The Rt. Hon. Sir John Major KG CH

Tag: 1997 General Election

  • Mr Major’s Statement at CCO on the morning of 2 May 1997

    The speech made by Mr Major’s at Conservative Central Office on the morning of 2nd May 1997.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    [Applause]

    Thank you very much for being here.

    Thank you above all for all you’ve done in the last few weeks and the last few months. I know how hard so many of you have worked, I know how much you have sacrificed, given up, hoped, dreamed for a different result and a different outcome tonight.

    It hasn’t proved that way, I don’t think there was much that we left undone that we could have done, there are some times in politics when the ball just rolls in the opposite direction, and there isn’t a great deal that you can do about it. I don’t think it is in our best interests to spend our time in the immediate future doing anything other than preparing for what lies ahead, not just in the short term but in the medium term.
    Politics is a rough old trade. Sometimes you win, sometimes you don’t. But when you don’t, you just speak back, ask yourself why you didn’t, and put yourself in a position to make sure that next time…

    [phone rings in background]

    …That next time you get it right, and you do win. I’ve been in the Conservative Party for as long as I can remember. I guess many of the people in this room joined the Conservative Party as soon as they could as well. And we joined it for the same reasons, we didn’t join it just for the nights when you win, just for the easy victories from time to time. We didn’t join it for the office, we didn’t join it for the spoils.
    We joined it because we care about what it stands for and we care about what it can do for this country. Now we have been in being as a party for longer than any other democratic party in Western Europe, we’ve won more elections, and lost a few on the route. But we’ve won more elections, perhaps served in government longer, more often, and better in the interests of our country than in the interests of any other democratic party.

    [applause]

    And we will do so again.

    [applause]

    Tonight we have suffered a very bad defeat, let us not pretend to ourselves that it was anything other than what it was. Unless we accept it for what it was, and look at it, we will be less able to put it right.

    We’ve lost some very good servants of the party, people who have devoted a huge amount of their life to the service of this country and to the service of this party.

    We have lost, temporarily I hope, some colleagues, both senior and not so senior, who still have a lot of service to give this country and this party, and will I hope be back where they should be in the House of Commons, serving us all.

    [applause]

    And they lost, from what I saw of it, with a dignity which made me proud of this party.

    We now have a job to do, all of us.

    [phone rings in background]

    They told me the technological age was a good thing

    Forgive me, if from time to time, I have a small leave to doubt whether that’s absolutely entirely true.

    We’ll have to regroup, we’ll have to sit back, I hope that everyone will go away and have a rest, you’ve earned it. Not for too long! And then we’ll begin to work again.

    There’s a job to do in opposition, to be in opposition in Parliament is a pretty honourable way of life. To make sure that the government of the day is kept under close scrutiny. We’ll deal fairly if they do what we think is right for our country, we’ll support them, if they do what we think is wrong for our country, we’ll oppose them as vigorously as we can, with every member we have and every party worker we have up and down the country.

    I know tonight is not a night for cheers and champagne for us. It’s a night to look back, I hope with some pride, at the changes we have made to our country in the last eighteen years.

    [applause]

    I first entered Parliament 18 years ago tomorrow, I think, and the difference in our country is a difference you could not express unless you remembered what it was like in May 1979 when the Conservatives first came to government.

    Many people who voted in this General Election perhaps never knew that, for they had never known anything in their adult lives but Conservative Government. And others, perhaps, had not remembered precisely what it was like.

    Well, I said a moment ago that this party had served longer in government than any other. We’ve suffered great defeats before.

    We have always come back.

    [applause]

    And we have always come back because there is something in the Conservative philosophy and the Conservative instinct that runs absolutely with the grain of the British instinct. We must make sure that we re-discover that, not just in the interests of our party but in the interests of our country.

    I would just say two final things, three final things.

    Firstly, perhaps, I can re-iterate to this group here, all these faces I’ve come to know so well. In some cases over many years, in some cases more recently.

    If you may forgive me repeating something I said a little earlier, and you may possibly have seen.

    I think here of all places is place to pay tribute to some of the people who have done so much to help over recent years. The party chairman, not here now, but on his way here and I hope shortly here. And to those colleagues who we have lost.

    And on a more personal basis, although I have temporarily mislaid her, Norma.

    [applause]

    So right OK, we lost. So go away for the weekend, relax, fire yourself up again, and then come back. For when you come back at the beginning of next week we have a job to do and we’ll start doing it.

    [applause]

  • Mr Major’s Resignation Statement – 2 May 1997

    The text of Mr Major’s speech made outside Downing Street on 2nd May 1997.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Good morning. I said most of what I wish to say when I had the opportunity of speaking last evening. Perhaps, there are just one or two things it would be appropriate to add this morning.

    It has been an immense privilege to serve as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom over the past 6 1/2 years. It is a privilege which comes to very few people and it is a very precious privilege indeed.

