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John Major’s desperate bid to calm a furious Margaret Thatcher just weeks after he became Prime Minister, has been laid bare in newly released government files.

In an extraordinary letter, Major sought to reassure her that he was committed to carrying forward her legacy, even as he set about dismantling the poll tax - one of her flagship reforms.

When Mr Major entered Downing Street in November 1990 in the wake of Mrs Thatcher's shock resignation following a revolt by Tory MPs, she made clear he was her chosen successor.

But within weeks the strains were evident as his talk of building "a nation at ease with itself" jarred with the confrontational style of her premiership.

(Image: PA)

In March 1991, she finally snapped, using a US television interview to complain: "I see a tendency to try to undermine what I achieved."

The timing could hardly have been worse for Mr Major just as he was preparing to announce the abolition of the poll tax - or community charge as it was officially known.

The protests which erupted over the poll tax - as millions saw their bills soar - had been a key factor behind the unrest which drove Mrs Thatcher from office.

She, however, like many Tories, remained fiercely opposed to a return to funding local government through a property-based tax which Mr Major was now proposing with the council tax.

In an attempt to avert a potentially explosive clash, Mr Major sought to explain his thinking in a five page letter made public for the first time by the National Archives at Kew.

Beginning "Dear Margaret" and ending "Yours ever, John", he said "responsible citizens, overwhelmingly our supporters" were being hit with rising bills as councils set the poll tax at levels far higher than anyone in government had expected.

"The decision to abolish the community charge was not taken lightly," he informed her.

"But having consulted widely throughout the party, I am convinced that it would never be accepted as equitable and that it would never be properly collectable either.

"I do not think we could long defend a situation in which some people were paying more in community charge than in income tax."

Mr Major then sought to sweeten the pill by passing on an invitation from the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to visit Moscow.

"He would of course want to have a meeting with you, and hold a lunch or dinner in your honour," he wrote.

He then added an extraordinary handwritten PS, assuring her of his continuing commitment to her policies and rejecting the "hurtful" attempts to drive a wedge between them.

(Image: Daily Mirror)

"I am as fed up as you must be with the way the press seize on any issue to try and point up similarities/dis-similarities between us. I find it embarrassing and, more important, you must find it hurtful," he wrote.

"On Saturday the speech I make at Southport will, I hope, put this to rest. It will set out clear principles that will carry forward the changes of the last 10 years."

It was a vain hope, as her deepening unrest over his policies - particularly on Europe - was to cast a long shadow over his premiership.