John Major

Following the June 1987 general election, in which Major retained his seat with an increased majority,[121][122] he was promoted to the Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, making him the first MP of the 1979 intake to be thus appointed.[123][124][nb 7] The then-Chancellor Nigel Lawson generally made major decisions with little input from others, and Major was put in charge of agreeing departmental budgets with the Secretaries of State.[126] These discussions went well, and for the first time in several years budgets were agreed without recourse to the external adjudication of the 'Star Chamber'.[127][128] Major successfully concluded a second round of such spending reviews in July 1988.[129][130]

Whilst Chief Secretary Major took part in discussions over the future funding of the NHS, against the background of an NHS strike in February 1988 over pay, resulting in the 'Working for Patients' white paper and subsequent National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990.[131][132] Major also insisted in discussions with no Thatcher that government assistance should be provided to support the sale of Short Brothers to Bombadier, an aerospace company and major employer in Northern Ireland which might otherwise have collapsed.[133][134]

In 1987-88 it became clear that Major had become a 'favourite' of Margaret Thatcher and was widely tipped for further promotion.[135] Nevertheless, Major's appointment to Foreign Secretary in July 1989 came as a surprise due to Major's relative lack of experience in the Cabinet and unfamiliarity with international affairs.[136][137] Major found the prospect daunting, and unsuccessfully attempted to convince Thatcher to allow him to stay on at the Treasury.[136] There were also fears within the Foreign Office (FCO) that Major would be Thatcher's 'hatchet-man', as her relations with the department under Geoffrey Howe were poor and characterised by mutual distrust.[138] Major accepted the job and began to settle into the department, living in an upstairs room at the FCO and devolving decision making where necessary, though he found the increased security burdensome and disliked the extensive ceremonial aspects of the role.[139][140]

Amongst Major's first acts as Foreign Secretary was to cancel the sale of Hawk aircraft to Iraq, over concerns they would be used for internal repression.[141][142] He represented Britain at the Paris Peace Conference to determine the future of Cambodia.[143] Major also met with US Secretary of State James Baker, where they primarily discussed the issue of Vietnamese boat people, and with Qian Qichen, Foreign Minister of China, becoming the first senior Western politician to meet with a Chinese official since the violent crackdown of pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square the previous month.[144][145] Discussions focused primarily on the future of Hong Kong, which Britain was scheduled to hand over to China in 1997.[142]

Major spent most of a summer holiday that year in Spain conducting extensive background reading on foreign affairs and British foreign policy.[146][147] Upon his return to the UK he and Thatcher met with French president François Mitterrand, in which the future direction of the European Community was discussed.[148] In September 1989 Major delivered a speech at the United Nations General Assembly, in which he pledged to support Colombia's effort to tackle the drugs trade and reiterated Britain's opposition to the apartheid regime in South Africa.[149][150] Major also met US President George HW Bush in Washington, DC[151] and Domingo Cavallo, the Argentine Foreign Minister, the first such meeting since the end of the Falklands War seven years earlier.[152][142]

Major's last major summit as Foreign Secretary was the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Malaysia. The meeting was dominated by the issue of sanctions on South Africa, with Britain being the only country to oppose them, on the grounds that they would end up hurting poorer South Africans far more than the apartheid regime at which they were aimed.[153][154] The summit ended acrimoniously, with Thatcher controversially and against established precedent issuing a second final communiqué stating Britain's opposition to sanctions, with the press seizing on the apparent disagreement on the matter between Major and Thatcher.[155][154]

After just three months as Foreign Secretary Major was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer on 26 October 1989 after the sudden resignation of Nigel Lawson, who had fallen out with Thatcher over what he saw as her excessive reliance on the advice of her Economic Adviser Alan Walters.[156][157][158][nb 8] The appointment meant that, despite only being in the Cabinet for a little over two years, Major had gone from the most junior position in the Cabinet to holding two of the Great Offices of State. Major made tackling inflation a priority, stating that tough measures were needed to bring it down and that "if it isn't hurting, it isn't working."[160] He delivered his first Autumn Statement on 15 November, announcing a boost in spending (mainly for the NHS) and with interest rates to be kept as they were.[161][162]

