 | |
|---|---|
| Premiership of Francis Urquhart | |
| 1 January 1992 – 30 July 2003 | |
| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| Cabinet | First Urquhart ministry |
| Party | Conservative |
| Election | 1992, 1997, 2001 |
| Seat | 10 Downing Street |
| Preceded by | Henry Collingridge |
| Succeeded by | Tom Makepeace |
 | |
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Francis Urquhart's term as the prime minister of the United Kingdom began on 1 January 1992 when he accepted an invitation of Queen Elizabeth II to form a government, succeeding Henry Collingridge, and ended on 30 July 2003 upon his assassination. While serving as prime minister, Urquhart also served as the first lord of the treasury, minister for the civil service, and leader of the Conservative Party. He was the longest serving prime minister in modern history, having been in power for 11 years. Urquhart was the last prime minister to serve under Elizabeth II, being appointed prime minister a few years before the monarch's death. Ideologically, Urquhart was described as being on the hard right within the Conservative Party.
On becoming prime minister after winning the 1991 Conservative Party leadership election, Urquhart led his party to victory in the 1992 general election. He started his premiership with a renewed determination to bring the British people together, to put an end to the constant drip of cynicism that eroded so much of the British national life, and to devote himself to the country’s cause. Urquhart's popularity in his first years in office waned amid rising homelessness, his solution was to bring back national service. Urquhart's policies included abolishing the Arts Council, outlawing vagrancy, reintroducing conscription and banning pensioners from National Health Service treatment unless they have paid for Age Insurance. On foreign policy, Urquhart was Anglocentric; he thinks that Britain has more to teach the world, and Europe in particular, than the other way around. His strong belief in discipline and the rule of law shapes his foreign policy in Cyprus, where he authorises the use of force against schoolgirls who are blocking military vehicles.
Urquhart and the newly crowned King of the United Kingdom frequently clashed after the King was determined to play a more active role in government, encouraging ideas of liberalism which directly contrasted with Urquhart's hard conservative policies. As Urquhart felt that having more legitimacy would allow him to depose the King, he called a general election in 1997. The issues raised by the monarch against government policy continued to persist, causing Urquhart's government to lose popularity. The King additionally made a tour of the United Kingdom, but was attacked on his tour by a group of terrorists, and saved by the British Army which Urquhart had sent to protect the King along the journey. Thus, popularity for Urquhart rose back, and he won the election, whereafter he successfully pressured the King into abdicating in favour of his teenage son. His former allies Tim Stamper and Sarah Harding were murdered in what appeared to be IRA terrorist attacks, but were, in reality, assassinations ordered by Urquhart to end their conspiracies against him.
Urquhart was re-elected for a third term in 2001, but had become widely unpopular and became increasingly obsessed with making his mark on history. Initially, he wanted nothing more than to beat Thatcher's record for days in office, refusing to relinquish the position of prime minister until he did so. Urquhart then sets out to reunify Cyprus, both for the publicity and in the hopes of winning offshore oil rights for Britain, but his hardline manoeuvring in the Cyprus settlement lead to his downfall. Hoping to provoke another "Falklands War" (a successful foreign war to boost government popularity), Urquhart deliberately triggers a disaster in Cyprus that results in the death of civilians, including young schoolgirls. Urquhart's support plummets, and when he proves unwilling to accept responsibility for the deaths or express sympathy for the victims, many MPs openly call on him to resign. On July 30, 2003, Urquhart was assassinated at the unveiling of the Margaret Thatcher statue in Parliament Square. The assassination was arranged by his wife Elizabeth to spare Urquhart the shame of exposure, resignation, trial, life imprisonment, and historical damnation (his opponents were close to uncovering his shady past). His former deputy prime minister and foreign secretary, Tom Makepeace, was appointed prime minister upon Urquhart's death. Urquhart was given a state funeral, and his party won a landslide re-election in the 2005 general election.
