Michael Heseltine
Encyclopedia
Michael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine, CH
, PC
(born 21 March 1933) is a British
businessman, Conservative
politician
and patron of the Tory Reform Group
. He was a Member of Parliament
from 1966 to 2001 and was a prominent figure in the governments of Margaret Thatcher
and John Major
. In 1990, he stood for leadership of the Conservative Party against Margaret Thatcher, and whilst he was unsuccessful, this triggered Thatcher's eventual resignation.
A self-made millionaire
, Heseltine entered Parliament in 1966, entered the Cabinet
in 1979 as Secretary of State for the Environment
, and was Secretary of State for Defence from 1983 to 1986. In the latter role, he was instrumental in the political battle against the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
. Heseltine was widely considered an adept media performer and charismatic Minister, although frequently at odds with Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher
. He resigned from the Cabinet in 1986 over the Westland Affair
and returned to the backbenches
. Following Geoffrey Howe's resignation speech in November 1990, Heseltine challenged the incumbent Margaret Thatcher for the leadership of the Conservative Party, polling well enough to deny her an outright victory on the first ballot. Following her resignation in a dramatic Tory "palace coup", Heseltine returned to the Cabinet under her successor John Major
.
Under John Major
, of whom he eventually became a key ally, Heseltine rose to become President of the Board of Trade and from 1995, Deputy Prime Minister
and First Secretary of State
. Declining to seek the leadership of the Conservative Party following the 1997 election defeat
, Heseltine remained a vocal voice for modernisation in the Party and is widely considered a leading elder statesman in the United Kingdom.
in Wales and is a distant descendant of Charles Dibdin
(from whom one of his middle names was taken). His mother was Eileen Ray Pridmore whose family came from West Wales
where they were farm labourers from Pembrey
. His mother's great-grandfather came from the village of Gretton, Northamptonshire
to work at the Swansea docks (as a result, Heseltine was latterly made an honorary member of the Swansea Dockers Club). His maternal grandfather, James Pridmore, founded West Glamorgan Collieries Ltd, a shortlived company that briefly worked two small mines on the outskirts of Swansea (1919-21).
Heseltine was brought up in relative luxury at No. 1, Uplands Crescent (now No. 5). He enjoyed angling
in Brynmill Park and won a junior competition. He was educated at Shrewsbury School
. He campaigned briefly as a volunteer in the October 1951 General Election
before going up to Pembroke College, Oxford
, where, in frustration at his inability to be elected to the committee of the Oxford University Conservative Association
, he founded the breakaway Blue Ribbon Club. Julian Critchley
recounts a story from his student days of how he plotted his future on the back of an envelope, a future that would culminate as Prime Minister in the 1990s. A more detailed apocryphal version has him writing down: 'millionaire
25, cabinet member 35, party leader 45, prime minister
55'. He became a millionaire and was a member of the shadow cabinet
from the age of 41 but did not manage to become Party Leader or Prime Minister.
Heseltine's biographers Michael Crick
and Julian Critchley
recount how, despite not being a natural speaker, he became a strong orator through much practice which included speaking in front of a mirror, listening to tape recordings of the speeches of Charles Hill and taking speaking lessons from a vicar's wife. In the 1970s and 1980s Heseltine's conference speech was often to be the highlight of the Conservative Party Conference despite his views being well to the left of the then leader Margaret Thatcher.
He was eventually elected to the committee of the Oxford Union
after five terms at the University. The following year (1953-4), having challenged unsuccessfully for the Presidency the previous summer, he served in top place on the committee, then as Secretary, and then Treasurer
. During this last post he reopened the Union cellars for business and persuaded the visiting Sir Bernard
and Lady Docker
to contribute to the considerable cost. After graduating with a second-class degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, described by his own tutor as "a great and undeserved triumph", he was permitted to stay on for an extra term to serve as President of the Oxford Union for Michaelmas
term 1954 having been elected with the assistance of leading Oxford socialists Anthony Howard
and Jeremy Isaacs
.
After graduating he built up a property business in partnership with his Oxford friend Ian Josephs. With financial support from both of their families they started with a boarding house in Clanricarde Gardens and progressed to various other properties in the Bayswater
area. He trained as an accountant
but after failing his accountancy exams in 1958 could no longer avoid conscription
into National Service
.
