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John Major

August 2024

Then-prime minister Paul Keating’s principal adviser Don Russell and Robert Zoellick, a senior US president George HW Bush’s White House, sparred by correspondence.

When Keating went to war with the White House

Secret cables reveal for the first time how Keating’s right-hand man and a senior White House official engaged in an extraordinary war of words in 1992, sometimes in personal terms.

  • James Curran

July 2024

Rupert Murdoch on the last day of the 2024 Republican National Convention.

Kingmaker to spectator: Rupert Murdoch bumped to Republican sidelines

The media baron’s backseat position at the Republican Convention reflects his diminished influence over a party wholly remade in Donald Trump’s image.

  • Updated
  • Daniel Thomas and Christopher Grimes

June 2024

Sir Keith Starmer is in the box seat as the UK heads to the polls on July 4.

Will Keir Starmer go wobbly on AUKUS?

The fantasy of a post-Brexit “global Britain” is gone, but British Labour says it will be everywhere around the world, and all at once.

  • James Curran

April 2024

workers

Why it doesn’t pay to be a working-class professional

Social class is a bigger barrier to career progress than gender or ethnicity, a study by KPMG in Britain has shown.

  • Pilita Clark

June 2023

Azeem Rafiq in action for Yorkshire in Leeds in 2013.

English cricket revealed as ‘racist, sexist, elitist’

A damning landmark report lays bare deep-rooted discrimination across the game, prompting an apology from authorities.

  • Tom Morgan
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April 2023

Nigel Lawson and his celebrity chef daughter Nigella Lawson in 2004.

Nigel Lawson, architect of Thatcher’s economic reforms, dies at 91

Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1983 and 1989, he championed lower personal taxes, wider share ownership and free market economics.

  • Muvija M and William Schomberg

January 2023

Up to a quarter of Tory MPs regret both Rishi Sunak’s success and Boris Johnson’s departure.

Boris Johnson is the itch Tories must stop scratching

The former leader’s return is unlikely, but it is a sign of the Conservatives’ malaise that so many still dream of it.

  • Robert Shrimsley

October 2022

Lack of a better option the only thing saving Truss

The UK prime minister is facing political ruin after the collapse of her economic agenda, but Conservative MPs do not have an obvious successor to rally around.

  • George Parker

June 2022

The Queen is not the most influential Briton, nor the richest.

Queen Elizabeth II, 70 years of duty without drama

The discreet monarch has presided over decades of change while remaining largely an enigma.

  • Henry Mance

April 2020

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Johnson 'stable' in ICU, but confusion on lockdown timetable

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson spent a second night in intensive care and was in a stable condition on Wednesday after receiving oxygen support for COVID-19 complications.

  • Updated
  • Gordon Rayner, Anna Mikhailova and Christopher Hope

December 2019

Boris Johnson

Four implications of Boris Johnson’s victory

Boris Johnson can claim to have broken a vicious cycle, but his reshaped Conservative Party will have its work cut out to hold the UK together.

  • Tony Barber

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/person/john-major-3q1