Margaret Thatcher tendency to override collegiate opinion, contributed to discontent within her party. Thatcher removed Geoffrey Howe as Foreign Secretary in July 1989 after he and Lawson had forced her to agree to a plan for Britain to join the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM). Britain joined the ERM in October 1990. On 1 November 1990, Howe, by then the last remaining member of Thatcher's original 1979 cabinet, resigned from his position as Deputy Prime Minister, ostensibly over her open hostility to moves towards European Monetary Union. In his resignation speech on 13 November, Howe commented on Thatcher's openly dismissive attitude to
Statue of Margaret Thatcher (Palace of Westminster) Statue of Margaret Thatcher (Palace of Westminster) The statue of Margaret Thatcher inside the Houses of Parliament, London, is a bronze sculpture of Margaret Thatcher, the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. It was ordered in 2003 following a change in rules to allow the depiction of living Prime Ministers in Parliament under certain conditions. It was unveiled by the Speaker of the House of Commons, Michael Martin, on 21 February 2007. The statue is high, and made in bronze. The design of the statue is intended to show Margaret Thatcher during her final term as Prime Minister