Heseltine later admitted to admiring the military as his father, who died in 1957, had been a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Royal Engineers
in the Second World War and active in the Territorial Army thereafter. Heseltine felt that his business career was too important to be disrupted although he and his father took the precaution of arranging interviews to increase his chances of attaining an officer's commission in case he had to serve. Heseltine had been lucky not to be called up for the Korean War
in the early 1950s or the Suez Crisis
in 1956 but in the final years of National Service, already due for abolition by 1960, an effort was made to call up men who had so far managed to postpone service. Despite having almost reached the newly reduced maximum call-up age of twenty-six, Heseltine was conscripted in January 1959, becoming a Second Lieutenant
in the Welsh Guards
. Heseltine left the Guards to contest the General Election that year, according to Ian Josephs this had been his plan from the start, and was exempted on business grounds from the remaining sixteen months of service. During the 1980s his habit of wearing a Guards regimental tie, sometimes incorrectly tied with a red stripe across the knot, was the subject of much acerbic comment from military figures and from older MPs with extensive war records. Crick estimated that he must have worn the tie on more days than he actually served in the Guards.
Heseltine built a housing estate at Tenterden
, Kent
which failed to sell and was beset with repair problems until after his election to Parliament, founded the magazine publishing company Haymarket
in collaboration with another Oxford friend Clive Labovitch and early in the 1960s acquired the famous (but unprofitable) magazine Man About Town whose title he shortened to About Town then simply Town. In 1962 he also briefly published a well-received weekly newspaper,Topic, which folded but whose journalists later became the Sunday Times Insight Team. Between 1960 and 1964 he also worked as a part-time interviewer for ITV
.
After rapid expansion Heseltine's businesses were badly hit by the Selwyn Lloyd
credit squeeze of 1962 and, still not yet thirty years old, he would eventually owe £
250,000 (over £3 million at 2007 prices). He claims to have been lent a badly needed £60,000 by a bank manager who retired the same day. Later, during the 1990s, Heseltine joked about how he had avoided bankruptcy
by such stratagems as paying bills only when threatened with legal action or sending out insufficiently completed cheques although it has never been suggested that he did not pay off all his debts eventually. It was during this period of stress that he took up gardening
as a serious hobby.
In 1967, Heseltine secured Haymarket's financial future by selling a majority stake to the British Printing Corporation
retaining a large shareholding himself. Under the management of Lindsay Masters, the company grew publishing a series of profitable motoring, management and advertising journals and making Heseltine a personal fortune of hundreds of millions of pounds.
in 1959 and in 1964 the marginal
constituency of Coventry North
, which he lost to the Labour incumbent Maurice Edelman
by 3,530 votes. Heseltine was eventually successful in 1966 becoming the Member of Parliament
(MP) for the safe Conservative seat of Tavistock
in Devon
. After the abolition of the Tavistock constituency he represented Henley
from February 1974.
Following the Conservative victory in the 1970 General Election
Heseltine was promoted to the Government by the Prime Minister
Edward Heath
serving briefly as a junior minister at the Department of Transport
before moving to the Department for the Environment
where he was partly responsible for shepherding the Local Government Act 1972
through Parliament. In 1972, he moved to the Department of Industry, which he subsequently shadowed, now as a member of the Shadow Cabinet - during the subsequent spell in opposition.
As Minister for Aerospace in 1973, Heseltine was responsible for persuading other governments to invest in Concorde
and was accused of misleading the House of Commons when he stated that the government was still considering giving financial support to the Tracked Hovercraft
when the Cabinet had already decided to withdraw funding. Although his chief critic Airey Neave
disliked Heseltine as a brash 'arriviste' Neave's real target, in the view of Heseltine's PPS Cecil Parkinson
, was Heath, whom Neave detested and later helped to topple from party leader in 1975.
