevertheless, when Healey was featured on This Is Your Life in 1989, Howe appeared and paid warm tribute.[citation needed]
Thatcher government
Part of the politics series on |
Thatcherism |
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Chancellor of the Exchequer
With the Conservative victory in the
The first of five budgets,
Fundamentally we do believe in German principles of economic management and should be able to get ourselves alongside them ... pronounce in favour of ... providing greater stability as encouraging convergence on economic policies.[14]
During Thatcher's first term, the government's poll ratings plummeted until the "
The logic in his proposals was that by reducing the deficit, which at the time was £9.3 billion (3.6% GDP), and controlling inflation, long-term interest rates would be able to decline, thus re-stimulating the economy. The budget did reduce inflation from 11.9% in early 1981 to 3.8% in February 1983. Long-term interest rates declined from 14% in 1981 to 10% in 1983.[16] The economy slowly climbed out of recession. However, already extremely high unemployment was pushed to a 50-year high of 12% by 1984, narrowly avoiding the figure reached during the Great Depression of 13.5%. Some have argued that the budget, although ultimately successful, was nevertheless over the top.[17] Specialist opinions on the question, expressed with 25 years' hindsight, are collected in an Institute of Economic Affairs report.[18]
Unlike Reaganomics, his macro-economic policy emphasised the need to narrow the budget deficit rather than engage in unilateral tax cuts – "I never succumbed ... to the mistaken interpretations of Lafferism, which have led some US policymakers so far astray";[19] despite these measures the budget deficit remained on average 3% of GDP during Howe's tenure. His macroeconomic policy was designed to liberalise the economy and promote supply-side reform. This combination of policies became one of the defining features of Thatcherism in power.[b] However, by the time of his last budget, shortly before a general election, there were early signs of a recovery, which Howe used to justify a tax cut.[7]
Documents released under the British government's 30-year rule in 2011 revealed that in the wake of the
Foreign Secretary
After the
Howe was closely involved in the negotiations leading up to the 1984
In June 1989, Howe and his successor as chancellor, Nigel Lawson, both secretly threatened to resign over Thatcher's opposition to proposed British membership of the exchange rate mechanism of the European Monetary System. Howe supported the ERM because of his general support of European integration and because he had become convinced as chancellor of the need for more exchange rate stability.[4][27] She turned increasingly for advice to her No.10 private secretary Charles Powell, a career diplomat who contrasted to Howe's mandarin-style. Howe remarked: "She was often exasperated by my tenaciously quiet brand of advocacy."[28] His friends often wondered why he put up with her style for so long, but many considered him her successor. One historian has suggested that the government would have survived even the ructions over Europe had Howe remained her ally.[29]
Deputy prime minister
In July 1989, the then little-known John Major was unexpectedly appointed to replace Howe as Foreign Secretary. Howe became Leader of the House of Commons, Lord President of the Council and Deputy Prime Minister. In the reshuffle, Howe was also offered, but turned down, the post of Home Secretary.[30] Although attempts were made to belittle this aspect, Howe's move back to domestic politics was generally seen as a demotion, especially after Thatcher's press secretary Bernard Ingham belittled the significance of the deputy prime minister appointment, saying that the title had no constitutional significance, at his lobby briefing the following morning.[31]
Howe then had to give up the Foreign Secretary's country residence Chevening. The sceptical attitude towards Howe in Number 10 weakened him politically – even if it might have been driven to some degree by fear of him as a possible successor, a problem compounded by the resignation from the Treasury of his principal ally Nigel Lawson later in the same year. During his time as deputy prime minister, Howe made a series of coded calls on Thatcher to realign her administration, which was suffering rising unpopularity following its introduction of the poll tax, as a "listening government".[4]
Relationship with Thatcher
Tensions began to emerge in 1982 during the
At the Madrid inter-governmental conference, the tensions were ratcheted higher as Thatcher emphatically renounced any advance in British policy over the European agenda for "ever closer union" of political and economic forces. Howe forced her to give conditions for entering the proposal for entry to the ERM in June 1989. Howe and Nigel Lawson threatened to resign, but she called his bluff by appointing John Major over his head. Howe resented having to give up the state residence of Chevening in Kent on being effectively demoted to Lord President of the Council. He deeply resented leaving the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, a job he had always coveted. When Lawson resigned, it looked like a natural reshuffle, but Howe was frozen out of the inner circle. When Howe attended a meeting with the Queen, he found that Britain had joined the ERM before he had been informed about it – the ERM had been Howe's policy. The pound sterling was thus pegged to the Deutsche Mark instead of the US dollar. The consequence was that Britain's currency was pummelled into devaluation by a much stronger German economy – the option to leave cost Britain billions in 1992. But at the Rome Summit in October 1990, Thatcher was said to have exclaimed, in a fit of pique, "no, no, no" to the Delors Plan and repeated the government's policy at Paris summit on 18–20 November.[35] She also repeated the "no, no, no" message in the House of Commons on her return to Westminster. Howe had told Brian Walden (a former Labour MP) on ITV's Weekend World that the "government did not oppose the principle of a single currency", which was factually accurate - as its policy was that the 'hard ECU' could evolve into a single currency, but that a single currency should not be imposed - but contrary to Mrs Thatcher's emerging view.
