Former UK Treasury Chief Geoffrey Howe Dies Aged 88

Howe, who was one of the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s key cabinet colleagues, became foreign secretary in 1983, in the year the first round of formal talks between Britain and China over Hong Kong began in Beijing.

Mr Cameron added that Lord Howe’s time as Chancellor had been “vital” in “turning the fortunes of our country around”, describing him as “the quiet hero of the first Thatcher government”.

Mr. Howe was Mrs. Thatcher’s longest-serving cabinet minister but was viewed as helping end her time in office with a critical speech in 1990.

And Labour’s shadow chancellor John McDonnell said: “Lord Howe devoted his life to the service of his country and did so with distinction”.

Chancellor George Osborne posted on Twitter: ‘I will miss Geoffrey Howe.

Howe played an important role in Thatcher’s fall from power.

He was first elected as MP for Bebington between 1964 and 1966 before becoming the MP for Reigate in 1970 and later served the East Surrey constituency from 1974.

In 1989, amid growing tensions with Mrs Thatcher over Europe, he was shifted to the more junior position of Leader of the House of Commons.

Lady Thatcher was herself forced to resign shortly after the verbal assault – contradicting Denis Healey’s memorable 1978 jibe that coming under fire from Howe was like being “savaged by a dead sheep”.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn tweeted: “I got to know Geoffrey Howe when he was Foreign Secretary and valued his knowledge and experience”.

After much to-ing and fro-ing, Lord Howe eventually agreed to assume the title of Deputy Prime Minister, but it was an empty one, despite promises to the contrary.

Occasionally, as he spoke, Mrs Thatcher visibly flinched at the potency of his words.

Lord Howe was Foreign Secretary when the government passed Section 28, which banned the “promotion” of homosexuality in schools – but while sitting in the House of Lords in 2000, he voted for an attempt to repeal of the law.

Howe described Thatcher’s increasingly jaundiced attitude to Europe as akin to “sending your opening batsmen to the crease only for them to find…that their bats have been broken before the game by the team captain”.

Lord Howe, born Geoffrey Richard Edward Howe in Port Talbot in 1926, leaves a wife and three children.