Sir John Major’s Interview on Sky News Following the Death of HM Queen Elizabeth II – 8 September 2022
Sir John Major’s interview with Dermot Murnaghan, broadcast on Sky News on 8 September 2022.
INTERVIEWER
I’m joined now by the former Prime Minister Sir John Major, who was of course, if I’m correct, Her Majesty the Queen’s ninth Prime Minister. Sir John, your reflections on this day?
SIR JOHN MAJOR
I think it’s a very sad day. We all realised that one day it would come and we all hoped that it would be far distant rather than near to us. So I think it is an extremely sad day and I think there will be many tears shed at the loss of Her Majesty.
INTERVIEWER
We know you can’t share with us what passed between you in terms of the conversations, the regular conversations, you had with Her Majesty in those meetings as Prime Minister, but we’ve been told it was her depth of knowledge and her empathy and her understanding that partly marked her out.
SIR JOHN MAJOR
Well, it certainly did. But not only that, there was a great deal of wisdom and knowledge as well. There were several things that were very striking when you first entered into those meetings with Her Majesty. Firstly, they were very informal, the only two people in the room were Her Majesty the Queen and yourself, and a supporting galaxy of corgis who usually happened to be there, but absolutely no one else and it was remarkably informal. One sat there and we talked and there was nothing off the agenda.
Everything was there that might be raised either by Her Majesty or by the Prime Minister. One reported what was going on, what was anticipated to happen in the future, what your thoughts were about what was happening and how you felt you were going to handle it. The Queen would ask questions, she would comment and she would refer to occasions in the past where she had seen similar events. That was extraordinarily useful, her historic memory for what had happened under past Prime Ministers was extraordinary and a far longer historic memory than your civil service advisers. So that was often extremely helpful.
When it came to foreign affairs, there was almost no part of the world the Queen hadn’t visited. In many cases she would remember not just the meeting she might have had with the current heads of government, but in many countries their forebears had also been heads of government and the Queen had known them as well.
So there was a great wealth of knowledge that was waiting to be tapped and it just emerged during the conversations. They were extraordinarily useful. Of the many meetings you had in the week as Prime Minister, the hour plus that you usually spent with the Queen was among the most valuable.
INTERVIEWER
Sir John, was that quite daunting? One can imagine the initial phases perhaps of your Premiership, with that depth of knowledge even just in our own country when she could quote meetings with titans like Churchill, Macmillan and on the Presidential side, the Eisenhowers, the Kennedys.
SIR JOHN MAJOR
It could easily have been made daunting, but it wasn’t because of the manner in which the Queen approached it. It was very informal, it was very friendly, it wasn’t confrontational, it became very comfortable. Of course, you were always conscious you were speaking to the Monarch and a certain degree of total respect was due, but the meetings themselves were entirely informal. It might have been as though one was sitting at a table with you discussing current political events in a casual and relaxed fashion. Of course one discussed not only the politics of things, not only the government aspect, but the Queen would always have been interested in talking about what its impact was going to be on people in her nation. How would things impact upon someone who lived in Wigan, or Sale or wherever it may be, anywhere across the United Kingdom? The personal aspect, the personal impact of policy upon people was always something that was in her mind and that was amazingly refreshing. At first you were quite astonished at the extent and depth of understanding that the Monarch had about the lives that perfectly everyday people lived.
INTERVIEWER
And they were turbulent times 30 years ago. Let’s talk about the nation, on the political side, of course we had our economic troubles, perhaps some parallels with where we are now in 2022. And of course, let’s not forget there was a violent conflict taking place within the United Kingdom, that peace process that you started to negotiate, and Her Majesty the Queen, a kind of symbol of stability amongst all that.
SIR JOHN MAJOR
Her Majesty was a unifier. She was extraordinarily interested in the peace process and how the peace process was developing and how far we thought it would go and who we could bring in to help. Who were the people who were actually standing in the way, what were the problems that existed? How did we think we could overcome it? Did we think a solution was possible? How long would it take? All those were the sort of matters that we would have discussed, but her interest in ending the divisions, indeed the hatreds and the problems that existed in Northern Ireland, her interest in seeing that solved was remarkable.
One of the regrets I think I have in my public life was that we weren’t able to finish that, it was very ably finished by my successor, Tony Blair and his advisers afterwards, and I warmly commend them for having done that and brought about the final agreement. I think if I have a regret, it’s that I didn’t finish it and if I had a second regret, it would be that when the Queen made her remarkable visit to Ireland a few years afterwards, that I was out of government and no longer there, but her interest in that was total.
INTERVIEWER
Just while we’re on that Sir John, you mentioned that visit to Northern Ireland, that remarkable scene, the symbol of forgiveness when she shook Martin McGuinness’s hand, the former head of the IRA, the IRA that murdered Dickie Mountbatten.
SIR JOHN MAJOR
It was a remarkable moment of stateswomanship and it took a remarkable woman to do it, but it was necessary, she knew it would help and she was prepared to do it. I have absolutely no doubt that she was entirely happy to make that visit and to make the gestures that were necessary to seal the work that was coming towards fruition. And it was very valuable. She was, as I said, a unifier. That was her natural instinct, her instinct was not to create division but to bring people together. And whether that was bringing people together within Northern Ireland, or bringing the component parts of the United Kingdom together when they had disputes, her principle was the same, unity is far better than division.
INTERVIEWER
Sir John, then those difficult years for the Monarchy itself, from the Annus horribilis we are referring to in her Christmas address, the destruction of Windsor Castle, the separation and divorce of Charles and Diana and then ultimately, the sad passing of the Princess of Wales, such difficult times.
SIR JOHN MAJOR
They were very difficult times in the 90s, the Annus horribilis and the fire at Windsor in 1992 I remember very plainly indeed. The Queen in times of difficulties is stoic, she doesn’t panic, she doesn’t go into her shell. She puts her head down, she realises there are difficult things you have to live through. You put your head down, you plough ahead and eventually you will come out the other side. It’s a great gift that stoicism and it is a gift that she learned and she understands that you will come out of it. Horrible things have happened to people before and they do survive them. They do come out the other side and that was something she fully understood. Whatever happened, the daffodils will come up next spring and so let us get on with life. It was a very profound way to approach many of these problems.
INTERVIEWER
What a great way to end our conversation. What a memory to take with us. Sir John, thank you so much for sharing that with us.
SIR JOHN MAJOR
It was a very great pleasure.