Resignation
Howe tendered his resignation on 1 November 1990. Sometimes mocked as "
Howe wrote a cautiously worded letter of resignation in which he criticised the Prime Minister's overall handling of UK relations with the European Community. After largely successful attempts by 10 Downing Street to claim that there were differences only in style, rather than substance, in Howe's disagreement with Thatcher on Europe, Howe chose to send a powerful message of dissent. In his resignation speech in the Commons on 13 November 1990, he attacked Thatcher for running increasingly serious risks for the country's future. He criticised her for undermining the policies on EMU proposed by her chancellor and governor of the Bank of England.[36]
He offered a cricket simile for British negotiations on EMU in Europe:
It's rather like sending our opening batsmen to the crease only for them to find that before the first ball is bowled, their bats have been broken by the team captain.[37]
He ended his speech with an appeal to cabinet colleagues:
The time has come for others to consider their own response to the tragic conflict of loyalties, with which I myself have wrestled for perhaps too long.[38]
A few days later,
I much regretted the departure of Sir Geoffrey Howe from his office and from the Government. Sir Geoffrey was an outstanding member of the Prime Minister's Administration since 1979 and his decision to leave reveals a fatal flaw in the management of our affairs.[39]
Although Howe subsequently wrote in his memoir Conflict of Loyalty that his intention was only to constrain any shift in European policy by the Cabinet under the existing prime minister, his speech is widely seen as the key catalyst for the leadership challenge mounted by Michael Heseltine a few days later.[38] Although Thatcher won the most votes in the leadership election, she did not win by a large enough margin to win outright. Subsequently, she withdrew from the contest on 22 November.[40] Five days later, Chancellor of the Exchequer John Major was elected party leader and thus became prime minister.[40] The change proved to be a positive one for the Tories, who had trailed Labour in most opinion polls by a double-digit margin throughout 1990 but soon returned to the top of the polls and won the general election in April 1992.[40]
Retirement
Howe retired from the House of Commons in 1992 and was made a
Following his retirement from the Commons, Howe took on several non-executive directorships in business and advisory posts in law and academia, including as an international political adviser to the US law firm
His wife, Elspeth, a former chairman of the
Howe was a close friend of Ian Gow, the former MP, parliamentary private secretary, and personal confidant of Margaret Thatcher. He delivered the principal appreciation of Gow at the latter's memorial service after the IRA murdered Gow in July 1990.[51] Obituarists noted how Howe was "warm and well liked by colleagues",[52] with Nigel Lawson writing that he would be remembered by those who knew him "as one of the kindest and nicest men in politics"[53] who, according to Andrew Rawnsley of The Observer, was frequently spoken of by fellow politicians "as one of the most honest and decent practitioners of their profession."[38]
Howe's dramatic resignation speech in the House of Commons formed the basis of Jonathan Maitland's 2015 play Dead Sheep.[54] Howe was interviewed in 2012 as part of The History of Parliament's oral history project.[55][56]
Howe died from a heart attack at his home in Idlicote on 9 October 2015, at the age of 88.[5][57]
Arms
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Notes
- ^ Clegg was chairman for the Pay Comparability Commission.
