JOHN MAJOR - UNITED KINGDOM

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06789903
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: March 8, 2023
• Document Release Date: February 22, 2019
• Case Number: F-2018-01249
• Publication Date: August 28, 1989

Approved for Release: 2019/02/12 C06789903
John MAJOR
Secretary of State for Foreign and
Commonwealth Affairs (since July 1989)
Perhaps the only British Cabinet member ever
to have been on the dole, John Major has been held
up as a shining example of the self-made men who
are the epitome of Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher's meritocratic Britain. His appointment
as Foreign Secretary continues his meteoric rise in
the ranks of the Conservative Party and has
already renewed speculation that Thatcher is
grooming him as her crown prince. Major�an
aggressive Tory orator since his teens and a well-
known Thatcher soldier�has built a reputation as
a hard-working, persuasive consensus builder with
keen political antennae.
Major had little foreign policy experience
before moving to the Foreign Office and has rarely commented on foreign affairs. Most
observers are carefully watching his approach to thc EC, where he is expected to nced his
considerable diplomatic skill to smooth ruffled relations with Brussels while supporting
Thatcher's policies. One of his first challenges has been the need to calm the apprehension of
Hong Kong residents, who fear that Chinese authorities will institute repressive measures
after the colony returns to Chinese rule in 1997. This issue will probably continue to be a
high priority. Major is well acquainted with the Chinese business community in Hong Kong,
having visited there frequently during his banking carecr. We expect him to draw heavily on
his extensive background in private enterprise, as well as on his widely recognized mastery of
detail and negotiating skills, to quickly establish his own identity as Foreign Secretary on
this and other policy questions.
UNITED KINGDOM
The son of a businessman who once worked as a trapeze artist and played baseball in
Philadelphia, Major was born on 29 March 1943. When he was 10 his family moved to
Brixton. He left school at 16 in order to help with family finances, working in an insurance
office and as a mixer of concrete (he competed for a job as a bus conductor but was rejected
because he was too tall). In 1965 he joined the Standard Chartered Bank, and for the next
14 years he held executive posts both in Britain and overseas (he was working in Nigeria
during the Biafran war). Upon entering Parliament in 1983, Major was made an assistant in
the Government Whips Office, considered by many observers to be a hothouse for party
talent. In that position and later, in a series of posts in the Department of Health and
Human Services, Major won widespread respect. He continued his success as Chief
Secretary in the Exchequer (1987�July 1989), where he adjudicated interministerial
spending debates with success and minimal rancor
Despite his increasing prominence, Major has remained modest and good humored:
even after his elevation to the Cabinet he liked to drop into workingmen's cafes for a
breakfast of "triple beans on toast with bacon." He is also genuinely popular; one British
newspaper has characterized him as a "good egg." Major has retained a strong social
conscience and ends to be to the left of the party on issues of social justice and welfare.
Major enjoys opera and cricket. He is married to the former Norma Johnson, whom he
met while electioneering in Brixton. Mrs. Major has recently published a biography of opera
star Joan Sutherland. The couple has two children.
LDA M 89-14662
28 August 1989
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Approved for Release: 2019/02/12 C06789903