Heseltine was Shadow
Industry Secretary throughout the Conservative's 1974-79 time in opposition gaining notoriety following a 1976 incident in the House of Commons during the debate on measures introduced by the Labour
Government to nationalise
the shipbuilding
and aerospace
industries. Accounts of exactly what happened vary but the most colourful image portrayed Heseltine seizing the mace
and brandishing it towards Labour left-wingers who were celebrating their winning the vote by singing the Red Flag. The Speaker suspended the sitting. Heseltine subsequently acquired the nickname Tarzan
and was thereafter depicted as such, complete with loin-cloth, in the "If
" series drawn by satirical political cartoonist Steve Bell
. During the 1980s this macho
image was reinforced by the satirical TV puppet show Spitting Image
, which portrayed him as a camouflage wearing psychopath reminiscent of the 1960s white British mercenary of the Congo "Mad Mike" Col. Mike Hoare
. This was after an occasion when, as Defence Secretary in Margaret Thatcher's government, he had been persuaded to don a camouflaged anorak over his suit while inspecting troops in the rain on 6 February 1985 when he deployed 1500 police and soldiers to fence off RAF Molesworth to prevent anti-nuclear protesters from entering the cruise missile base.
appointed Heseltine to the cabinet
as Secretary of State for the Environment in 1979 after her election victory that year. He was a key figure in the sale of council house
s and was sent in as a troubleshooter to deal with the explosion of violence in Britain's inner cities
in the aftermath of the Brixton and Toxteth riots
during the early 1980s. As Environment Secretary in 1981 he opened Britain's first Enterprise Zone
at Corby
in Northamptonshire
. Heseltine was responsible for developing the policies that led to five bi-annual National Garden Festival
s starting in 1984. He established Development Corporation
s that were directly appointed by the minister and overrode local authority planning controls, a controversial measure in Labour strongholds such as East London, Merseyside and North East England.
Heseltine then served as Secretary of State for Defence from January 1983 - his presentational skills being used to take on the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
in the June 1983 General Election - until January 1986, when he resigned in a bitter dispute with Margaret Thatcher over the Westland Affair
. Heseltine gathered his papers, got up from his chair and proclaimed "I can no longer be a member of this Cabinet" and then left the room. Heseltine then stormed out of Downing Street
and famously announced his resignation to the assembled media.
where he became increasingly critical of Margaret Thatcher's performance, declining to support the passage of the Community Charge
(popularly known as the poll tax) through Parliament in 1988, although he actually voted against the government only when he supported an amendment proposed by his ally Michael Mates
that would have adjusted the charge tax to take account of ability to pay. He abstained in the November 1989
Conservative Party leadership election, in which Sir Anthony Meyer
challenged for the party leadership and repeatedly insisted that he could "not foresee ... circumstances" in which he would challenge Thatcher for the leadership. Following Sir Geoffrey Howe's resignation speech in November 1990 Heseltine announced his candidacy for the leadership of the Conservative Party.
During the subsequent leadership election
, he polled 152 votes (just over 40%) in the first round of voting by Conservative MPs, enough to prevent an outright Thatcher victory (the rules required an incumbent leader to obtain a majority of 15%; Thatcher had polled 204, just under 55%). Heseltine was thought by many pundits to be on course to beat her in the second ballot as many Conservative MPs were now rumoured to be ready to switch support from Thatcher and only 26 would have had to do so to give Heseltine the overall majority he needed in the second ballot.
With lukewarm support from her Cabinet, most of whom told her that she could not win and faced with the bitter prospect of a Heseltine premiership Thatcher withdrew from the contest. That weekend, many Conservative MPs were faced with the anger of their local party members who overwhelmingly supported Thatcher but did not at that time have a vote in leadership elections, and opinion polls showed that John Major would also boost Conservative support if leader (previously Heseltine's unique selling-point). In the second ballot, a week after the first, Heseltine's vote actually fell to 131 (just over 35%) as some MPs had voted for him in the first ballot as a protest against or to try to oust Thatcher but preferred to vote for other candidates now that they had a wider choice. John Major
, with 185 votes, was only two votes short of an overall majority and Heseltine immediately and publicly conceded defeat announcing that he would vote for Major if the third ballot went ahead (it did not, as Douglas Hurd
, who had finished a distant third, also conceded). Although for the rest of his career Heseltine's role in Thatcher's downfall earned him enmity from Thatcher's supporters in the Conservative Party, this opprobrium was not universal. In a reference to the reluctance of the Cabinet to support Thatcher on the second ballot, Edward Leigh
said of Heseltine: "At least he stabbed her in the front".
, widely and correctly expected to lead to poll tax being abolished, allegedly declining an offer of the position of Home Secretary. After the 1992 general election
he was appointed Secretary of State for Trade and Industry choosing to be known by the title, dormant since 1974, of President of the Board of Trade and promising to intervene "before breakfast, dinner and tea" to help British companies.
