When Margaret Thatcher became opposition leader in 1975, she named Howe as her shadow chancellor.
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Accusing the prime minister of undermining economic and monetary union policies that were backed by her colleagues and the governor of the Bank of England, he declared: “It is rather like sending your opening batsmen to the crease, only for them to find, as the first balls are being bowled, that their bats have been broken before the game by the team captain”.
Former Chancellor Lord Geoffrey Howe has died at the age of 88 after suffering a suspected heart attack, his family has announced.
David Cameron described Lord Howe as a “kind, gentle and deeply thoughtful man” who had “never stopped giving strong and sound advice”.
Howe attended Winchester College, where the English boys teased him for his Welsh accent. He singled out Howe’s action to lift exchange controls as a crucial move that helped save Britain’s economy.
He graduated in arts and law from Cambridge University, was married to Elspeth Morton Shand and leaves three children.
He unsuccessfully ran twice as a Conservative candidate in Wales in the 1950s before changing seats to Bebington, south of Liverpool, where he entered Parliament in 1964 but was beaten in 1966 in a general election.
LONDON (AP) – Former British Treasury chief Geoffrey Howe, a longtime senior figure in the Conservative Party, has died at 88.
He listed the removal of tax burdens on enterprise and investment, and his Medium-Term Financial Strategy to regain control of public finances, among the Thatcher government’s main achievements under his watch.
His 1981 Budget provided a severe dose of austerity at the depth of a recession with the aim of bringing down inflation.
He retired from the Commons in 1992 and was given a life peerage as Baron Howe of Aberavon.
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“I wanted to change the policies, not the leader”, he wrote in his book.