As Chancellor, Major presented only one Budget, the first to be televised live, on 20 March 1990.[163] He publicised it as a 'budget for savers', with the creations of the Tax-Exempt Special Savings Account (TESSA), arguing that measures were required to address the marked fall in the household savings ratio that had been apparent during the previous financial year. Major also abolished the composite rate tax and stamp duty on share trades, whilst increasing taxes on alcohol, cigarettes and petrol.[164][165] Tax cuts were also made which benefited football associations, the aim being to increase funding on safety measures following the Bradford City stadium fire and Hillsborough disaster.[166][163] Extra funding was also made available to Scotland in order to limit the impact of the Community Charge (widely dubbed the 'Poll Tax') which had been introduced there that year.[167][163]

The European Community's push for full Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) was another important factor in Major's time as Chancellor; in June 1990 he proposed that instead of a single European currency there could be a could be a 'hard ECU',[nb 9] which different national currencies could compete against and, if the ECU was successful, could lead to a single currency.[169][170] The move was seen as a wrecking tactic by France and Germany, especially when the increasingly Euro-sceptic Thatcher announced her outright opposition to EMU, and the idea was abandoned.[171] More successfully, Major managed to get the new European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) located in London.[172][173]

By early 1990 Major had become convinced that the best way to combat inflation and restore macroeconomic stability would be if the British pound were to join the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), and he and Douglas Hurd (Major's successor as Foreign Secretary) set about trying to convince a reluctant Thatcher to join it.[174][175][176] The move was supported by the Bank of England, the Treasury, most of the Cabinet, the Labour Party, several major business associations and much of the press.[177] With the 'Lawson Boom' showing signs of running out of steam, exacerbated by rising oil prices following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, there were fears of a potential recession and pressure to cut interest rates.[178][179] Thatcher finally agreed on 4 October, and Britain's entry into the ERM at a rate of DM 2.95 to £1.00 (with an agreed 6% floating 'band' either side) was announced the following day.[180][181] An interest rates cut of 1% (from 15%) was also announced on the same day.[182][179]

The rest of Major's Chancellorship prior to the leadership contest was largely uneventful; he considered granting the Bank of England operational independence over monetary policy, with the ability to set interest rates, but decided against it.[183][nb 10] He also agreed a restructuring and write-off of some Third World debt at a Commonwealth Finance Ministers meeting in Trinidad and Tobago in September 1990.[185]

Anti-Poll Tax riots in London, March 1990

Opposition with the Conservative Party to Margaret Thatcher had been brewing for some time, focusing on what was seen as her brusque, imperious style and the Poll Tax, which was facing serious opposition across the country. In December 1989 she had survived a leadership bid by Anthony Meyer; though winning easily, 60 MPs had voted for Meyer, and it was rumoured that many more had to be strong-armed into supporting her.[186][187][188] By early 1990 it was clear that bills for many under the new Poll Tax regime would be higher than anticipated, and opposition to the Tax grew, with a non-payment campaign gaining much support and an anti-Poll Tax demonstration in Trafalgar Square in March ending in rioting.[189] The Conservatives lost the 1990 Mid Staffordshire by-election to Labour and the 1990 Eastbourne by-election to the Liberal Democrats, both Conservative seats, causing many Conservative MPs to worry about their prospects at the upcoming general election, due in 1991 or 1992.[190][191][192] Thatcher's staunch anti-European stance also alienated pro-Europe Conservatives.[193][179] On 1 November the pro-European Geoffrey Howe resigned, issuing a fiercely critical broadside against Thatcher in the House of Commons on 13 November.[194][195][196]

The day after Howe's speech Michael Heseltine, Thatcher's former Secretary of State for Defence who had acrimoniously resigned in 1986 over the Westland affair, challenged Thatcher for the leadership of the Conservative Party.[197][196] Both John Major and Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd supported Thatcher in the first round. Major was at home in Huntingdon recovering from a pre-arranged wisdom tooth operation during the first leadership ballot, which Thatcher won but not by the required threshold, necessitating a second round.[198][199] After discussions with her cabinet, in which many stated that though supporting her they doubted she could win, Thatcher announced her resignation as Prime Minister and Conservative Leader.[200] Major subsequently announced on 22 November that he would stand in the second ballot, with Thatcher's backing.[201][202] Major's platform was one of moderation on Europe, a review of the Poll Tax and the desire to build a 'classless society'.[203][204]

