John Major

John Major is a British politician who served as Conservative prime minister from 1990 to 1997. Raised in Brixton, he entered Parliament in 1979 and held the offices of foreign secretary and chancellor before succeeding Margaret Thatcher. He led the Conservatives to victory in the 1992 general election.

His premiership included Britain’s withdrawal from the Exchange Rate Mechanism, sustained disputes within his party over Europe, and work towards the Northern Ireland peace process. Those competing political and economic developments shaped the public setting of Britain during the early and middle 1990s, before the change of government in 1997.