Having led the Conservative Party to victory in three consecutive general elections in 1992, 1997, and 2001, he ranks among the most popular party leaders in British history in terms of votes cast for the winning party. Urquhart is the most recent prime minister to have died in office, and his assassination was the most recent assassination of a prime minister since Spencer Perceval in 1812. Although public favourability of Urquhart has improved since his assassination, his premiership has generally been viewed as average in historical rankings and public opinion of British prime ministers.
Run-up to becoming Prime Minister (1991-1992)[]
Urquhart submitting his memorandum to Henry Collingridge
Although he was well respected among his Conservative colleagues as Chief Whip, Francis Urquhart looked for a change, a bit of new experience, and a new challenge, hoping to be appointed to the senior ministerial position of Foreign Secretary. After the Conservative Party's victory at the 1990 general election, Urquhart submits a memorandum to Prime Minister Henry Collingridge advocating a cabinet reshuffle that would contemplate Urquhart's appointment as Foreign Secretary. Urquhart believed that the time had come for change in Britain, and he proposed the appointment of many rural and right-wing Conservatives. However, Collingridge discards Urquhart's proposals on the basis that doing so would probably adversely affect the party's popularity, citing Harold Macmillan's political demise after the 1962 Night of the Long Knives. Collingridge also said that Urquhart would be more use to him as the Chief Whip instead of Foreign Secretary. Enraged, Urquhart begins plotting an intricate, long-term political revenge.
Urquhart with journalist Mattie Storin, whom he used to leak information
At the same time, with Elizabeth's blessing, Urquhart begins an affair with Mattie Storin, a junior political reporter at a Conservative-leaning tabloid newspaper called The Chronicle. The affair allows Urquhart to manipulate Storin and indirectly skew her coverage of the Conservative leadership contest in his favour. Storin has an apparent Electra complex; she finds appeal in Urquhart's much older age and later refers to him as "Daddy". Another unwitting pawn is Roger O'Neill, the party's cocaine-addicted public relations consultant. Urquhart blackmails O'Neill into leaking information on budget cuts that humiliates Collingridge during the Prime Minister's Questions. Later, he blames party chairman Theodore Billsborough for leaking an internal poll showing a drop in Tory numbers, leading Collingridge to sack him. As Collingridge's image suffers, Urquhart encourages ultraconservative Foreign Secretary Patrick Woolton and Chronicle owner Benjamin Landless to support his removal. He also poses as Collingridge's alcoholic brother Charles to trade shares in a chemical company about to benefit from advance information confidential to the government. Consequently, Collingridge becomes accused of insider trading and is forced to resign.
Conservative leadership bid[]
Urquhart announcing his candidacy in the 1991 Conservative Party leadership election
In the ensuing leadership race, Urquhart initially feigns unwillingness to stand before announcing his candidacy. With the help of Stamper, Urquhart goes about making sure his competitors drop out of the race: Health Secretary Peter MacKenzie accidentally runs his car over a disabled protester at a demonstration staged by Urquhart and is forced by the public outcry to withdraw, while Education Secretary Harold Earle is blackmailed into withdrawing when Urquhart anonymously sends pictures of him in the company of a rent boy whom Earle had paid for sex. The first ballot leaves Urquhart to face Patrick Woolton and Michael Samuels, the moderate Environment Secretary supported by Billsborough. Urquhart eliminates Woolton by a prolonged scheme: at the party conference, he pressures O'Neill into persuading his personal assistant and lover, Penny Guy, to have a one-night stand with Woolton in his suite, which Urquhart records via a bugged ministerial red box. When the tape is sent to Woolton, he is led to assume that Samuels is behind the scheme and backs Urquhart in the contest. Urquhart also receives support from Collingridge, who is unaware of Urquhart's role in his own downfall. Samuels is forced out of the running when the tabloids reveal that he backed leftist causes as a student at University of Cambridge.
