Lord Geoffrey Howe of Aberavon, CH, QC, PC was a British Conservative politician. Lord Howe was the Member of Parliament for Bebington from 1964 to 1966, Reigate from 1970 to 1974, and East Surrey from 1974 to 1992. In 1970 he was knighted and appointed Solicitor General in Edward Heath’s government, and in 1972 became Minister of State at the Department of Trade and Industry, with a seat in the Cabinet.
He was Margaret Thatcher’s longest-serving Cabinet minister, successively holding the posts of Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1979 for four years, Foreign Secretary in 1983 for 6 years, and finally Leader of the House of Commons and Deputy Prime Minister from 1989-1990. He was raised to the peerage as Baron Howe of Aberavon, of Tandridge in the County of Surrey in 1992