Francis Urquhart - The Final Cut

The Final Cut

The last installment in the trilogy portrays an embattled and increasingly unpopular man who is determined to "'beat that bloody woman's record'" of longevity as Prime Minister. He is aware that, like all statesmen, he will not rule forever and he is determined to 'make my mark on the .' He sets about reuniting Cyprus, both to secure his legacy, and to gain substantial revenue for 'The Urquhart Trust' after a Turkish Cypriot businessman, Nureş, who informs Urquhart of an international sea boundary deal, that consequently gives the exploitation rights for offshore oil to the British and the Turks. His past is catching up with him, however - a tenacious Cypriot girl and her father are determined to prove that he murdered her uncles while serving as a young officer in Cyprus during the unrest that preceded independence in 1956. He also sacks his more liberal and pro-European Foreign Secretary, Tom Makepeace, who is fed up with not being allowed to do his job and having Urquhart take the credit for the Cyprus deal (and publicly dismisses Makepeace's role as having been "'loaded down with much of the donkey-work'"), leaving Makepeace free to challenge Urquhart for the party leadership.

After disastrous events in Cyprus, Urquhart is shot dead at the unveiling of the Margaret Thatcher memorial, having been Prime Minister for 4,228 days—one day longer than Thatcher. In the TV series Urquhart's bodyguard, Corder, arranges his assassination with the consent of his wife (who is implied to be Corder's lover—Urquhart knows this and does not object) to stop the dark secrets from his past being revealed. In the book, Urquhart allows himself to be killed by an assassin who is out for revenge, martyring himself in the process—by pushing his wife out of the way and saving her life, he secured himself a State funeral, the landslide re-election of his Party and the legacy he craved.