Urquhart moments before murdering Storin
Stumbling across contradictions in the allegations against Collingridge and his brother, Storin begins to dig deeper. On Urquhart's orders, O'Neill arranges for her car and flat to be vandalised in a show of intimidation. However, O'Neill becomes increasingly uneasy with what he is being asked to do, and his cocaine addiction adds to his instability. Urquhart mixes O'Neill's cocaine with rat poison, causing him to kill himself when taking the cocaine in a motorway service station lavatory on the M27 at Rownhams. Though initially blind to the truth of matters thanks to her relations with Urquhart, Storin eventually deduces that Urquhart is responsible for O'Neill's death and is behind the unfortunate downfalls of Collingridge and all of Urquhart's rivals.
Storin looks for Urquhart at the point when it seems his victory is certain. She eventually finds him on the roof garden of the Houses of Parliament, where she confronts him. He admits to O'Neill's murder and everything else he has done. He then asks whether he can trust Storin, and, though she answers in the affirmative, he does not believe her and throws her off the roof onto a van parked below, killing her instantly. As a group of people rush to inspect the scene, someone picks up one of Storin's recorded conversations with Urquhart. After winning the final ballot, Urquhart is driven to Buckingham Palace to be invited by Queen Elizabeth II to form a government as Prime Minister.
Urquhart premiership[]
First and second terms[]
Urquhart being driven to Buckingham Palace to form a government by Queen Elizabeth II
Urquhart accepts the Queen's invitation to form a government, beginning his premiership. He was the last prime minister to serve under the Queen, being appointed a few years before the monarch's death. Urquhart started his time in Downing Street with a renewed determination to bring the British people together, to put an end to the constant drip of cynicism that eroded so much of the British national life, and to devote himself to the country’s cause. Urquhart appointed Stamper as Chief Whip, appointed Tom Makepeace as his Foreign Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister, and appointed Corder as his bodyguard and security advisor. As prime minister, Urquhart supported abolishing the Arts Council, outlawing vagrancy, reintroducing conscription, banning pensioners from the NHS unless they paid for age insurance, and opposed the welfare state. A few months into his premiership, Urquhart led his party to victory in the 1992 general election. After the election, Urquhart began feeling a sense of anti-climax. Having gained great power and influence, he wonders how to use them. His wife Elizabeth comments that he needs a challenge.
This challenge is shortly provided in the form of the newly crowned King of the United Kingdom, who is displeased with the Conservative government led by Urquhart and becomes involved in politics in a way that Urquhart finds unacceptable for a constitutional monarch. At their first meeting, the King expresses concern about Urquhart's social policies, which he argues have led to greater problems for urban areas. Tensions escalate when Urquhart moves his moderate Environment Secretary to a job in Strasbourg after rejecting his proposals to regenerate inner cities. The King's Assistant Press Secretary, Chloe Carmichael, leaks the outcome of the meeting to the press, which rankles Urquhart.
Urquhart at Prime Minister's Questions
Fearing the King will weaken his position, Urquhart obtains "regal insurance" from Princess Charlotte, the former wife of a royal family member. Stamper persuades her to divulge lurid details about the Monarchy to Sir Bruce Bullerby, the editor of the Daily Clarion tabloid, on condition the information is published after her death. Urquhart also begins regularly meeting with the King's ex-wife, repeatedly assuring her that he has no intention of disturbing the Monarchy, implying he would support the early accession of her teenaged son as King.
