Letters to persons leaving the Government (Rees, Gowrie, Jenkin)

My dear Prime Minister,

I know that you want to reshape your administration and I recognise that there comes a time for changes. I am writing to put my portfolio unreservedly at your disposal.

I should like to say what a great privilege it has been to serve in your administration in three interesting and challenging posts. It has given me particular satisfaction to help implement many of the plans we laid together in opposition.

I shall of course continue to support the Government's policies from the backbenches with as much commitment as I have in office. I wish you and your new team every success in the future, particularly as we approach the next Election. Yours sincerely, Peter Rees. [end p1]

My dear Peter,

Thank you for your kind letter of today. Your response was, as always, so generous and understanding.

I am enormously grateful for your work during your six years as a Government Minister. You have given valiant service in the Department of Trade, as Minister of Trade, and in the Treasury, first as Minister of State and now as Chief Secretary in the Cabinet. I know that your expertise in tax matters has been especially valued at the Treasury. Latterly you have been in the thick of the Government's efforts to restrain the growth of public spending where we have had some signal success in meeting our objectives. Whilst at the Department of Trade, you made an outstanding contribution in spearheading the drive of British business to expand its exports and you led several successful missions abroad for that purpose.

I too recall those days when we worked together in Opposition preparing our plans for Government, and when we were both Opposition spokesmen on economic matters.

I am very grateful for your expression of continued support. My very best wishes, Yours ever Margaret.

Dear Prime Minister,

When we talked last month, I told you that I felt the need to resume the business career I interrupted six-and-a-half years ago. It would be wrong to explore opportunities from within Government and so I offered you my resignation, to take place at a time convenient to you. You showed a clear appreciation of the fundamental career differences between Lords and Commons Ministers and that made a difficult decision easier to take.

Since 1979, I have served in four ministries and spoken in Parliament for two others. I am most grateful for the interest you have always taken in this work and the personal encouragement and support you have given me. My present responsibilities, for the Arts and the Civil Service, have brought me together with individuals of outstanding talent and dedication. I have found this intellectually most rewarding and I shall be sorry to leave.

I look forward to giving you and your administration—the most far-sighted, I believe, since the war—strong support from the back benches and in any other ways I can. Nor shall I ever forget the kindness and confidence which you have shown me. Yours, Grey. [end p3]

My Dear GreyThe Earl of Gowrie,

When last month you let me know of your intention to leave Government, I told you that the loss would come as a great blow to me and to all your colleagues. We have admired the way in which you have carried out your many duties with style and distinction.

Thank you too for the great contribution which you have made in all the Departments in which you have worked—Employment, Northern Ireland Office, in the Arts and in your responsibilities for the Civil Service. In all these offices your record is one of achievement. You have proved a most effective spokesman for our economic policies in the Lords. You have also become one of our leading figures in the House of Lords where, through television, your talents and abilities are now known to the wider public.

I fully understand although I greatly regret your decision to leave the Government. I am grateful for your continued support. I wish you every success in your future career, and I hope that at some later stage in your career you will feel able to return to public life in some capacity. Yours ever Margaret.

Dear Margaret,

When we met this morning I told you that my office was of course at your disposal and you asked me to stand down to make room in the Cabinet for some fresh faces. I entirely understand your decision. I have served on the Conservative front bench continuously for almost 20 years, have held office in five Departments of State and have had the privilege of serving in your administrations as Secretary of State for Social Services, for Industry and for the Environment.

I am proud to have been a member of the Cabinet for the last 6 years under your leadership. You have succeeded in changing the whole nature of the political debate in Britain in ways which would have seemed impossible a few years ago. I am grateful to you for having given me the opportunity to play my part in this.

You and I have worked closely together for most of our political lives. You may count on my loyal support as you continue the process of national regeneration and reform. Though much has been done, there remains much still to do. I wish you well. Yours ever Patrick. [end p4]

My dear Patrick JenkinPatrick,

Thank you for your letter of 2 September. I am very grateful for everything you have done to further the policies in which we both believe.

From the time when you joined the front bench almost 20 years ago, you have given our country supreme service. First as Financial Secretary to the Treasury, then Chief Secretary, Minister for Energy and in the Governments which I have formed as Secretaries of State for Social Services, Industry and latterly as Secretary of State for the Environment. You have great achievements to your credit in all these posts.

As Secretary of State for Social Services you began the process of bringing the finances of our social services within the constraints of what the ordinary people of this country can afford to pay. As Secretary of State for Industry, you introduced the first privatisation bill for British Telecom. This paved the way for one of this Government's greatest achievements in bringing to ordinary people the opportunity to join in the process of wealth creation and at the same time provided the framework for stimulating efficiency in one of our major industries. At the Department of the Environment, you showed that ratecapping is an effective instrument of expenditure control, have carried through the abolition of the Greater London Council and the Metropolitan County Councils and have started on reform of the rating system. [end p5]

We have indeed worked closely together for a long time: we started as young barristers in the same Chambers; we were Opposition spokesmen together in the Sixties and finally we have served together in Cabinet.

I shall miss your objective advice on the problems that face us but am grateful to know that you will give your full unstinting support to the policies which you have done so much to forward. Yours ever, Margaret.