- ^ As noted, for example, by Lawson (2006, p. 123) and preceding.
- ^ Howe subsequently stated that the "last thing that people want to see here are clones of the clowns in the Commons", and served on the joint committee on the proposed legislation in 2002–03.
References
- ^ "Devolution (Time) Bill [HL] – Second Reading". TheyWorkForYou. Archived from the original on 27 February 2019. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
- ^ "Howe, Geoffrey (b.1926)". The History of Parliament. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
- ^ Howe 1994, p. 16.
- ^ a b c d e Barnes, John (11 October 2015). "Geoffrey Howe: One of the architects of the Thatcher revolution who became one of the primary factors in her downfall". The Independent. Archived from the original on 24 September 2019. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
- ^ doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.110802. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ Laybourne 2014, "Howe".
- ^ a b c d "Geoffrey Howe – obituary". The Daily Telegraph. London. 12 October 2015. p. 29. Archived from the original on 10 October 2016. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
- ^ Kynaston 2013, p. 158.
- Durham Mining Museum. 1967. Archivedfrom the original on 1 November 2020. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
- Wales Online. Archivedfrom the original on 14 August 2020. Retrieved 11 September 2020.
- ^ "No. 45166". The London Gazette. 6 August 1970. p. 8679.
- ^ "Economic Situation". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Vol. 951. House of Commons. 14 June 1978. col. 1027. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
- ^ Crown Office [@CrownOffFOIDs] (20 April 2022). "Letters patent appointing Geoffrey Howe as Chancellor of the Exchequer" (Tweet). Retrieved 17 August 2022 – via Twitter.
- ^ Howe, "Sir Geoffrey Howe to Margaret Thatcher, 31 Oct. 1978, THCR 2/1/1/32", in Moore 2013, p. 405.
- ^ "Were 364 Economists All Wrong?" (Press release). Institute of Economic Affairs. 13 March 2006. Archived from the original on 25 October 2015. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
- ^ Officer, Lawrence H. (2008). "What Was the Interest Rate Then?". MeasuringWorth. Archived from the original on 4 September 2010. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
- ^ Flanders, Stephanie (14 March 2006). "Were all 364 economists wrong?". BBC News. Archived from the original on 29 September 2021. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
- ^ Were 364 Economists All Wrong? (PDF) (Report). Institute for Economic Affairs. Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 December 2019. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
- ^ Howe 1994, p. 128.
- ^ a b "Toxteth riots: Howe proposed 'managed decline' for city". BBC News. 30 December 2011. Archived from the original on 28 December 2018. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
- ^ Campbell 2003, p. 226.
- ^ Campbell 2003, p. 276.
- ^ Campbell 2003, p. 380.
- ^ Campbell 2003, p. 270.
- ^ Langdon, Julia (10 October 2015). "Lord Howe of Aberavon obituary". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 26 November 2018. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
- ^ Hurd 2003.
- ^ Howe 1994, p. 448.
- ^ Howe 1994, p. 570.
- ^ Dell 1997, pp. 449–89.
- ^ "Obituary: Geoffrey Howe". BBC News. 10 October 2015. Archived from the original on 22 March 2017. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
- ^ McSmith, Andy (3 February 2011). "Yes, Prime Minister: Why we will never be without spin doctors". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 8 January 2020. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
- ^ Vinen 2009, p. 148.
- ^ Ridley, "Interview with Sir Adam Ridley", in Moore 2013, p. 407.
- ^ "Thatcher and her tussles with Europe". BBC News. 8 April 2013. Archived from the original on 26 March 2019. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
- ^ Weissmann, Jordan (8 April 2013). "Watch Margaret Thatcher Explain Why the Euro Is a Terrible Idea in 1990". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 29 September 2021. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
- ^ "Personal Statement". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). House of Commons. 13 November 1990. col. 461. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
- ^ "Geoffrey Howe's most celebrated quotes". The Guardian. Press Association. 10 October 2015. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
- ^ a b c Rawnsley, Andrew (10 October 2015). "Geoffrey Howe, the close cabinet ally who became Thatcher's assassin". The Observer. Archived from the original on 30 March 2019. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
- ^ Lord Cledwyn of Penrhos (7 November 1990). "Address in reply to Her Majesty's most gracious Speech". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). House of Commons. col. 12. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
- ^ a b c "1992: Tories win again against odds". BBC News. 5 April 2005. Archived from the original on 22 April 2009. Retrieved 11 October 2015.