Unlike in the first ballot, a candidate only required a simple majority of Conservative MPs to win, in this case 186 of 372 MPs. The ballot was held on the afternoon of 27 November; although Major fell two votes short of the required winning total, he polled far enough ahead of both Hurd and Heseltine to secure their immediate withdrawal.[205][206] With no remaining challengers, Major was formally named Leader of the Conservative Party that evening and was duly appointed Prime Minister the following day.[207][208][209] At 47 he was the youngest Prime Minister since Lord Rosebery some 95 years earlier.[210]

The UK economy entered a recession during 1990, which deepened in 1991, with unemployment rising rapidly. The Conservatives had been consistently behind Labour in the opinion polls since 1989, and the gap had widened significantly during 1990. Within two months of Major becoming Prime Minister, Major was required to lead Britain through the first Gulf War, playing a key role in persuading US President George H. W. Bush to support no-fly zones. During this period, Major and his Cabinet survived an IRA assassination attempt by mortar attack. The Conservatives managed to regain a lead in the opinion polls after this period, with polls also showing Major as the most popular Prime Minister since Harold Macmillan in the early 1960s.[211]

In spite of Labour Leader Neil Kinnock's repeated calls for an immediate general election after Major became Prime Minister, it wasn't until March 1992 that Major called an election for 9 April. Major took his campaign onto the streets, delivering many addresses from an upturned soapbox as he had done in his days on Lambeth Council. This approach stood in contrast to the Labour Party's seemingly slicker campaign and it chimed with the electorate, along with hard-hitting negative campaign advertising focusing on the issue of Labour's approach to taxation. During the campaign, both parties were either tied or within one point of each other in opinion polls, leading to uncertainty over who would win – or whether there would be an outright election winner at all. On the night of the election, exit polls indicated a very slim Labour lead, which most observers predicted would translate into either a hung parliament or a small Labour majority, with Major's best hope of retaining power being with the Tories remaining in government as a minority government or as part of a coalition.[212]

Despite these predictions, the Conservatives won the election outright, gaining in excess of 14 million votes, the highest popular vote ever recorded by a British political party in a general election to date. Although this translated into a much-reduced majority of 21 seats in the House of Commons (down from a majority of 102 seats at the previous election), this was enough for Major to return as Prime Minister elected in his own right and give the Conservatives their fourth consecutive victory, although the relatively small majority would go on to cause problems for Major throughout his second term.

Major's Brixton roots were used in a campaign poster during the Conservative Party's 1992 election campaign: "What does the Conservative Party offer a working class kid from Brixton? They made him Prime Minister."[213]

Major's second honeymoon as Prime Minister following his election victory did not last long. On 16 September 1992, the UK was forced to exit the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) in difficult circumstances, in a day which would come to be known as "Black Wednesday", with billions of pounds wasted in a futile attempt to defend the value of sterling. The upheaval caused by the day's events was such that Major came close to resigning as Prime Minister, preparing an unsent letter of resignation addressed to the Queen.[214][215]

Although Major continued to defend Britain's membership of the ERM, stating that "the ERM was the medicine to cure the ailment, but it was not the ailment", the disaster of Black Wednesday left the Government's economic credibility irreparably damaged.[216] Major kept his economic team unchanged for seven months after Black Wednesday before eventually sacking Norman Lamont as Chancellor of the Exchequer, replacing him with Kenneth Clarke. This came after months of press criticism of Lamont during his 1993 budget and a heavy defeat at a by-election in Newbury. His delay in sacking Lamont was exploited by Major's critics both inside and outside of his party, who used it to claim Major was too indecisive. Immediately after Black Wednesday, the Conservatives fell far behind Labour in the opinion polls and Major would never be able to regain the lead for the rest of his time as Prime Minister, being trounced in local council elections and the European Parliament elections on the way, as well as suffering a string of by-election defeats which gradually wiped out the Conservative majority.[217]

