Thatcher, the Treasury and the ERM: Behind Closed Doors

Abstract

The previous chapter identified the common belief that, after an initial consensus, there was disagreement between Margaret Thatcher and Nigel Lawson over what factors should be driving the government’s policy on the ERM. While the latter was guided primarily by economic assessment, the former was driven increasingly by a mix of personal economic and political preferences. And the view is that it was the personal views of the Prime Minister that ultimately shaped the Conservative government’s policy on the ERM until John Major became Chancellor and was able to restore the Treasury’s minister-official partnership as the primary driving force behind the decision to join in October 1990. Only then did a semblance of the traditional Treasury-led policy-making structure finally seemed to be visible from a bystander’s point of view.