Third Thatcher ministry to make way for a leader more likely to win the next general election. Her successor was the Chancellor of the Exchequer John Major, who was elected on 27 November 1990, and who at 47 became the youngest Conservative Prime Minister of the 20th century. <section begin="June 1987 to July 1989" /> <section begin="July 1989 to November 1990" /> Members of the Cabinet are in bold face. Third Thatcher ministry Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 4 May 1979 to 28 November 1990, during which time she led a Conservative government. She was the first woman
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom retirement from the Commons, which elevates the individual to the House of Lords. Formerly, the peerage bestowed was usually an earldom, with Churchill offered a dukedom. From the 1960s onward, life peerages were preferred, although in 1984 Harold Macmillan was created Earl of Stockton. Sir Alec Douglas-Home, Harold Wilson, James Callaghan and Margaret Thatcher accepted life peerages, although Douglas-Home had previously disclaimed his hereditary title as Earl of Home. Edward Heath did not accept a peerage of any kind and nor have any of the Prime Ministers to retire since 1990; although Heath and Major were later appointed as Knights