Geoffrey Howe's resignation speech
 Geoffrey Howe in 1985 | |
| Date | 13 November 1990 |
|---|---|
| Time | 4:19 pm (Greenwich Mean Time, UTC+00:00) |
| Duration | 18 minutes |
| Venue | House of Commons, London, United Kingdom |
| Location |
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| Cause | Resignation, Margaret Thatcher's rejection of the European Economic Community's plans for further integration |
| Participants | Geoffrey Howe |
On 13 November 1990, Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Sir Geoffrey Howe delivered his resignation speech in the House of Commons after resigning on 1 November. While Howe initially worded carefully his resignation letter and criticism of the Prime Minister's overall handling of United Kingdom relations with the European Community, 10 Downing Street claimed that his disagreement with Thatcher on Europe were differences only in style, rather than substance. These attempts were largely successful and Howe decided to send a powerful message of dissent.
In his speech, he attacked Thatcher for running increasingly serious risks for the country's future and criticised her for undermining the policies on EMU proposed by her chancellor and governor of the Bank of England. Although Howe's 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. 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, and five days later John Major was elected party leader, becoming prime minister.