Heseltine's responsibilities also included Energy, which was previously a separate ministry. When plans were made in 1992 for the privatisation of British Coal it fell to Heseltine to announce that 31 collieries were to close including many of the mines in Nottinghamshire that had continued working during the 1984-5 strike. Although this policy was seen as a betrayal by the Nottinghamshire miners there was hardly any organised resistance to the programme. The following week a threatened rebellion by some Conservative MPs over the plans led to the number of closures being scaled back to the 10 least viable mines. The government stated that since the pits were money losers they could be sustained only through unjustifiable government subsidies. Mine supporters pointed to the mines' high productivity rates and to the fact that their monetary losses were due to the large subsidies that other European nations were supplying their coal industries. Whilst Heseltine is generally seen as a One Nation
Conservative, his reputation in the coalfields remains low. The band Chumbawamba
released the critical song "Mr Heseltine meets the public" that portrayed him as an out-of-touch figure with; the same group had once dedicated a song to the village of Fitzwilliam, West Yorkshire
, which was reduced to a ghost town
following the closure of local pits.
In June 1993, Heseltine suffered a heart attack whilst in Venice
, which led to concerns on his ability to remain in government after he was televised leaving hospital in a wheelchair. In 1994 Chris Morris
jokingly implied on BBC Radio 1
that Heseltine had died, and persuaded MP Jerry Hayes
to broadcast an on-air tribute. Morris was subsequently suspended. Heseltine, who after being seen as an 'arriviste' in his younger days, was now something of a grandee and elder statesman and reemerged as a serious political player in 1994 helped by his flirting with the idea of privatising the Post Office and by his testimony at the Arms to Iraq Inquiry at which it emerged that he had refused to sign the certificates attempting to withhold evidence. The cover of Private Eye
announced "A Legend Lives" and one major newspaper ended an editorial by proclaiming that the "balance of probability" was that Heseltine would be Prime Minister before the end of the year - this being at a time when John Major's leadership had lost much credibility after the "Back to Basics" scandals. However there was no leadership election that autumn.
the Secretary of State for Wales
. There was speculation that Heseltine's supporters would engineer Major's downfall in the hope that their man would take over, but they stayed loyal to Major.
Heseltine, who showed his ballot paper to the returning officers to prove that he had voted for Major, commented that "John Major deserves a great deal better than that from his colleagues".
He was then was promoted to Deputy Prime Minister
and First Secretary of State. In this capacity he chaired a number of key Cabinet committees and was also an early key enthusiast for the Millennium Dome
. In December 1996 Heseltine, angering eurosceptics, joined with Conservative Chancellor
Kenneth Clarke
in preventing any movement away from the government's official refusal to decide on whether or not to join the single currency.
After Labour won the 1997 election
, Heseltine suffered further heart trouble and declined to stand for the Conservative Party leadership again although there was still speculation that Clarke might have stood aside for him to stand as a compromise candidate. He became active in promoting the benefits for Britain of joining the single European Currency appearing on the same stage as Tony Blair
, Gordon Brown
and Robin Cook
as part of an all-party campaign to promote Euro
membership. He was also made a Companion of Honour by John Major
in the 1997 resignation Honours List.
editor Boris Johnson
, but remained outspoken on British politics. He was given a life peer
age as Baron Heseltine, of Thenford
in the County of Northamptonshire
.
In December 2002, Heseltine controversially called for Iain Duncan Smith
to be replaced as leader of the Conservatives by the "dream-ticket" of Clarke as leader and Michael Portillo
as deputy. He suggested the party's MPs vote on the matter rather than party members as currently required by party rules. Without the replacement of Duncan Smith, the party "has not a ghost of a chance of winning the next election" he said. Duncan Smith was removed the following year. In the 2005 party leadership election
, he backed young moderniser David Cameron
.
Following Cameron's election to the leadership he set up a wide-ranging policy review. Chairmen of the various policy groups included ex-Chancellor Kenneth Clarke
and other former cabinet ministers John Redwood
, John Gummer
, Stephen Dorrell
and Michael Forsyth
as well as ex-leader Iain Duncan Smith
. Heseltine was appointed to head the cities task force having been responsible for urban policy twice as Environment Secretary under Thatcher and Major.
