Page "Kenneth Clarke" Paragraph 5

Despite being an ardent pro-tobacco advocate, he was appointed Health Secretary in 1988, in which office he introduced the controversial ' internal market ' concept in the NHS.

Just over two years later he was appointed Education Secretary in the final weeks of Thatcher's government, following Norman Tebbit's unwillingness to return to the Cabinet.

( He was interviewed at some length by Brian Sherratt in 1994 regarding his role as Secretary of State for Education ).

He was famously the first Cabinet minister to advise Thatcher to resign after her inadequate first-round performance in the November 1990 leadership contest ; she referred to him in her memoirs as a " candid friend ".

He supported Douglas Hurd in the next round.