Within a year of his triumphant election victory, public opinion on Major plummeted, with Black Wednesday, mine closures, the Maastricht dispute and high unemployment being cited as four key areas of dissatisfaction with the Prime Minister. Newspapers which traditionally supported the Conservatives and had championed Major at the election were now being severely critical of him almost daily.[218] The UK's forced withdrawal from the ERM was succeeded by a partial economic recovery with a new policy of flexible exchange rates, allowing lower interest rates and devaluation, thereby increasing demand for UK goods in export markets. The recession that had started shortly before Major became Prime Minister was declared over in April 1993, when the economy grew by 0.2%. Unemployment also started to fall; it had stood at nearly 3 million by the end of 1992, but by the spring of 1997 it had fallen to 1.7 million.[219][220]

On becoming Prime Minister, Major had promised to keep Britain "at the very heart of Europe", and claimed to have won "game, set and match for Britain" – by negotiating the Social Chapter and Single Currency opt-outs from the Maastricht Treaty, and by ensuring that there was no overt mention of a "Federal" Europe and that foreign and defence policy were kept as matters of inter-governmental co-operation, in separate "pillars" from the supranational European Union. By 2010 some of these concessions, although not Britain's non-membership of the Single Currency, had been overtaken by subsequent events.

Even these moves towards greater European integration met with vehement opposition from the Eurosceptic wing of Major's party and his Cabinet, as the Government attempted to ratify the Maastricht Treaty in the first half of 1993. Although Labour supported the treaty, they tactically opposed certain provisions of the Treaty to exploit divisions in the Government. This opposition included passing an amendment that required a vote on the Social Chapter aspects of the Treaty before it could be ratified. On 22 July 1993, several Conservative MPs, known as the Maastricht Rebels, voted against the Treaty, and the Government was defeated. Major called another vote on the following day, which he declared as a vote of confidence. He won the vote but the damage had been done to his authority in Parliament.

Later that day, Major gave an interview to ITN's Michael Brunson. During an unguarded moment when Major thought that the microphones had been switched off, Brunson asked why he did not sack the ministers who were conspiring against him. He replied: "Just think it through from my perspective. You are the Prime Minister, with a majority of 18 ... where do you think most of the poison is coming from? From the dispossessed and the never-possessed. Do we want three more of the bastards out there? What's Lyndon B. Johnson's maxim?"[221] Major later said that he had picked the number three from the air and that he was referring to "former ministers who had left the government and begun to create havoc with their anti-European activities",[222] but many journalists suggested that the three were Peter Lilley, Michael Portillo and Michael Howard, three of the more prominent "Eurosceptics" within his Cabinet.[223] Throughout the rest of Major's time as Prime Minister the exact identity of the three was blurred, with John Redwood's name frequently appearing in a list along with two of the others. The tape of this conversation was leaked to the Daily Mirror and widely reported, embarrassing Major.

By April 1993, a mere 12 months after his general election triumph, John Major's popularity as Prime Minister had slumped. As well as his party's dismal showings in the opinion polls, Major's own personal ratings in opinion polls were similarly low. He was now being reviled on an almost daily basis by newspapers whose support the Conservatives had once appeared to have taken for granted. Critics from all corners were also criticising his 'consensus' approach to politics, which contrasted sharply to the confrontational approach of Margaret Thatcher – while others were keen to point out that Major's conciliatory approach to the job was something that many observers had been hoping for when Thatcher left office in 1990. Comparisons were being drawn up with an earlier Conservative prime minister, Anthony Eden – who had risen through the ranks as a highly respected government minister before becoming prime minister, only to be seen as a disappointment after he did take over.