The King and his staff produce a public service announcement implicitly denouncing how Urquhart's policies have affected Britain and covertly rally Opposition leaders to join forces against the Prime Minister. Irked by this intransigence, Urquhart calls an early election in 1997. Elizabeth introduces him to a pollster named Sarah Harding and persuades him to choose her as a political advisor. Urquhart is impressed with Harding's intelligence and starts to favour her over Stamper, who becomes increasingly bitter after Urquhart reneged on a promise to make him Home Secretary during a cabinet reshuffle. Stamper plans to betray Urquhart by collecting evidence of Urquhart's murder of Storin, intending to use it against Urquhart and have a leadership contest held, to which Stamper would hope to win and emerge as the new Prime Minister. Urquhart eventually begins an affair with Harding, which puts a strain on her marriage. Through all this, he continues to be haunted by his murder of Storin; unbeknownst to him, someone possesses Storin's tape recording of her own death. Corder puts the King and other enemies under surveillance.
Urquhart during a meeting with the newly crowned King of the United Kingdom
After a brief abduction by some homeless thugs, Harding is told to ask him about Storin. Despite her feelings for Urquhart, Harding begins to question his version of events about the tragedy. She meets John Krajewski, a former colleague of Storin's who is now a paranoid freelance journalist. Corder and his staff execute Krajewski and blame it on Irish republican terrorists. Meanwhile, Urquhart threatens the King with Charlotte's memoirs, saying that he will be forced to publish them if the King continues publicly to oppose him. The King, however, refuses to be blackmailed. Urquhart engages in secret meetings with the King's ex-wife, who urges him not to back down. He also blackmails Bullerby into publishing Charlotte's memoirs in the Daily Clarion, threatening to release images of his sexual relationship with the princess.
While the royal scandal succeeds in hurting the King's popularity, the polls reverse when Conservative MP John Staines is arrested for sex with a minor. A furious Urquhart blames Stamper for the fallout, having put Staines in the public arena moments before his arrest. Mycroft, the King's closeted advisor, begins fearing his sexual orientation may damage the King's standing, having seen Staines in a gay bar with an underage boy before the arrest. Mycroft eventually decides to come out to the King's press corps, at the same time announcing his resignation.
The deadly explosion of a tower block, as a result of a tenant's tapping into the gas main, puts the King's arguments about social problems back into the public domain. Urquhart announces his intention of having unemployed youth from the estates conscripted into the Armed Forces, re-enacting a form of peacetime national service. The King organises a bus tour visiting disadvantaged council estates to show his concern, refusing to include a security detail. Urquhart arranges for Corder to have the King abducted by thugs during his tour of an estate in Manchester. The Parachute Regiment, secretly shadowing the King's tour on Urquhart's orders, rescues him from possible harm. The King is seen as foolish for his negligence in the matter of security, and Urquhart seems like a hero for having protected him.
Urquhart telling The King that he must abdicate, upon the former's victory in the general election
Meanwhile, Corder discovers that Stamper has passed information on Storin's murder to Harding as insurance. With urging from Elizabeth, Urquhart orders Corder to assassinate them. The Conservatives subsequently win the general election with a 22-seat overall majority. Urquhart's consistency of New Forest was abolished for the election, when the New Forest East and New Forest West seats were created using its remaining components, with Urquhart being elected as the MP for both consistencies. With his policies vindicated by the electorate, despite the King's public opposition, Urquhart demands his abdication. Harding's car explodes when she is en route to meet Carmichael, while Stamper's car explodes outside New Scotland Yard. The media interpret the car bombings as Provisional IRA attacks. The King abdicates in favour of his teenage son, whom Urquhart expects to be a much less influential monarch. With a tame monarch and no threat in sight, Urquhart is secure as prime minister. He went on to win the 2001 general election, becoming the first Conservative prime minister to win three successive general elections since Thatcher.
Third term[]
Urquhart at Margaret Thatcher's funeral
After his third election victory, Urquhart adds several other ministers to his cabinet, including Geoffrey Booza-Pitt as the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and later Foreign Secretary, Betsy Bourke as the Health Secretary, Dick Caul as the Environment Secretary, Henry Ponsonby as the Cabinet Secretary, John Rayner as Home Secretary, and Hilda Cordwainer in an undisclosed cabinet position. After Thatcher's death in 2001, Urquhart attends her state funeral. He publicly praises Thatcher as his mentor, but privately begrudges her record as the longest-serving prime minister in recent history, a record that Urquhart himself is soon to surpass. He aspires to be remembered as the best prime minister since Winston Churchill.
