1989 Conservative Party (UK) leadership election 1989 Conservative Party (UK) leadership election The 1989 Conservative Party leadership election took place on 5 December 1989. The incumbent Margaret Thatcher was opposed by the little-known 69-year-old backbencher MP Sir Anthony Meyer. It was the Conservative Party's first leadership election for nearly 15 years, when Thatcher had taken the party leadership. During 1989 the Conservative government led by Thatcher had run into difficulties. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Nigel Lawson, had resigned in October over Thatcher's determination to follow the advice of her advisers, specifically Sir Alan Walters. In June Labour won their first national electoral victory since 1974
Heath Caper Heath Caper The Heath Caper was an alleged plot by the KGB and the Czechoslovakian secret service (StB) to gain blackmail leverage over British Conservative politician Edward Heath. Josef Frolik, published details of the alleged plot in his memoirs in 1975. In 2012 the BBC interviewed Jan Mrazek, the supposed StB handler, who denied any involvement. The archives did not contradict him, however they did disagree with some of his general claims. Jan Mrazek claimed were made that George Kennedy Young, a former member of MI6, and on the opposite wing of the Conservative Party had initiated the story as