    I hope, as I leave Downing Street this morning, that I can say with some accuracy that the country is in far better shape than it was when I entered Downing Street.

    The economy is booming, interest rates are low and inflation is low and unemployment is falling.

    The growth pattern is well set, the health service is expanding, the education service is improving and the crime statistics are falling.

    All of those I think are benevolent improvements in the interests of all of the people of this country. I believe the incoming government … to whom I repeat my warm congratulations upon their success … the incoming government will inherit the most benevolent set of economic statistics of any incoming government since before the First World War.

    I hope very much in the interests of the whole British nation that they are successful in retaining this economy in the future.

    If I may, I would like to clear up one area of speculation that I know has been abroad a little over the last few days.

    I have been a Member of Parliament for 18 years. I have been a member of the Government for 14 years, of the Cabinet for ten years and Prime Minister since 1990. When the curtain falls it is time to get off the stage and that is what I propose to do.

    I shall, therefore, advise my parliamentary colleagues that it would be appropriate for them to consider the selection of a new leader of the Conservative Party to lead the party through Opposition through the years that lie immediately ahead.

    This will necessarily take a little while to organise. Parliament must meet and the Members of Parliament must make their own consideration of the matter.

    Naturally, I shall remain at the service of the party during what I hope will be a reasonably brief interregnum.

    I should just like if I may to add one final thought. During the 6 1/2 years I have been in Downing Street there have been innumerable kindnesses from a huge number of people, many of whom I have never met, and never heard from except by way of their individual kindness.

    I would like to take this opportunity, if I may, to extend my thanks to them and the other millions of people in the British nation who have always given me their trust and the kindnesses to which I referred. I hope you will forgive me if I say no more this morning. I believe, as you know, I have an appointment with Her Majesty the Queen in a few moments to tender my resignation so that a new Government may then be formally appointed.

    I propose to see Her Majesty in just a few moments. The second reason I shall say no more now is that after that I hope that Norma and I will be able, with the children, to get to The Oval in time for lunch and for some cricket this afternoon. Thank you all very much indeed.

  • General Election Night 1997 – 1 May 1997

    The text of Mr Major’s account, from his book, John Major – The Autobiography, relating to the General Election night of May 1st 1997.

    JOHN MAJOR:

    At 10pm, ballot boxes all over Britain were sealed, and the television companies revealed the results of their exit polls. They warned us what the outcome would be. Then the results began coming in. Conservative seats tumbled, with little regard to the quality of the candidate of their views about the single currency or any other matter. I sat in the sitting room alone with Norma watching the results. We said little, except to express sadness at particular results. Arabella, Howell James and Norma’s secretary, Lorne Roper-Caldbeck sat in another room, while Sheila Gunn and Shirley Stotter based themselves in the kitchen. Elizabeth, James and their partners Luke and Elaine mooched restlessly from room to room with consoling words.

    At about 2am I asked Alex Allan to get Tony Blair on the telephone, so that I could congratulate him on his success. I spoke to the new prime minister from my study, with a gloomy Howell James at my side. I can remember little of what I said, I was so exhausted, but we were both friendly enough. There was much noise in the background in his constituency of Sedgefield – the beginning of celebrations, no doubt. Then I left for my own count.

    It was a subdued affair. No one quite knew where to look or what to say when Norma and I arrived. Everyone seemed downcast, and even our opponents were not remotely triumphant. I saw how the count was progressing, chatted to the other candidates, and waited in an adjoining room, watching the election coverage on television. There were rumours that Michael Portillo had lost his seat, and pictures of Gillian Shephard at her count, sitting on an upturned box and shaking her head sadly. Thankfully, she won, but many others had not.

    …

    Central Office was a mixture of long faces, etched with tiredness, and forced jollity. But they cheered and clapped and were wonderful. I thanked all the workers, made a brief speech from the stairs, shared a drink or two, and then, for the final time as prime minister, set off for the place that had been my home for the last few years, 10 Downing Street.

  • Mr Major’s Comments on Labour Mistruths – 24 April 1997

    The text of Mr Major’s comments on Labour mistruths, made on 24th April 1997.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    They’ve spent ages with posters saying VAT on food, they know that that isn’t remotely likely under any conceivable Government at any time in the future, they know that that isn’t true. And what they have said about the state retirement pension is absolutely scurrilous.

  • Mr Major’s Comments on the European Union – 22 April 1997

    The text of Mr Major’s comments on the European Union, made on 22nd April 1997.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    There is now very clearly exposed a sharp dividing line between the parties on Europe.

    I say no to handing more powers to Brussels in a new employment chapter, Mr Blair says yes.

    I say no to the extensions of qualified majority voting, Mr Blair says yes.

    I say no to new powers to the European Parliament, Mr Blair says yes.

    On European control of foreign policy, Mr Blair says maybe, which means yes.