Urquhart meeting Maria Passolides
To leave his mark on the world, Urquhart champions a treaty resolving the Cyprus dispute while secretly working to bring offshore oil deposits under the control of the Turkish authorities on the island so that a Turkish-British consortium will have the drilling rights; an executive of the consortium has promised to provide for Urquhart's retirement fund in return. On a motorway near London, Urquhart's limousine is forced off the road by a car containing three drunken louts. The attackers threaten Urquhart's party with baseball bats, but are unlawfully shot dead by security staff as they approach. Urquhart himself sustains minor head injuries in the collision, but his life is not endangered. When Elizabeth arrives at hospital, he is delirious and confuses the incident on the motorway with the incident in Cyprus. Makepeace chairs a cabinet meeting while Urquhart is in hospital; Urquhart considers Makepeace – the actual negotiator of the Cyprus treaty – as a potential challenger, although he does not take the threat very seriously, considering him "not a fighter" but "a sentimental dreamer".
Evanghelos Passolides, the brother of the murdered Greek Cypriot guerrillas who witnessed their deaths, lives in London and recognises Urquhart as the soldier who killed them. He asks his daughter Maria to investigate while secretly considering taking vengeance on Urquhart. Maria's search of government records finds a report on the incident written by Urquhart, but his name is redacted. Upon being approached by Maria on the rooftop of the House of Commons, Urquhart arranges for documents revealing his involvement to be excluded from a coincidental declassification of British records relating to Cyprus. But he also confides the truth to Elizabeth. Meanwhile, Urquhart appoints ambitious backbencher Claire Carlsen as his Parliamentary Private Secretary. Carlsen also happens to be Makepeace's lover. She subsequently plays the two men against each other.
Encouraged by Carlsen, Urquhart enrages Makepeace by making a speech in the House of Commons suggesting that Britain should not adopt the European currency, but that Europe should instead adopt English as its official language. When Urquhart told Makepeace that he was being sacked as Foreign Secretary and would appoint Makepeace to the Department of Education in a cabinet reshuffle, Makepeace instead chose to resign himself and returned to the backbenches of the House of Commons, from where he crossed the floor and joined the Labour Party and opposed Urquhart's government from the opposition benches at Prime Minister's Questions. Makepeace demanded to know whether Urquhart had previous knowledge of the oil, and criticised his lack of transparency in the handling of the Cyprus Crisis; however, Urquhart used the crisis itself to distract his opponents' attention.
Makepeace challenges Urquhart for the leadership of the Conservative Party. Urquhart won the first leadership ballot but not by the required threshold, necessitating a second round. Meanwhile, Carlsen advises Maria to take her case to Makepeace, who repeatedly raises the cover-up in parliament. At Makepeace's suggestion, Carlsen purloins the unedited report on the Cyprus killings from the secret government archive where it is stored. However, Corder – informed by the archive clerk – seizes the document from her, who later gave it to Makepeace to set in motion Urquhart's downfall. Carlsen's photocopy of the document was thus rejected by Makepeace, who was by then already in possession of the original, and he refused to give Carlsen a place in his new government, as he saw her as "pure poison" due to her association with Urquhart.
Urquhart making a statement regarding Cyprus
Makepeace's leadership challenge has attracted enough support to convince Urquhart that his position is in jeopardy. He decides to leak information regarding the oil deposits in order to stir up a conflict in Cyprus as "our Falklands" to unite Britain under his leadership. When Greek nationalists kidnap a British diplomat and the Greek Cypriot President Dimitri Nicolaou, Urquhart deploys British troops to retrieve them. Though the troops successfully rescue the hostages, the intervention later results in the death of civilians, including young schoolgirls, largely because of the prime minister's drastic orders. Urquhart's support plummets, and when he proves unwilling to accept responsibility for the deaths or express sympathy for the victims, many MPs openly call on him to resign. While Urquhart appears defiant, his wife is worried, and she consults Corder for advice on how to save him. Corder advises "drastic measures", and informs her that he has sent a copy of Storin's tape, revealing Urquhart's role in both her death and the death of O'Neill, to Makepeace.
