Major tried to placate Thatcher by letter over scrapping the poll tax

Prime Minister John Major’s desperate efforts to placate a furious Margaret Thatcher after she turned against him just weeks after he entered No 10 are laid bare in newly released government files.

In an extraordinary letter, Mr Major sought to reassure her that he was committed to carrying forward her legacy, even as he set about dismantling the poll tax – one of her flagship reforms.

When Mr Major entered Downing Street in November 1990 in the wake of Mrs Thatcher’s shock resignation following a revolt by Tory MPS, she made clear he was her chosen successor.

But within weeks the strains were evident as his talk of building “a nation at ease with itself ” jarred with the confrontational style of her premiership. In March 1991, she finally snapped, using a US television interview to complain: “I see a tendency to try to undermine what I achieved.”

The timing could hardly

0 John Major’s relationship with Thatcher was strained have been worse for Mr Major just as he was preparing to announce the abolition of the poll tax or community charge as it was officially known.

The protests which erupted over the poll tax as millions saw their bills soar – had been a key factor behind the unrest which drove Mrs Thatcher from office.

She remained fiercely opposed to a return to funding local government through a property-based tax. In an attempt to avert a potentially explosive clash, Mr Major sought to explain his thinking in a five-page letter made public for the first time today.

Beginning “Dear Margaret” and ending “Yours ever, John”, he said “responsible citizens, overwhelmingly our supporters” were being hit with rising bills as councils set the poll tax at levels far higher than anyone in government had expected.