He was ranked 170th in the Sunday Times Rich List
2004 with an estimated wealth of £240 million. He is a keen gardener and arboriculturalist
and his arboretum
was featured in a one-off documentary on BBC Two
in December 2005.
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Order of the Companions of Honour
The Order of the Companions of Honour is an order of the Commonwealth realms. It was founded by King George V in June 1917, as a reward for outstanding achievements in the arts, literature, music, science, politics, industry or religion....
, PC
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...
(born 21 March 1933) is a British
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
businessman, Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
and patron of the Tory Reform Group
Tory Reform Group
The Tory Reform Group is a group aligned to, but independent of, the British Conservative Party, that works to promote the values of the One Nation Tory vision...
. He was a Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
from 1966 to 2001 and was a prominent figure in the governments of Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
and John Major
John Major
Sir John Major, is a British Conservative politician, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990–1997...
. In 1990, he stood for leadership of the Conservative Party against Margaret Thatcher, and whilst he was unsuccessful, this triggered Thatcher's eventual resignation.
A self-made millionaire
Millionaire
A millionaire is an individual whose net worth or wealth is equal to or exceeds one million units of currency. It can also be a person who owns one million units of currency in a bank account or savings account...
, Heseltine entered Parliament in 1966, entered the Cabinet
Cabinet of the United Kingdom
The Cabinet of the United Kingdom is the collective decision-making body of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, composed of the Prime Minister and some 22 Cabinet Ministers, the most senior of the government ministers....
in 1979 as Secretary of State for the Environment
Secretary of State for the Environment
The Secretary of State for the Environment was a UK cabinet position, responsible for the Department of the Environment . This was created by Edward Heath as a combination of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Public Building and Works on 15...
, and was Secretary of State for Defence from 1983 to 1986. In the latter role, he was instrumental in the political battle against the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is an anti-nuclear organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty...
. Heseltine was widely considered an adept media performer and charismatic Minister, although frequently at odds with Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
. He resigned from the Cabinet in 1986 over the Westland Affair
Westland affair
The Westland affair was a political scandal for the British Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher in 1986. The argument was a result of differences of opinion within the government as to the future of the United Kingdom helicopter industry. The struggling Westland company, Britain's last...
and returned to the backbenches
Backbencher
In Westminster parliamentary systems, a backbencher is a Member of Parliament or a legislator who does not hold governmental office and is not a Front Bench spokesperson in the Opposition...
. Following Geoffrey Howe's resignation speech in November 1990, Heseltine challenged the incumbent Margaret Thatcher for the leadership of the Conservative Party, polling well enough to deny her an outright victory on the first ballot. Following her resignation in a dramatic Tory "palace coup", Heseltine returned to the Cabinet under her successor John Major
John Major
Sir John Major, is a British Conservative politician, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990–1997...
.
Under John Major
John Major
Sir John Major, is a British Conservative politician, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990–1997...
, of whom he eventually became a key ally, Heseltine rose to become President of the Board of Trade and from 1995, Deputy Prime Minister
Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a senior member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. The office of the Deputy Prime Minister is not a permanent position, existing only at the discretion of the Prime Minister, who may appoint to other offices...
and First Secretary of State
First Secretary of State
First Secretary of State is an occasionally used title within the Government of the United Kingdom, principally regarded as purely honorific. The title, which implies seniority over all other Secretaries of State, has no specific powers or authority attached to it beyond that of any other Secretary...
. Declining to seek the leadership of the Conservative Party following the 1997 election defeat
United Kingdom general election, 1997
The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...
, Heseltine remained a vocal voice for modernisation in the Party and is widely considered a leading elder statesman in the United Kingdom.
Early life
Michael Heseltine was born in SwanseaSwansea
Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...
in Wales and is a distant descendant of Charles Dibdin
Charles Dibdin
Charles Dibdin was a British musician, dramatist, novelist, actor and songwriter. The son of a parish clerk, he was born in Southampton on or before 4 March 1745, and was the youngest of a family of 18....