- ^ "No. 52981". The London Gazette. 3 June 1992. p. 11255.
- ^ Howe (2 August 1999) abridged, "This House is built on solid ground", reprinted in Oakland 2002, p. 155.
- ^ Helm, Toby (7 July 2012). "House of Lords reform: Tory grandees turn on David Cameron". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 29 September 2021. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
- ^ "Retired members of the House of Lords". UK Parliament. Archived from the original on 8 March 2019. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
- ^ "Former chancellor Geoffrey Howe retires from House of Lords". BBC News. 19 May 2015. Archived from the original on 4 December 2020. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
- ^ "No. 56274". The London Gazette. 13 July 2001. p. 8309.
- ^ "The Rt Hon The Lord Howe of Aberavon QC". Conservative Foreign and Commonwealth Council. 10 October 2015. Archived from the original on 26 April 2021. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
- ^ "No. 54427". The London Gazette (Supplement). 15 June 1996. p. 5.
- ^ "SOAS Honorary Fellows". soas.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 1 May 2019. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
- ^ "Contributions to the Expert Witness & Legal Professions Recognised". academyofexperts.org. Archived from the original on 10 July 2015. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
- ^ Lexden, Alistair (30 July 2015). "Remembering Ian Gow MP, murdered 25 years ago today". ConservativeHome. Archived from the original on 9 April 2019. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
- ^ "Lord Howe of Aberavon". The Times. 11 October 2015. Archived from the original on 30 October 2016. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
- ^ Lawson, Nigel (11 October 2015). "Chancellor who turned UK round". The Sunday Times. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
- ^ Billington, Michael (6 April 2015). "Dead Sheep review – extremely entertaining bellwether politics". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 8 April 2015. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
- ^ "Oral history: HOWE, Geoffrey (1926–2015)". The History of Parliament. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
- ^ "Baron Howe of Aberavon interviewed by Mike Greenwood". British Library Sound Archive. Archived from the original on 5 March 2017. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
- ^ "Ex-Tory chancellor Lord Geoffrey Howe dies aged 88". BBC News. 10 October 2015. Archived from the original on 7 October 2018. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
- ^ Debrett's Peerage. 2003. p. 820.
Works cited
- ISBN 978-0-7126-6781-4.
- ISBN 978-0-00-255558-6.
- Howe, Geoffrey (1994). Conflict of Loyalty. London: Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-59283-0.
- ISBN 0-316-86147-2.
- ISBN 978-0-7475-8893-1.
- ISBN 978-0-7456-3885-0.
- Laybourne, Keith (2014). British Political Leaders: A Biographical Dictionary. University of Huddersfield Press.
- ISBN 978-0-307-95894-5.
- Oakland, John (2002). Contemporary Britain: A Survey With Texts. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-74834-1.
- ISBN 978-1-4711-2828-8.
Further reading
- Abbott, Stephen (1991). And all My War is Done. The Pentland Press. ISBN 0-946270-99-6.
- ISBN 978-1-4088-3186-1.
- Moore, Charles (2015). Margaret Thatcher: Everything She Wants. Vol. 2. Allen Lane. ISBN 978-0-7139-9288-5.
- S2CID 4276172.
- Sked, Alan; Chris Cook (1984). Post-War Britain, A Political History. London.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)[ISBN missing] - Thatcher, Margaret (2012). ISBN 978-0-00-745663-5.
External links
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Geoffrey Howe
- Portraits of Geoffrey Howe at the National Portrait Gallery, London
- Obituary, Financial Times, 11 October 2015 (subscription required)
- Obituary, The Guardian, 10 October 2015
- Obituary, The Independent, 11 October 2015
- Obituary, The Telegraph, 12 October 2015 (subscription required)
- Obituary, The Times, 11 October 2015 (subscription required)