But his time at the Foreign Office was marked by growing tensions with her, notably over Britain’s relations with Europe. After a six-month course in maths and physics, he was commissioned into the Royal Signals and served in East Africa, where he climbed Kilimanjaro. To his subsequent regret, Howe accepted the job of Leader of the House, Lord President of the Council and deputy prime minister.
His lust for detail was so strong that in his memoirs he proudly noted that he had reduced the number of unpaid parking tickets by foreign diplomats from 109,000 to 7,800 per year.
Howe was Margaret Thatcher's longest-serving Cabinet minister, successively holding the posts of Chancellor of the Exchequer, Foreign Secretary, and finally Leader of the House of Commons, Deputy Prime Minister and Lord President of the Council. Howe returned to the Bar (he had taken silk in 1965) and served as deputy chairman of Glamorgan Quarter Sessions.
Among his achievements was the agreement with China’s Communist government over the future of Hong Kong, which included a promise from Beijing, thus far mostly honoured, to allow its inhabitants to retain their way of life for at least a further half century. Howe also cut the standard rate of income tax to 30p in the pound. Though never a dazzler – his opposite number Denis Healey famously compared a Howe broadside to being “savaged by a dead sheep” – his ponderous, monotone exterior concealed a subtle wit, a profound legal intelligence and a dogged bravery.
He took as little exercise as possible, while developing his keen interest in politics through the school debating society. The victrix saw in him a like mind for radical change in Tory policies and appointed him shadow chancellor.
He was an early member of the Bow Group, which consisted of members of university Conservative associations, and was chairman in 1955. A fine classicist, he won a scholarship to Trinity Hall, Cambridge. But the move amounted to a demotion, and his humiliation was compounded when he was required to give up the foreign secretary’s residence, Chevening.
Sir Geoffrey Howe (born Glamorgan, 20 ... His father was a solicitor who could afford to send his son to Winchester.
His resignation on 1 November 1990 is widely considered by the British press to have precipitated T Long-term interest rates also declined from 14% in 1981 to 10% in 1983.Documents released under the British government's 30-year rule in 2011 revealed that in the wake of the Howe was closely involved in the negotiations leading up to the 1984 In June 1989, Howe and his successor as chancellor, In the following month of July 1989, the then little-known Howe then had to give up the Foreign Secretary's country residence Howe tendered his resignation in a famous moment on 1 November. 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.Howe retired from the House of Commons in 1992 and was made a Following his retirement from the Commons, Howe took on a number of non-executive directorships in business and advisory posts in law and academia, including as international political adviser to the US law firm Howe's dramatic resignation speech in the House of Commons formed the basis of Howe died at the age of 88 on 9 October 2015 following a suspected heart attack.Clegg was Chairman for the Pay Comparability Commission.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.Howe to Thatcher on 31 October 1978.
He returned to the Commons in 1970 for the safe seat of Reigate, and Edward Heath appointed him Solicitor-General, with the customary knighthood. The last straw was Mrs Thatcher’s performance at the Rome summit in October 1990 from which she returned declaring “No, No, No!” to closer European economic and political union.
Former Chancellor and Foreign Secretary was key figure in Thatcher years
Amid an increasingly bitter atmosphere in Cabinet, Nigel Lawson resigned that autumn; Howe held on but found himself frozen out of the prime Minister’s inner circle. But the differences in tone between the Foreign Office and No 10, particularly over Europe and South Africa, undermined him.
Though Healey was a far more adept parliamentary performer, it was Howe who in his patient, studious fashion seized the initiative. Then, in the 1966 election, he lost his seat. To balance the books, VAT was almost doubled, with inflationary effects, to 15 per cent.
The prime minister became increasingly overbearing towards Geoffrey Howe who had been her close political companion in the early days”.