Thatcher Steps Down: Britain's Iron Lady Retires
Margaret Thatcher announced her resignation on November 22, 1990, after failing to win enough votes in the first round of a Conservative Party leadership challenge. Michael Heseltine had challenged her over the deeply unpopular poll tax and Britain's relationship with Europe. She won the first ballot 204 to 152 but fell four votes short of the outright majority needed to avoid a second round. Her cabinet told her she would lose. She withdrew 'with great sadness' after 11 and a half years as prime minister, the longest continuous premiership since Lord Liverpool in the early nineteenth century. She had transformed Britain through privatization, deregulation, and confrontation with trade unions. John Major succeeded her and won the next general election. Thatcher remained in Parliament until 1992 and was made Baroness Thatcher.
November 22, 1990
36 years ago
Key Figures & Places
Margaret Thatcher
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Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
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Conservative Party leadership election
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Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
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Margaret Thatcher
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1990 Conservative Party leadership election
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Premiership of Margaret Thatcher
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British
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John Major
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621
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Bangor (pays de Galles)
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616
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Conservative Party (UK)
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Elizabeth II
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سعد زغلول
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Egyptian Armed Forces
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Sudan
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Lee Stack
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Egypt
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Basra
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Iraq
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World War I
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Petroleum
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عمرو سلامة
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عزة بهاء
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صبري فواز
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أحمد سيف الإسلام
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حسب الله الكفراوي
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فطين عبد الوهاب
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مصطفى السلاب
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