John Major

Who is John Major?

Sir John Major, KG, CH is a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997. He previously held the posts of Chancellor of the Exchequer and Foreign Secretary in the Thatcher Government and was the Member of Parliament for Huntingdon from 1979 to 2001. Although, according to Malcolm Rifkind, Major proved "a great disappointment to Thatcher", he was her preferred choice as successor as she expected that she would "continue in control of the country as a backseat driver". Within weeks of becoming Prime Minister, Major presided over British participation in the Gulf War in March 1991 and claimed to have negotiated "Game, Set and Match for Britain" at negotiations over the Maastricht Treaty in December 1991. Despite the British economy being in recession, he went on to lead the Conservatives to a fourth consecutive election victory, winning the most votes in British electoral history with over 14 million in the 1992 general election albeit with a much reduced majority in the House of Commons. He remains to date the last Conservative Leader to win an outright majority at a general election.