To some extent these critics of Major's policy were vindicated when in an article published in 2011, the then Defence Secretary Malcolm Rifkind accepted that the arms embargo was a ' serious mistake ' by the UN.

Following his resignation as Prime Minister, Major briefly became Leader of the Opposition, and Shadow Foreign Secretary ( as Sir Malcolm Rifkind, who was Foreign Secretary prior to the election, had lost his seat ), and remained in this post until the election of William Hague as leader of the Conservative Party in June 1997.

Whereas other ministers such as Malcolm Rifkind wished to imply that British euro membership was unlikely, Clarke fought successfully to maintain the possibility that Britain might join a single currency under a Conservative government, but conceded that such a move could only take place on the basis of a referendum.

However, he was accused by Norman Tebbit of being " lazy " whilst leadership rival Sir Malcolm Rifkind claimed that Clarke's pro-European views could have divided the Conservative Party if Clarke had won.

In 1993, he was appointed as Special Adviser to Malcolm Rifkind the then-Secretary of State for Defence, and worked in the same capacity when Rifkind became Foreign Secretary between 1995 and 1997.

However, when Rifkind was knocked out of the leadership race of the Conservatives, Blunt returned to the whips ' office and wrote to all Party members in his constituency asking for them to rank the remaining contenders in order of preference so he could best represent his constituents.

In 1995, during the Cabinet reshuffle widely seen as setting up the Conservative team which would contest the next election, Hurd retired from frontline politics after eleven years in the Cabinet and was replaced by Malcolm Rifkind.

Rifkind was the Member of Parliament ( MP ) for Edinburgh Pentlands from 1974 to 1997, when his party lost power and he lost his seat to the Labour Party.

When the Kensington and Chelsea constituency was realigned to create the new seats of Chelsea and Fulham and Kensington, Rifkind stood for the latter seat and was elected at the 2010 general election with a 50. 1 % share of total votes cast, with a majority of 8, 616 votes.

Rifkind was born in Edinburgh to a Jewish family that emigrated to Britain in the 1890s from Lithuania, his cousin is Leon Brittan.

Rifkind was one of only four Ministers ( Kenneth Clarke, Patrick Mayhew and Lynda Chalker are the others ) to serve throughout the whole 18 years of the Governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major.

Rifkind was responsible for Britain's relations with the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the European Community, and sub-Saharan Africa.

Jaruzelski attacked Rifkind and cancelled a meeting he was due to have with him but Rifkind's meeting with Solidarity created a precedent that was followed by the West German Foreign Minister, Hans-Dietrich Genscher and other Western ministers.

Rifkind was, subsequently, decorated by the non-communist democratic Polish Government for his support.

Rifkind, as Minister responsible for the European Community, was appointed by the Prime Minister as her personal representative on the Dooge Committee of the European Community.

When Rifkind became Secretary of State his first task was to defuse a teachers dispute which was crippling Scottish education.

Throughout his term as Scottish Secretary, Rifkind, like Younger before him, and Ian Lang and Michael Forsyth in later years, was constrained by the political weakness of the Conservative Party in Scotland unlike in England.

When Mrs Thatcher was challenged by Michael Heseltine for the Leadership of the Conservative Party Rifkind voted for her.

During the tense period that followed the first round of voting Rifkind was one of those who advised Mrs Thatcher that it would be best for her to stand down and did not promise to support her if she stood for election.

Rifkind was appointed Secretary of State for Defence after the 1992 general election.

Thatcher, on becoming Leader, appointed Rifkind an Opposition front-bench spokesman on Scottish Affairs.

In September 2010, Field was appointed by the Prime Minister to the prestigious Intelligence & Security Committee, chaired by former Foreign Secretary, Sir Malcolm Rifkind.

On 16 May 1994 he was appointed the first Military Assistant to the Secretary of State for Defence ( Malcolm Rifkind ), to provide military advice in his private office.

In a letter to Sir Malcolm Rifkind, chairman of the Standards and Privileges Committee, Mr Younger-Ross said: " I wholly accept the report and its conclusions and unreservedly apologise.

As a slight variation on the proposal for English votes on English laws, Sir Malcolm Rifkind proposed that an English Grand Committee, along the lines of the Scottish and Welsh Grand Committees ( made up of all the MPs from the relevant nation ) to be formed to debate on the effects of legislation on England.

* Kensington, held by Sir Malcolm Rifkind for the Conservative Party, and

* Kensington and Chelsea, held by Malcolm Rifkind for the Conservative Party, and

Notting Hill is part of the parliamentary constituency of Kensington, represented by Conservative Sir Malcolm Rifkind.

An amendment proposed by Sir Malcolm Rifkind suggested that the second reading and report stages of would require a " double majority " of both the House as a whole and of English MPs.

Rifkind opposed closure by the Government arguing that the whole steel industry should be privatised and that the future of individual plants would be determined by the companies that owned them in the private sector.

Rifkind subsequently accepted that the poll tax had been a major mistake by the Government.

Like John Major and the Foreign Secretary, Douglas Hurd, Rifkind was opposed to military intervention by Britain and the international community as combatants in that conflict.

* Rights and wrongs: The European Convention on Human Rights and its application in the United Kingdom ( SSC biennial lecture ) by Malcolm Rifkind ( 2000, Society of Solicitors in the Supreme Courts of Scotland ) ISBN B0000CP0RH

* Head to Head on the Euro: Kenneth Clarke and Malcolm Rifkind edited by Janet Bush ( 2000, New Europe ) ISBN 0-9536360-3-8

* Conservative Britain in the 21st century by Malcolm Rifkind ( 1996, Centre for Policy Studies ) ISBN 1-897969-53-8

* Hume Occasional Paper No. 46: UN Peacekeeping – Past Lessons and Future Prospects ( Hume Occasional Papers ) by Malcolm Rifkind ( 1995, The David Hume Institute ) ISBN 1-870482-43-3

* Towards 2000 by Malcolm Rifkind ( 1988, Conservative Political Centre ) ISBN 0-85070-788-9

* The Observer – Manifesto for a Conservative Britain column by Malcolm Rifkind, 8 May 2005

The Prime Minister's office then requested Malcolm Rifkind to take up Younger's previous job, Secretary of State for Scotland, which he accepted.

British Prime Minister John Major used a modified version of the quote, with the order reversed, in October 1995, when at the United Nations's 50th Anniversary celebrations he said, " It is not sustainable for states to enjoy representation without taxation ," in order to criticize the billion-dollar arrears of the United States ' payments to the UN, echoing a statement made the previous month at the opening session of the UN General Assembly by UK Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind.

Rifkind had several meetings with the Chinese Foreign Minister both in Beijing and in London, as well as with the Hong Kong Governor, Chris Patten, and elected Hong Kong politicians.

He was the Private Secretary to the Minister for Home Affairs in 1979-80, and to both Malcolm Rifkind and Ian Lang in their capacity as Secretary of State for Scotland from 1989 to 1991.

He is also Co-Vice Chair of Global Panel America ( Global Panel Foundation ) with Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the former UK Foreign Secretary and Minister of Defense.

Another former Cabinet Minister, Sir Malcolm Rifkind was nominated for the seat in Portillo's stead and elected at the 2005 general election.

In October 2007, amid speculation that then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown was about to call a snap general election, former Labour minister Tony Benn announced that he wanted to come out of retirement and return to the Commons, offering himself to the Kensington and Chelsea constituency Labour Party to challenge Malcolm Rifkind.