Sir Geoffrey Howe’s resignation speech
This Treasure is paired with: Disraeli meets Queen Victoria (Ladies not for turning)
This speech was instrumental in Margaret Thatcher’s fall from power. Geoffrey Howe was her longest serving Cabinet minister, but his pro-European position left him with an irreconcilable conflict of loyalty to his leader and to the ‘true interests of this nation’. His open criticism here at the moment of resignation triggered a leadership challenge, and Thatcher herself resigned as Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party just days afterwards.
This Treasure isn’t currently on display in the Weston Library.