Arguments continued over Europe. Early in 1994 Major vetoed the Belgian politician Jean-Luc Dehaene to succeed Jacques Delors as President of the European Commission for being excessively federalist, only to find that he had to accept a Luxembourg politician of similar views, Jacques Santer, instead. Around this time Major – who in an unfortunate phrase denounced the Labour Leader John Smith as "Monsieur Oui, the poodle of Brussels" – tried to demand an increase in the Qualified Majority needed for voting in the newly enlarged European Union (i.e. making it easier for Britain, in alliance with other countries, to block federalist measures). After Major had to back down on this issue Tony Marlow called openly in the House of Commons for his resignation. In 1996 European governments banned British beef over claims that it was infected with mad cow disease – the British government withheld co-operation with the EU over the issue, but did not succeed in getting the ban lifted, only a timetable of lifting it. The conflict has been named the Beef war. By April 2013, vCJD – the human form of the disease – had killed 280 people (176 of them in Britain).

For the rest of Major's premiership the main argument was over whether Britain would join the planned European Single Currency. Some leading Conservatives, including Chancellor Ken Clarke, favoured joining and insisted that Britain retain a completely free choice, whilst increasing numbers of others expressed their reluctance to join. By this time billionaire Sir James Goldsmith had set up his own Referendum Party, siphoning off some Conservative support, and at the 1997 General Election many Conservative candidates were openly expressing reluctance to join.

Major's premiership saw the ongoing war in Bosnia. Government policy was to maintain the United Nations arms embargo which restricted the flow of weapons into the region and to oppose airstrikes against Bosnian Serbs. The Government's reasoning was that an arms embargo would only create a "level killing field" and that airstrikes would endanger UN peacekeepers and the humanitarian aid effort. This policy was criticised by Thatcher and others who saw the Bosnian Muslims as the main victims of Serb aggression and compared the situation to events in the Second World War. The Clinton administration, by contrast, was committed to a policy of "lift and strike" (lifting the arms embargo and inflicting airstrikes on the Serbs) causing tensions in the "special relationship" (Douglas Hurd and others strongly opposed this policy).

A Westland Sea King helicopter carrying Major above the Ilidza Compound in Sarajevo, Bosnia, during Operation Joint Endeavor in 1996.

Some commentators compared the Major Government's policy to "amoral equivalency" because it appeared to judge the Bosnian Government and the Bosnian Serbs equally culpable.[224] To some extent, these critics of Major's policy were later vindicated when, in an article published in 2011, the then-Defence Secretary Malcolm Rifkind accepted that the arms embargo was a "serious mistake" by the UN.[225]

Major opened talks with the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) upon taking office. When he declared to the House of Commons in November 1993 that "to sit down and talk with Mr Adams and the Provisional IRA ... would turn my stomach",[226] Sinn Féin gave the media an outline of the secret talks indeed held regularly since that February. The Downing Street Declaration was issued on 15 December 1993 by Major and Albert Reynolds, the Irish Taoiseach, with whom he had a friendly relationship: an IRA ceasefire followed in 1994. In the House of Commons, Major refused to sign up to the first draft of the "Mitchell Principles", which resulted in the ending of the ceasefire. Major paved the way for the Good Friday Agreement, also known as the 'Belfast Agreement', which was signed after he left office.[227] In March 1995, Major refused to answer the phone calls of United States President Bill Clinton for several days because of his anger at Clinton's decision to invite Gerry Adams to the White House for St Patrick's Day.[228]

From 1994 to 1997, Major privatised British Rail, splitting it up into franchises to be run by the private sector.[229] The process was controversial at the time, and the effect of privatising the railway is still disputed, with large growth in passenger numbers and increasing fiscal efficiency matched by large public subsidy[230][231] high ticket prices and concern about foreign companies running British railways.[232]

At the 1993 Conservative Party Conference, Major began the "Back to Basics" campaign, which he intended to also be about a wide variety of issues including the economy, education and policing, but which was interpreted by many (including Conservative cabinet ministers) purely in the context of returning to the moral and family values that they associated with the Conservative Party.[233]

Instead of being well received, "Back to Basics" instead became synonymous with scandal, often exposed in lurid and embarrassing detail by tabloid newspapers such as The Sun. In 1992, David Mellor, a cabinet minister, had been exposed as having an extramarital affair and for accepting hospitality from the daughter of a leading member of the Palestine Liberation Organization.[234] The wife of Lord Caithness committed suicide amongst rumours of the peer committing adultery.[235] Stephen Milligan was found dead having apparently auto-asphyxiated whilst performing a solitary sex act (his Eastleigh seat was lost in what was to be an ongoing stream of heavy by-election defeats).[236] David Ashby was "outed" by his wife after sleeping with men.[235] A string of other Conservative MPs, including Alan Amos, Tim Yeo, and Michael Brown, were involved in sexual scandals.[237]

