From the Mirror archives

December 1, 1984

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her then Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe on their way to China to sign the Hong Kong Agreement. Howe’s shock resignation as Deputy Prime Minister on this day in 1990 led to Thatcher’s own resignation three weeks later. Howe was the only remaining minister from the Iron Lady’s original 1979 Cabinet, but he quit over her anti-Europe stance.