Major tried to charm Mrs T in Poll Tax row

JOHN Major launched an extraordinary charm offensive on Margaret Thatcher as he demolished her legacy, a newly- released memo reveals.

Reacting to her fury at plans to abandon her flagship poll tax policy, he wrote to her saying he would ‘carry forward the changes of the last ten years’.

The note, written just weeks after Mr Major moved into No 10 in 1990, was a forlorn attempt to appease his predecessor.

Mrs Thatcher had helped pave the way for his premiership, making clear she wanted him to take over the top job after she was forced out.

But as he dismantled many of her reforms, she grew angry, giving an interview in 1991 during which she declared: ‘I see a tendency to try to undermine what I achieved.’

The poll tax (or community charge) was Mrs Thatcher’s most unpopular policy, leading to tax rises for millions, and was the issue that led to the end of her tenure. Mr Major abolished the tax.

The memo also reveals that in his attempts to pacify Mrs Thatcher he wrote: ‘Dear Margaret. The decision to abolish the community charge was not taken lightly.

‘But having consulted the party, I am convinced it would never be accepted as equitable and that it wou ld never be properly collectable either.’

To further placate her he also extended an invite from Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to visit Moscow for ‘a lunch or dinner in your honour’.