Other debilitating scandals included "Arms to Iraq" – the ongoing inquiry into how government ministers including Alan Clark (also involved in an unrelated scandal involving the revelation of his affair with the wife and both daughters of a South African judge) had encouraged businesses to supply arms to Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, in breach of the official arms embargo, and how senior ministers had, on legal advice, attempted to withhold evidence of this official connivance when directors of Matrix Churchill were put on trial for breaking the embargo.[238]

Another scandal was "Cash for Questions", in which first Graham Riddick, and David Tredinnick accepted money to ask questions in the House of Commons in a newspaper "sting", and later Tim Smith and Neil Hamilton were found to have received money from Mohamed Al-Fayed, also to ask questions in the House. Later, David Willetts resigned as Paymaster General after he was accused of rigging evidence to do with Cash for Questions.[239]

Defence Minister Jonathan Aitken was accused by the ITV investigative journalism series World in Action and The Guardian newspaper of secretly doing deals with leading Saudi princes. He denied all accusations and promised to wield the "sword of truth" in libel proceedings which he brought against The Guardian and the producers of World in Action Granada Television. At an early stage in the trial, it became apparent that he had lied under oath, and he was subsequently (after the Major government had fallen from power) convicted of perjury and sentenced to a term of imprisonment.[240]

Major attempted to draw some of the sting from the financial scandals by setting up public inquiries – the Nolan Report into standards expected in public life, and the Scott Report into the Arms to Iraq Scandal.[241]

Although Tim Smith stepped down from the House of Commons at the 1997 general election, both Neil Hamilton and Jonathan Aitken sought re-election for their seats, and were both defeated, in Hamilton's case by the former BBC Reporter Martin Bell, who stood as an anti-sleaze candidate, both the Labour and Liberal Democrat candidates withdrawing in his favour, amidst further publicity unfavourable to the Conservatives.[242]

Major later commented in his memoirs on the "routine" with which he would be telephoned over the weekend to be warned of the latest embarrassing story due to break. He wrote that he took a stern line against financial impropriety, but was angered at the way in which a host of scandals, many of them petty sexual misdemeanours by a small number of MPs, were exploited by the press and Opposition for political advantage. He also conceded that the issue "fed the public belief that the Conservative(s) ... had been in government too long, and had got into bad habits" and quoted Labour's claim in 1997: "Nothing better encapsulates what people think of this government. Sleaze will be one of the things which brings this government down."[243]

On 22 June 1995, tired of continual threats of leadership challenges that never arose, Major resigned as Leader of the Conservative Party and announced he would contest the resulting leadership election – he continued to serve as Prime Minister while the leadership was vacant, but would have resigned had he not been re-elected by a large enough majority. John Redwood resigned as Secretary of State for Wales to stand against him. Major won by 218 votes to Redwood's 89, with 12 spoiled ballots, eight 'active' abstentions and two MPs abstaining, enough to easily win in the first round. The amount was three more than the target he had privately set himself, having earlier resolved to resign if he could not carry the support of at least 215 of his MPs, the two-thirds threshold of his own parliamentary party.[244]

The Sun newspaper, still at this stage supporting the Conservative Party, had lost faith in Major and declared its support for Redwood in the leadership election, running the front-page headline "Redwood versus Deadwood".[245]

Major's comfortable re-election as Conservative Leader failed to restore his authority. Despite efforts to improve the popularity of the Conservative Party, Labour remained far ahead in the opinion polls as the election loomed, despite the economic boom that had followed the exit from recession four years earlier, and the swift fall in unemployment. By-election losses and defections meant that in December 1996, the Conservatives had lost their majority in the House of Commons. Major managed to survive to the end of the Parliament, leading what had effectively become a minority government, and called an election on 17 March 1997 as the five-year limit for its timing approached. Major had deliberately delayed the election until close to the last possible moment in the hope that a still-improving economy would help the Conservatives hold a greater number of seats, and that voters would be deterred from Labour by exposing the party's policies with slogans like "New Labour, New Danger". He was also accused by the opposition of proroguing Parliament earlier than usual for political purposes, to delay the publication of a report into the "Cash for Questions" scandal.[246]

