On 14 June 1978, in a debate on the economy, the chancellor Denis Healey answered an attack from Geoffrey Howe. He said: “That part of his speech was rather like being savaged by a dead sheep.”
On 13 November 1990, Howe explained to the House of Commons why he had resigned from Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet. He used a cricket image: “It is rather like sending your opening batsmen to the crease only for them to find, the moment the first balls are bowled, that their bats have been broken before the game by the team captain.”
Thatcher announced her resignation nine days later.