Makepeace confronts the prime minister and announces that he will publish the tape, but not before Urquhart has achieved his aim of surpassing Thatcher's record. After this, Urquhart again meets Maria on the rooftop of the House of Commons. The incriminating Cyprus report has been sent to Evanghelos anonymously – presumably by Corder – and Maria vows to publish it. Urquhart told Maria that her uncles were Urquhart's informants and that he killed them to prevent them from being killed by their own people, but Maria does not believe him. Saying his goodbyes to Maria, Urquhart briefly contemplated killing her by throwing her off the rooftop (as he had previously done with Storin twelve years prior), but ultimately decided not to. While Urquhart appeared defiant over Makepeace and Maria saying they will publish the tape and Cyprus report, refusing to resign as he was close to beating Thatcher's record for time served in office, Elizabeth was worried, and she consulted Corder for advice on how to save him. Corder advised "drastic measures". Elizabeth decided to have her husband assassinated to spare him the shame of exposure, resignation, trial, life imprisonment, and historical damnation (his opponents were close to uncovering his shady past).
Assassination[]
Urquhart's death
At the unveiling of the Margaret Thatcher statue in Parliament Square, on the day when Urquhart surpasses her record as the longest serving prime minister in modern history (having been prime minister for 4,228 days – one day longer than Thatcher), a sniper in Corder's services appears on a rooftop and shoots the prime minister. Moments later he shoots Evanghelos, who had approached Urquhart with a pistol.
Urquhart's assassination resulted in Makepeace being elected unopposed as the next Conservative Party leader, and succeeded Urquhart as Prime Minister. Urquhart’s body lay in state in the Great Hall at Westminster where the public filed past to pay homage without pause. His party won a landslide victory unprecedented in modern electoral history in the 2005 general election, out of sympathy for Urquhart's assassination two years prior. Urquhart is the most recent prime minister to have died in office, and his assassination was the most recent assassination of a prime minister since Spencer Perceval in 1812.
Politics[]
Urqhuart lives in Lyndhurst, Hampshire and originally represented the county constituency of New Forest for the Conservative Party, later representing the country constituencies of New Forest East and New Forest West. He is right-wing and his policies include abolishing the Arts Council, outlawing vagrancy, reintroducing conscription and banning pensioners from National Health Service treatment unless they have paid for Age Insurance. He describes himself to Elizabeth as "a plain, no-nonsense, old-fashioned Tory." When The King accuses Urquhart of practically abandoning Scotland and Wales, Urquhart notes that he detests the welfare state and contemporary youth culture.
Urquhart's foreign policy is Anglocentric; he thinks that Britain has more to teach the world, and Europe in particular, than the other way around. He would like to see the rest of the European Union speaking English – a position that would then completely alienate Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary Tom Makepeace. Besides this, his strong belief in discipline and the rule of law shapes his foreign policy in Cyprus, where he authorises the use of force against schoolgirls who are blocking military vehicles. Ideologically, Urquhart was described as being on the hard right within the Conservative Party.
Legacy[]
Political impact[]
Urquhart in London
Urquhart was the longest serving prime minister in modern history. He started his premiership with a renewed determination to bring the British people together, to put an end to the constant drip of cynicism that eroded so much of the British national life, and to devote himself to the country’s cause. Towards the end of his premiership, Urquhart became increasingly obsessed with making his mark on history. Initially, he wanted nothing more than to beat Margaret Thatcher's record for days in office, and aspired to be remembered as "the best prime minister since Winston Churchill."