Unfortunately for Major, his attempts to win public support and swing the election in favour of the Tories did not work. Even The Sun newspaper, which had championed the Conservatives five years earlier and claimed to have won the 1992 general election for the party, declared its support for Tony Blair's "New Labour", condemning the Tories as "tired, divided and rudderless".

On 1 May 1997, the Conservative Party suffered the worst electoral defeat by a ruling party since the Reform Act 1832. In the new Parliament, Labour held 418 seats, the Conservatives 165, and the Liberal Democrats 46, giving Labour a majority of 179; it was the lowest number of Conservative seats in Parliament for over a century, and the new political landscape appeared likely to guarantee Labour at least two successive parliamentary terms in government. Major himself was re-elected in his own constituency of Huntingdon with a reduced majority of 18,140, but 133 other Conservative MPs were defeated, including present and former Cabinet Ministers such as Norman Lamont, Malcolm Rifkind and Michael Portillo. The huge election defeat also left the Conservatives without any MPs in Scotland or Wales for the first time in history. The party would not return to government until 2010, and did not win a parliamentary majority until 2015.

The following day Major travelled to Buckingham Palace to inform the Queen of his resignation as Prime Minister. Shortly before this he had announced his intention to also resign as Conservative Leader, giving his final statement outside 10 Downing Street in which he said; "When the curtain falls, it is time to get off the stage—and that is what I propose to do."[247] Major then announced to the press that he intended to go with his family to The Oval to watch Surrey play cricket.[248]

Major's low profile following his exit from parliament was disrupted by Edwina Currie's revelation in September 2002 that, prior to his promotion to the Cabinet, he had had a four-year extramarital affair with her from 1984-88.[288][289] Commentators were quick to refer to Major's previous 'Back to Basics' platform to throw charges of hypocrisy. An obituary of Tony Newton in The Daily Telegraph claimed that if Newton had not kept the affair a closely guarded secret "it is highly unlikely that Major would have become prime minister".[290]

In 1993 Major had also sued two magazines, New Statesman and Society and Scallywag, as well as their distributors, for reporting rumours of an affair with Clare Latimer, a Downing Street caterer, even though at least one of the magazines had said that the rumours were false. Both considered legal action to recover their costs when the affair with Currie was revealed.[291][291][292]

In a press statement, Major said that he was "ashamed" by the affair and that his wife had forgiven him. In response, Currie said "he wasn't ashamed of it at the time and he wanted it to continue."[293]

Major delivering a speech at Chatham House in 2010

Major has become an active after-dinner speaker, earning over £25,000 per engagement for his "insights and his own opinions" on politics and other matters according to his agency.[294] Major is also actively involved in various think tanks: he is currently a president of Chatham House,[269] a member of the International Advisory Boards of the Peres Center for Peace in Israel,[269] the InterAction Council,[269] the Baker Institute in Houston,[295] and a Patron of the Atlantic Partnership.[269][295] Major was also a Director with the Ditchley Foundation from 2000–09,[281][296] and a President of the influential centre-right think tank the Bow Group from 2012-14.[297]

In February 2005, it was reported that Major and Norman Lamont delayed the release of papers on Black Wednesday under the Freedom of Information Act.[298] Major denied doing so, saying that he had not heard of the request until the scheduled release date and had merely asked to look at the papers himself.[299] He told BBC News that he and Lamont had been the victims of "whispering voices" to the press.[300] He later publicly approved the release of the papers.[301]

In December 2006, Major led calls for an independent inquiry into Tony Blair's decision to invade Iraq, following revelations made by Carne Ross, a former British senior diplomat, that contradicted Blair's case for the invasion.[302]

He was touted as a possible Conservative candidate for the Mayor of London elections in 2008, but turned down an offer from Conservative leader David Cameron. A spokesperson for Major said "his political career is behind him".[303]

