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
Margaret Thatcher the party. During her premiership Thatcher had the second-lowest average approval rating (40%) of any post-war Prime Minister. Since the resignation of Nigel Lawson as Chancellor in October 1989, polls consistently showed that she was less popular than her party. A self-described conviction politician, Thatcher always insisted that she did not care about her poll ratings and pointed instead to her unbeaten election record. Opinion polls in September 1990 reported that Labour had established a 14% lead over the Conservatives, and by November the Conservatives had been trailing Labour for 18 months. These ratings, together with Thatcher's combative personality and