Thatcher's victories in the 1979, 1983, and 1987 general elections, Henry Collingridge's victory in the 1990 general election, Urquhart's victories in the the 1992, 1997 and 2001 general elections, and Tom Makepeace's victory in the 2005 general election granted a perpetual Conservative rule of government for 24 years, rule which is assumed to have continued until 2010, when the Conservatives are presumed to have lost the 2010 general election to the Labour Party.
Urquhart is the most recent prime minister to have died in office, and his assassination was the most recent assassination of a prime minister since Spencer Perceval in 1812. Urquhart is the most recent prime minister to have served under three monarchs (Elizabeth II, The King, and The King's son) since Stanley Baldwin (George V, Edward VIII, and George VI).
Overview[]
During Urquhart's premiership, homelessness began to rise and Urquhart's solution was to bring back national service. As prime minister, Urquhart supported abolishing the Arts Council, outlawing vagrancy, reintroducing conscription, banning pensioners from the NHS unless they paid for age insurance, and opposed the welfare state. He also had plans to make English the official language of the European Union. Urquhart despised youth culture and the welfare state, believed in compulsory national service, and dismissed the poor as "layabouts" and "lazy people". Urquhart also pushed his hardline agenda despite opposition from the monarchy.
Urquhart's foreign policy is Anglocentric; he thinks that Britain has more to teach the world, and Europe in particular, than the other way around. He would like to see the rest of the European Union speaking English – a position that would then completely alienate Foreign Secretary Tom Makepeace. Besides this, his strong belief in discipline and the rule of law shapes his foreign policy in Cyprus, where he authorises the use of force against schoolgirls who are blocking military vehicles.
Reputation[]
Newspaper encouraging Urquhart to stand in the 1991 Conservative Party leadership election
Urquhart was known for using conspiracies and betrayals to eliminate his enemies and advance his own position, notably doing this to cause Henry Collingridge to resign and to eliminate his opponents in the 1991 Conservative Party leadership election. Urquhart also frequently clashed with The King after the King was determined to play a more active role in government, encouraging ideas of liberalism which directly contrasted with Urquhart's hard conservative policies. After winning the 1997 United Kingdom general election, Urquhart successfully pressured the King into abdicating.
Urquhart's popularity in his first years in office waned amid rising homelessness. British newspapers took notice of Urquhart distinctive initials "FU" and made use of them throughout his time as Prime Minister, announcing the reassignment of his Environment Minister with the headline of "FU DICK.". Later, when Urquhart's popularity evaporated entirely, the headlines simply read "F OFF FU".
In his third term, Urquhart wanted to leave a legacy by reuniting Cyprus, but his hardline manoeuvring in the Cyprus settlement resulted in the death of civilians, including young schoolgirls, largely because of his drastic orders. Urquhart's support plummeted, and when he proved unwilling to accept responsibility for the deaths or express sympathy for the victims, many MPs openly called on him to resign. Following this, his wife Elizabeth decided to have her husband assassinated to spare him the shame of exposure, resignation, trial, life imprisonment, and historical damnation (his opponents were close to uncovering his shady past).
Urquhart's tenure of 11 years and 210 days as British prime minister was the longest since Margaret Thatcher (11 years and 209 days) and also had the longest continuous period in office since Thatcher. He refused to relinquish his position until he beat Thatcher's record as the longest serving prime minister in modern history, and upon his assassination, ultimately ended up beating her record by one day.
| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by John Wakeham |
Chief Whip of the Conservative Party June 12, 1987 – January 1, 1992 |
Succeeded by Tim Stamper |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Henry Collingridge |
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1 January 1992 – 30 July 2003 |
Succeeded by Tom Makepeace |
| Preceded by Henry Collingridge |
Leader of the Conservative Party December 31, 1991 - July 30, 2003 |
Succeeded by Tom Makepeace |
| |||||||