Following the 2010 general election Major announced his support for the Cameron–Clegg coalition, and stated that he hoped for a "liberal conservative" alliance beyond 2015, criticising Labour under Ed Miliband for playing "party games" rather than serving the national interest.[304][305] Nevertheless, in 2013 Major expressed his concern at the seeming decline in social mobility in Britain: "In every single sphere of British influence, the upper echelons of power in 2013 are held overwhelmingly by the privately educated or the affluent middle class. To me, from my background, I find that truly shocking."[306][307]

During the 2014 Scottish independence referendum Major strongly encouraged a 'no' vote, stating that a vote for independence would be damaging both for Scotland and the rest of the UK.[308][309]

Major was a vocal supporter for the Remain camp in the 2016 referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union. John Major supported a second referendum over Brexit, stating that the leave campaign put out a "fantasy case" during the referendum campaign, adding that to describe a second vote as undemocratic was "a rather curious proposition" and that he could see no "intellectual argument" against redoing the ballot.[310] Major feared Brexit will make the UK poorer and could endanger the peace settlement in Northern Ireland.[311]

On 30 August 2019, it was announced that Major intended to join a court case by Gina Miller against the proroguing of Parliament by the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.[312] In the 2019 general election Major urged voters to vote tactically against candidates supporting Boris Johnson when those candidates wanted a hard Brexit. Major said Brexit is, "the worst foreign policy decision in my lifetime. It will affect nearly every single aspect of our lives for many decades to come. It will make our country poorer and weaker. It will hurt most those who have least. Never have the stakes been higher, especially for the young. Brexit may even break up our historic United Kingdom."[313] In early 2020, after the UK formally left the EU with an initial deal, Major expressed his concerns about a future trading deal with the EU being "flimsy".[314]

In 2008 Major won the British Sports Book Awards (Best Cricket Book) for More Than a Game: The Story of Cricket's Early Years.[383]

Plaque on St Helier Hospital, Sutton

Plaque in Archbishop's Park, Lambeth

Two plaques commemorating John Major in South London

An oil painting of Major, painted in 1996 by June Mendoza, is part of the Parliamentary collection,[384][385] as is a bronze bust by Anne Curry, unveiled in the Members' Lobby on 16 October 2017.[386][387][388] There is another bust of Major in the Norman Shaw Building North by Neale Andrew, sculpted in 1993 and installed in 2004, however this is not accessible to the public.[389][390][391][392]

A large bust of John Major by Shenda Amery in Huntingdon Library was unveiled by his wife Norma in 1993.[393][394]

A painting of John Major by Diccon Swan is on display at the Carlton Club, and was unveiled by his wife Norma in 1994.[395] The National Portrait Gallery holds two paintings of Major - the first official portrait of him as Prime Minister, painted by Peter Deighan in 1994,[396][397] and one of John and Norma by John Wonnacott, painted in 1997.[398]

There is a large John Major Suite at The Oval, home to Surrey County Cricket Club; the venue also contains a painting of Major.[399]

There is a 'Heritage in Sutton' plaque on St Helier Hospital, where John Major was born in 1943,[400] and a plaque commemorating him in Lambeth Palace's Archbishop's Park, included as part of the Lambeth Millennium Pathway. There are also various plaques commemorating facilities opened by John Major: at Brampton Memorial Centre, Brampton (opened 1988),[401] Hamerton Zoo Park, Hamerton (1990),[402] Cadbury World, Birmingham (1991),[403] a tree commemorating the restoration of the River Mill pub, Eaton Socon,[404] the gardens at Hinchingbrooke Hospital, Huntingdon (2009),[405] the North Terminal extension at Gatwick Airport (2011),[406][407] Huntingdonshire Football Association headquarters, Huntingdon (2015),[408] and Alconbury Weald cricket pitch (2019).[409]

In 2013 the town of Candeleda in Spain named a street for John Major (Avenida de John Major), as Major has holidayed there for many years.[410][411] Major Close, in Loughborough Junction near where John grew up, is also named for him; the street was to be called 'Sir John Major Close', however this long name breached council guidelines.[412]