WI: David Owen goes to his natural home

Basically Thatcher once said that Owen's natural home was in the Conservatives so with any POD but maintaining David Owen's personality and politics put him in the Conservatives.
 

Thande

Donor
Everything I've seen convinces me this is practically impossible. Essentially everything that happened in OTL could not have been better designed to drive Owen to the Conservatives but he still refused even when he had no other option but the political wilderness. Basically it would conflict too much with his political principles. Things might have been a bit different if the Conservatives in that era had a wet leadership but I still say it's a long shot.
 
Everything I've seen convinces me this is practically impossible. Essentially everything that happened in OTL could not have been better designed to drive Owen to the Conservatives but he still refused even when he had no other option but the political wilderness. Basically it would conflict too much with his political principles. Things might have been a bit different if the Conservatives in that era had a wet leadership but I still say it's a long shot.

Didn't Major plan to offer Owen a cabinet post if he hadn't lost his seat in 92?

I think earlier than that unlikely - ie not under Thatcher, although he did admire her.
 
IIRC I read that Thatcher made an offer to Owen to cross the floor and perhaps even join the Cabinet (most likely MoD or FO, where they are politically aligned) after a decent interval. Howe reportedly threatened to resign if such a plan was implemented, so it was canned.
 
The only thing I can think is if he is offered an elder statesman role as Shadow Foreign Secretary in 1997 if Michael Portillo doesn't lose his seat and is elected Leader of the Opposition. The two have many similarities
 
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