(from whom one of his middle names was taken). His mother was Eileen Ray Pridmore whose family came from West Wales
West Wales
West Wales is the western area of Wales.Some definitions of West Wales include only Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire, an area which historically comprised the Welsh principality of Deheubarth., an area called "South West Wales" in the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics....
where they were farm labourers from Pembrey
Pembrey
Pembrey is a village in Carmarthenshire Wales, situated between Burry Port and Kidwelly, overlooking Carmarthen Bay.-History:The name Pembrey is an Anglicisation of the Welsh, Pen-bre...
. His mother's great-grandfather came from the village of Gretton, Northamptonshire
Gretton, Northamptonshire
Gretton is a village in the English midlands county of Northamptonshire. It is in Rockingham Forest and overlooks the valley of the River Welland and the neighbouring county of Rutland. At the time of the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 1,240 people.It is near the town of Corby and the...
to work at the Swansea docks (as a result, Heseltine was latterly made an honorary member of the Swansea Dockers Club). His maternal grandfather, James Pridmore, founded West Glamorgan Collieries Ltd, a shortlived company that briefly worked two small mines on the outskirts of Swansea (1919-21).
Heseltine was brought up in relative luxury at No. 1, Uplands Crescent (now No. 5). He enjoyed angling
Angling
Angling is a method of fishing by means of an "angle" . The hook is usually attached to a fishing line and the line is often attached to a fishing rod. Fishing rods are usually fitted with a fishing reel that functions as a mechanism for storing, retrieving and paying out the line. The hook itself...
in Brynmill Park and won a junior competition. He was educated at Shrewsbury School
Shrewsbury School
Shrewsbury School is a co-educational independent school for pupils aged 13 to 18, founded by Royal Charter in 1552. The present campus to which the school moved in 1882 is located on the banks of the River Severn in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England...
. He campaigned briefly as a volunteer in the October 1951 General Election
United Kingdom general election, 1951
The 1951 United Kingdom general election was held eighteen months after the 1950 general election, which the Labour Party had won with a slim majority of just five seats...
before going up to Pembroke College, Oxford
Pembroke College, Oxford
Pembroke College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, located in Pembroke Square. As of 2009, Pembroke had an estimated financial endowment of £44.9 million.-History:...
, where, in frustration at his inability to be elected to the committee of the Oxford University Conservative Association
Oxford University Conservative Association
The Oxford University Conservative Association, or OUCA is a student political organisation founded in 1924 whose members are drawn from the University of Oxford...
, he founded the breakaway Blue Ribbon Club. Julian Critchley
Julian Critchley
Sir Julian Michael Gordon Critchley was a British Conservative Party politician.Born in Islington, the son of a distinguished neurosurgeon, as a boy Critchley was brought up in Swiss Cottage, north London, and Shropshire, where he attended preparatory school, and later Shrewsbury School...
recounts a story from his student days of how he plotted his future on the back of an envelope, a future that would culminate as Prime Minister in the 1990s. A more detailed apocryphal version has him writing down: 'millionaire
Millionaire
A millionaire is an individual whose net worth or wealth is equal to or exceeds one million units of currency. It can also be a person who owns one million units of currency in a bank account or savings account...
25, cabinet member 35, party leader 45, prime minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
55'. He became a millionaire and was a member of the shadow cabinet
Shadow Cabinet
The Shadow Cabinet is a senior group of opposition spokespeople in the Westminster system of government who together under the leadership of the Leader of the Opposition form an alternative cabinet to the government's, whose members shadow or mark each individual member of the government...
from the age of 41 but did not manage to become Party Leader or Prime Minister.
Heseltine's biographers Michael Crick
Michael Crick
Michael Crick is a British journalist, author and broadcaster. Crick was a founding member of the Channel 4 News Team in 1982. He worked on the BBC's Newsnight between 1992 and 2011, acting as the programme's political editor from 2007 to his departure...
and Julian Critchley
Julian Critchley
Sir Julian Michael Gordon Critchley was a British Conservative Party politician.Born in Islington, the son of a distinguished neurosurgeon, as a boy Critchley was brought up in Swiss Cottage, north London, and Shropshire, where he attended preparatory school, and later Shrewsbury School...
recount how, despite not being a natural speaker, he became a strong orator through much practice which included speaking in front of a mirror, listening to tape recordings of the speeches of Charles Hill and taking speaking lessons from a vicar's wife. In the 1970s and 1980s Heseltine's conference speech was often to be the highlight of the Conservative Party Conference despite his views being well to the left of the then leader Margaret Thatcher.
