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The1989 Conservative Party leadership election took place on 5 December 1989. The incumbentMargaret Thatcher was opposed by the little-known 69-year-old backbencher MPSir Anthony Meyer. It was theConservative Party's first leadership election for nearly 15 years, when Thatcher had taken the party leadership.
Whilst Thatcher comfortably won with 90% of the vote, the vote showed 60 MPs who didn't vote for her either by choosing Meyer, spoiling the ballots or abstaining. This can be attributed to her increasinglyEurosceptic views on European integration in the late 1980s, despite the Conservatives still being primarily pro-Europe at the time. The outcome would ultimately undermine Thatcher as her leadership started to come into question. The following year would see Thatcher once again challenged and eventually resigning followingpublic unrest and discontent within her party.
During 1989 the Conservative government led by Thatcher had run into difficulties. In June Labour won their first national electoral victory since 1974 in theelections to the European Parliament, beating the Conservatives. TheChancellor of the Exchequer,Nigel Lawson, had resigned in October over Thatcher's determination to follow the advice of her advisers, specifically SirAlan Walters. Opinion polls were also starting to show a widening Labour lead, which had opened up since theCommunity Charge (or "poll tax") was phased in the previous April; public anger at this community charge mounted over the subsequent months. Thatcher had long considered, as her husbandDenis desired, to stand down in May 1989 following 10 years as prime minister. However, having won a 102-seat majority at thegeneral election two years previously, and having led the party for 14 years without a hint of a leadership challenge, Thatcher opted to carry on for a full third term.
As a result, Thatcher faced mounting internal party criticism, which culminated in the decision of Meyer to offer astalking horse candidacy for the party leadership.
Sir Anthony Meyer was critical of the recently introduced Community Charge (which was seen by many as the key factor in the government's declining popularity), Thatcher's leadership style and herEuroscepticism. She had now led the party for nearly 15 years and had been prime minister for over 10 of those years.
Thatcher's European views came under attack from other Conservatives during the campaign. On 3 December, two days before the ballot, theBBC broadcast a programme onJacques Delors in which Thatcher's predecessor as Conservative leader,Edward Heath, had labelled Thatcher as a "narrow little nationalist" who was "unable to move with the whole movement of history in creating the greater Europe."[1] MeanwhileEuropean Commissioner and former member of her cabinetLeon Brittan had said on television that membership of theEuropean Exchange Rate Mechanism had benefited the countries which had joined it, which was seen as being at odds with Mrs Thatcher's own views.[1]
| Only ballot: 5 December 1989 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Votes | % | |
| Margaret Thatcher | 314 | 84.0 | |
| Sir Anthony Meyer | 33 | 8.8 | |
| Abstentions | 3 | 0.8 | |
| Spoilt | 24 | 6.4 | |
| Majority | 281 | 75.1 | |
| Turnout | 374 | N/A | |
| Margaret Thatcher re-elected | |||
Thatcher, whose campaign was organised by former Cabinet ministerGeorge Younger, won the contest overwhelmingly and said afterwards:
I would like to say how very pleased I am with this result and how very pleased I am to have had the overwhelming support of my colleagues in the House and the people from the party in the country.
However, a total of 60 Conservative MPs did not support Thatcher by either voting for Meyer, spoiling their ballot papers, or abstaining.Michael Heseltine was reported the next day as being believed to be one of the three MPs who did not vote, along with the absentBob McCrindle who was seriously ill.[2] Another ill MP,Alick Buchanan-Smith, was also absent, but voted byproxy, reportedly for Meyer.[2]
Following the ballot Meyer said:
I was quite surprised to get so many votes, I thought I'd be beaten by the abstentions. The total result I think is rather better than I'd expected and not quite as good as some of my friends were hoping for.
According to the next day'sGlasgow Herald Heseltine's supporters predicted that unless the Prime Minister changed "her style of leadership", she would "be on her way out next year".[2]
A month later Meyer was deselected as a candidate for the next general election by his local constituency Conservative party.[3]
Within a year, as theCommunity Charge (poll tax) sparkedriots, the economy slid towardsrecession, and the Labour lead in theopinion polls mounted into double digits, Thatcher resigned asparty leader andprime minister following afurther contest in November 1990.[4]
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