Thatcher Shakes Up Cabinet in Attempt to Halt Slide in Popularity

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher appointed new foreign and defense secretaries today, fired two other Cabinet ministers and switched around several more in the biggest government shake-up since she won power.

Thatcher named John Major, one of the least-known members of her 22-member Cabinet, as the new foreign secretary. He replaces Sir Geoffrey Howe, who was moved to a vacant post as deputy prime minister and the governing Conservative Party’s leader in the House of Commons.

The prime minister, battling to halt her government’s slide in popularity, also put new appointees in an array of major posts including the portfolios for Northern Ireland and the environment. Reporters had waited eagerly outside Thatchers residence at 10 Downing St. for word on the Cabinet shuffle. Thatcher fired her harassed Transport Secretary Paul Channon, who had been accused of bungling bomb warnings before Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up over Scotland on Dec. 21, and Social Secretary John Moore.

The two other Cabinet ministers to depart--Defense Secretary George Younger and Trade and Industry Secretary Lord Young--said they were resigning to resume business careers.

Northern Ireland Secretary Tom King was named defense secretary in an apparent reward after four years as Britain’s top official in the embattled province.

The appointment of Major as foreign secretary marked a meteoric rise from his former Cabinet post as chief secretary to the treasury, the No. 2 financial official.

The 46-year-old son of a circus trapeze artist was raised in poverty in south London’s run-down Brixton District, never went to college and worked as a building laborer before making a career in banking.

He entered Parliament in the May, 1979, general election that brought Thatcher to power and ousted a socialist Labor Party government.

The move of Howe, 62, to deputy prime minister was widely regarded as a demotion from one of the most prestigious jobs in the Cabinet.

Thatcher also brought into the Cabinet another member of the class of 1979, Christopher Patten, a rising star from the party’s liberal wing, as the new environment secretary.

Party Chairmanship

Reflecting anxiety at the government’s drop in the polls and its drubbing in elections for the European Parliament last month, Thatcher shifted Education Secretary Kenneth Baker to the chairmanship of the Conservative Party.

Energy Secretary Cecil Parkinson will take over from Channon as transport secretary.

Parkinson’s move is the latest step back up the government ladder after he resigned in disgrace as trade and industry secretary in 1983 following a sex scandal with his secretary. He was brought back into the government two years ago.