He was eventually elected to the committee of the Oxford Union
Oxford Union
The Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to simply as the Oxford Union, is a debating society in the city of Oxford, Britain, whose membership is drawn primarily but not exclusively from the University of Oxford...
after five terms at the University. The following year (1953-4), having challenged unsuccessfully for the Presidency the previous summer, he served in top place on the committee, then as Secretary, and then Treasurer
Treasurer
A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The adjective for a treasurer is normally "tresorial". The adjective "treasurial" normally means pertaining to a treasury, rather than the treasurer.-Government:...
. During this last post he reopened the Union cellars for business and persuaded the visiting Sir Bernard
Bernard Docker
Sir Bernard Dudley Frank Docker was an English industrialist.Bernard Docker was born in Edgbaston, Birmingham, the only child of Frank Dudley Docker an industrialist....
and Lady Docker
Norah, Lady Docker
Norah Docker, Lady Docker was an English socialite.Daughter of Amy and Sydney Turner, she was originally a successful dance hall hostess and was noted for her colourful lifestyle.-Marriages:...
to contribute to the considerable cost. After graduating with a second-class degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, described by his own tutor as "a great and undeserved triumph", he was permitted to stay on for an extra term to serve as President of the Oxford Union for Michaelmas
Michaelmas
Michaelmas, the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel is a day in the Western Christian calendar which occurs on 29 September...
term 1954 having been elected with the assistance of leading Oxford socialists Anthony Howard
Anthony Howard (journalist)
Anthony Michell Howard, CBE was a prominent British journalist, broadcaster and writer. He was the editor of the New Statesman, The Listener and the deputy editor of The Observer...
and Jeremy Isaacs
Jeremy Isaacs
Sir Jeremy Isaacs is a British television producer and executive, winner of many BAFTA awards and international Emmy Awards. He was also General Director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden .-Early life:...
.
After graduating he built up a property business in partnership with his Oxford friend Ian Josephs. With financial support from both of their families they started with a boarding house in Clanricarde Gardens and progressed to various other properties in the Bayswater
Bayswater
Bayswater is an area of west London in the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to the west . It is a built-up district located 3 miles west-north-west of Charing Cross, bordering the north of Hyde Park over Kensington Gardens and having a population density of...
area. He trained as an accountant
Accountant
An accountant is a practitioner of accountancy or accounting , which is the measurement, disclosure or provision of assurance about financial information that helps managers, investors, tax authorities and others make decisions about allocating resources.The Big Four auditors are the largest...
but after failing his accountancy exams in 1958 could no longer avoid conscription
Conscription in the United Kingdom
Conscription in the United Kingdom has existed for two periods in modern times. The first was from 1916 to 1919, the second was from 1939 to 1960, with the last conscripted soldiers leaving the service in 1963...
into National Service
National service
National service is a common name for mandatory government service programmes . The term became common British usage during and for some years following the Second World War. Many young people spent one or more years in such programmes...
.
Heseltine later admitted to admiring the military as his father, who died in 1957, had been a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Royal Engineers
Royal Engineers
The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually just called the Royal Engineers , and commonly known as the Sappers, is one of the corps of the British Army....
in the Second World War and active in the Territorial Army thereafter. Heseltine felt that his business career was too important to be disrupted although he and his father took the precaution of arranging interviews to increase his chances of attaining an officer's commission in case he had to serve. Heseltine had been lucky not to be called up for the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
in the early 1950s or the Suez Crisis
Suez Crisis
The Suez Crisis, also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression, Suez War was an offensive war fought by France, the United Kingdom, and Israel against Egypt beginning on 29 October 1956. Less than a day after Israel invaded Egypt, Britain and France issued a joint ultimatum to Egypt and Israel,...
in 1956 but in the final years of National Service, already due for abolition by 1960, an effort was made to call up men who had so far managed to postpone service. Despite having almost reached the newly reduced maximum call-up age of twenty-six, Heseltine was conscripted in January 1959, becoming a Second Lieutenant
Second Lieutenant
Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :The rank second lieutenant was introduced throughout the British Army in 1871 to replace the rank of ensign , although it had long been used in the Royal Artillery, Royal...
in the Welsh Guards
Welsh Guards
The Welsh Guards is an infantry regiment of the British Army, part of the Guards Division.-Creation :The Welsh Guards came into existence on 26 February 1915 by Royal Warrant of His Majesty King George V in order to include Wales in the national component to the Foot Guards, "..though the order...
