Margaret Thatcher Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century and the first woman to hold that office. A Soviet journalist dubbed her "The 'Iron Lady, a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style. As Prime Minister, she implemented policies known as Thatcherism. A research chemist at Somerville College, Oxford, before becoming a barrister, Thatcher
Third Thatcher ministry Inflation, which the first Thatcher government had conquered by 1983, was touching 10% for the first time in eight years. Then, on 1 November 1990, came the first of a series of events which would spell the end of Margaret Thatcher's years in power. Sir Geoffrey Howe, the deputy prime minister, long resentful of being ousted as Foreign Secretary, resigned from the cabinet over its European policy. Soon afterward, in his resignation speech in the House of Commons, he publicly denounced Thatcher, having once been one of her closest allies, personally and for her hostility towards the programmes of the