  • Conservative Party Election Broadcast – 18 April 1997

    The text of the Conservative Party Election Broadcast, shown on 18th April 1997.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Good Evening.

    This election is about jobs, it’s about education, it’s about health. It’s about people’s prosperity both at the moment and in the future.

    But there is becoming one central defining issue that is raised on door-step after door-step: and I would like to address it this evening. Is Britain going to join a Federal Europe or is she not? I am not in favour of a Federal Europe. I am not in favour of a Federal Europe because it takes decisions away from the British Parliament that are property those for the British Parliament. If we in Parliament make mistakes – and sometimes we do – Parliament can reverse those mistakes. It can repeal the wrong laws. If we pass powers to Europe so that those laws are made on a European basis and they turn out to be wrong, they are irreversible. There is no chance of repealing. For that reason and for many others, I don’t believe we should hand our employment policy and matters affecting British jobs and British prosperity to Brussels. So no, I am not in favour of a Federal Europe. I am flatly opposed to it.

    And then there is the wider and deeper question that I know concerns many of the people watching this broadcast. Should sterling enter a single currency if our European partners decide to proceed with it? Are there advantages in it? Yes, there are. There are advantages in it. If a single currency were to be formed and if if it were to be successful, it might extend a zone of low inflation permanently right across Europe.

    But are there risks? Yes, there are very deep risks and we have to consider those as well. What is the core element of a single currency that gives rise to such caution amongst the British nation? I believe it’s the fear that inexorably, sometimes almost invisibly, we are being dragged further and further into a position where more and more decisions are being taken away from the British Parliament and decided collectively by the European heads of government in Brussels. I have not a shred of intention, neither has any member of my Cabinet or any member of my Party so far as I am aware, of surrendering the responsibility for taxation or expenditure to our European partners or indeed to anybody else – they are matters for our Parliament and for so long as I am leader of the Conservative Party, for so long as The Conservative Party is in government, there is no question of such powers remotely being transferred away from the British Parliament

    I said this was a central issue. I think it is a defining issue as well. I will negotiate for Britain in these negotiations, firstly at Amsterdam on a Federal Europe and later on a single European currency. l am therefore in a different position from anybody else in this country when I conduct those negotiations. When I have concluded those negotiations – and do not ask me to set out every aspect of how I will negotiate now, for you will tie my hands in dealing with our European partners if I set out precisely what I would do in detail they would know precisely how to respond to it. Everybody in this country who plays cards would never put their cards face up on a table and then expect to win the game. But when I have finished the negotiations, I will come back and I will make a recommendation about a single European currency, whether we should join or whether we should not join, to the British Cabinet. The Cabinet will accept that or reject it. If it accepts that we should proceed for example, they will ask Parliament If Parliament accepts we should proceed, then that would not be the end of the matter.

    For this is a matter of such overriding importance – there has been no matter like this in peace time, in the living political memory of anyone. This is of such importance that in those circumstances, there would be a referendum on the single question of whether we should enter a single European currency or not. It would be a referendum open to every adult in the country.

    I will not take Britain into a single currency. Only the British nation can do that. Upon that, you may be certain.

  • Mr Major’s Comments on the Single Currency – 16 April 1997

    The text of Mr Major’s comments on the single currency, made on 16th April 1997.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    It would be splendidly decisive they say, so splendidly decisive, you would send a British Prime Minister naked into that conference chamber with nothing to negotiate and nothing with which to wring the best deal for the United Kingdom. What I am saying is that no-one in this room doubts that these are the most important negotiations we’ve had. Whether you agree with me or disagree with me, like me or loathe me, don’t bind my hands when I am negotiating on behalf of the British nation.

  • Mr Major’s Comments on Quota Hopping – 14 April 1997

    The text of Mr Major’s comments on the Common Fisheries Policy and quota hopping, made on 14th April 1997.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    The IGC will not come to a successful conclusion unless we are satisfied that amongst our other objectives, and we have set out a number of other objectives, the problem of quota hopping is satisfactorily resolved.

  • Mr Major’s Comments on European Policy – 11 April 1997

    The text of Mr Major’s comments on European Policy, made on 11th April 1997.

    QUESTION:

    [The Prime Minister was asked about Angela Browning].

    PRIME MINISTER:

    What she [Angela Browning] is concerned about is elements of sovereignty, and what she specifically focused on was control over tax and spend policies. She makes it clear that she wouldn’t agree to a transfer of national sovereignty over tax and spend policies. Let me make it absolutely clear, neither would I.

  • Mr Major’s Comments on the Economy – 8 April 1997

    The text of Mr Major’s comments on the economy, made on 8th April 1997.

    QUESTION:

    [Mr Major was asked about the plans of the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats to introduce the social chapter]

    PRIME MINISTER:

    What they are proposing are policies that have been tried in Europe, and have failed in Europe. What they are not endorsing are policies that we are operating here after a recession that covered the whole of Europe and patently are proving successful here.