How past Tory leaders were undermined by members of own party

Her resolve weakened when, one after another, most of her Cabinet ministers told her it was time to quit

THREE of the past six Conservative leaders have been fatally undermined by their own MPS at some point during their time at the helm of the party.

Margaret Thatcher quit after being told to go by most of her Cabinet in 1990, Sir John Major never recovered from facing down the Eurosceptic “b------s” in his Cabinet by calling a vote of no confidence in 1995, while Iain Duncan Smith, one of his successors, lost a no-confidence vote in 2003.

Only William Hague, Michael Howard and David Cameron were not forced out by their own members, choosing to quit after major reverses at the ballot box.

For Mr Hague, it was the loss at the 2001 general election; Mr Howard

failed to beat Labour at the 2005 general election; and for Mr Cameron, it was defeat in the 2016 EU referendum.

For all six leaders, the issue of Britain’s membership of the European Union has been the lingering issue that has contributed in some way to their demise.

Of course, the fate of Theresa May – the current Conservative Party leader – is not yet decided. But, if the fate of past leaders is anything to go by, the omens do not look good.

Margaret Thatcher

Leader 1976-1990; prime minister 1979-1990

Mrs Thatcher quit as leader in November 1990 after failing to win decisively a leadership election after Michael Heseltine, a former defence and environment secretary, challenged her. Under the then rules, any MP could stand against the leader with the backing of a proposer, a seconder and a handful of colleagues.

Mrs Thatcher was confident of victory despite being weakened by the challenge of backbencher Sir Anthony Meyer the previous December, which saw 60 MPS fail to support her.

In the first ballot on Nov 20, Mrs Thatcher won by 204 votes to Mr Heseltine’s 152, but her majority – 52 – was just four votes short of the 15 per cent threshold she needed to claim victory.

Mrs Thatcher’s initial decision was to carry on, declaring “I fight on, I fight to win.” However, her resolve weakened on the evening of Nov 21 when, one after another, most of her Cabinet ministers told her it was time to quit.

She withdrew on Nov 22, allowing two other rivals to stand against Mr Heseltine: John Major and Douglas Hurd.

John Major

Leader 1990-1997; prime minister 1990-1997

Mr Major quit as leader in 1995 to face down critics in his own party, challenging them in a press conference in the garden of 10 Downing Street to “put up or shut up”.

The Prime Minister, weary of sniping over his EU policy from Cabinet colleagues, hoped that a leadership election would strengthen his hand.

The only candidate to stand against

him was the staunchly Eurosceptic John Redwood, who quit as Welsh secretary to fight him. Mr Major resigned on June 22 and the leadership election was held on July 4.

The overwhelming victor was Mr Major, with 218 votes to Mr Redwood’s 89 votes. He had cleared the 15 per cent threshold, but won just three votes more than his private target of 215.

He was out of office just two years later after the party suffered huge losses at the 1997 election against Tony Blair’s all-conquering Labour party.

Iain Duncan Smith

Leader 2001-2003

Mr Duncan Smith quit as leader in October 2003 after months of unhappiness with his leadership which started with a report in The Daily Telegraph in February of that year that Tory MPS were considering a vote of no confidence. In May, Crispin Blunt quit from the party’s front bench and demanded a no-confidence motion in the leader.

Under new rules that had been introduced in 1998, 15 per cent of the party’s members had to write to the party’s 1922 committee chairman.

Mr Duncan Smith tried to steal the initiative on Oct 26 by giving his opponents three days to put up or shut up. However, two days later Sir Michael Spicer, the 1922 committee chairman, announced that he had received the then necessary 25 letters.

The no-confidence vote was held the following day. Mr Duncan Smith lost the vote by 90-75 and quit. Grandees such as David Davis and Oliver Letwin immediately said they backed Michael Howard, who was elected unopposed.