. Heseltine left the Guards to contest the General Election that year, according to Ian Josephs this had been his plan from the start, and was exempted on business grounds from the remaining sixteen months of service. During the 1980s his habit of wearing a Guards regimental tie, sometimes incorrectly tied with a red stripe across the knot, was the subject of much acerbic comment from military figures and from older MPs with extensive war records. Crick estimated that he must have worn the tie on more days than he actually served in the Guards.
Heseltine built a housing estate at Tenterden
Tenterden
Tenterden is a Cinque Port town in the Ashford District of Kent, England. It stands on the edge of the Weald, overlooking the valley of the River Rother....
, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
which failed to sell and was beset with repair problems until after his election to Parliament, founded the magazine publishing company Haymarket
Haymarket Group
Haymarket Media Group is a privately owned media company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It has offices in Australia, Belgium, China, Germany, India, Japan, Singapore and the United States....
in collaboration with another Oxford friend Clive Labovitch and early in the 1960s acquired the famous (but unprofitable) magazine Man About Town whose title he shortened to About Town then simply Town. In 1962 he also briefly published a well-received weekly newspaper,Topic, which folded but whose journalists later became the Sunday Times Insight Team. Between 1960 and 1964 he also worked as a part-time interviewer for ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
.
After rapid expansion Heseltine's businesses were badly hit by the Selwyn Lloyd
Selwyn Lloyd
John Selwyn Brooke Lloyd, Baron Selwyn-Lloyd CH PC CBE TD , known for most of his career as Selwyn Lloyd, was a British Conservative Party politician who served as Foreign Secretary from 1955 to 1960, then as Chancellor of the Exchequer until 1962...
credit squeeze of 1962 and, still not yet thirty years old, he would eventually owe £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
250,000 (over £3 million at 2007 prices). He claims to have been lent a badly needed £60,000 by a bank manager who retired the same day. Later, during the 1990s, Heseltine joked about how he had avoided bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
by such stratagems as paying bills only when threatened with legal action or sending out insufficiently completed cheques although it has never been suggested that he did not pay off all his debts eventually. It was during this period of stress that he took up gardening
Gardening
Gardening is the practice of growing and cultivating plants. Ornamental plants are normally grown for their flowers, foliage, or overall appearance; useful plants are grown for consumption , for their dyes, or for medicinal or cosmetic use...
as a serious hobby.
In 1967, Heseltine secured Haymarket's financial future by selling a majority stake to the British Printing Corporation
Maxwell Communications Corporation
Maxwell Communications Corporation plc was a leading British media business. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.-History:...
retaining a large shareholding himself. Under the management of Lindsay Masters, the company grew publishing a series of profitable motoring, management and advertising journals and making Heseltine a personal fortune of hundreds of millions of pounds.
Member of Parliament
Heseltine contested the safe Labour seat of GowerGower (UK Parliament constituency)
Gower is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament , using the first-past-the-post voting system....
in 1959 and in 1964 the marginal
Marginal
Marginal may refer to:* For marginal constituency in politics, see “Marginal seat”* For the manga, see Marginal * For marginal model in hierarchical linear modeling, see “Marginal model”...
constituency of Coventry North
Coventry North (UK Parliament constituency)
Coventry North was a parliamentary constituency in the city of Coventry in the West Midlands. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system.- History :...
, which he lost to the Labour incumbent Maurice Edelman
Maurice Edelman
Maurice Edelman was a British Labour Party politician and novelist who represented Coventry constituencies in the House of Commons for over 30 years.- Early life :...
by 3,530 votes. Heseltine was eventually successful in 1966 becoming the Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) for the safe Conservative seat of Tavistock
Tavistock (UK Parliament constituency)
Tavistock was the name of a parliamentary constituency in Devon between 1330 and 1974. Until 1885 it was a parliamentary borough, consisting solely of the town of Tavistock; it returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom until 1868, when its...
in Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
. After the abolition of the Tavistock constituency he represented Henley
Henley (UK Parliament constituency)
Henley is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It covers south Oxfordshire, including Henley-on-Thames. The constituency elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election. It has long been a safe Conservative...
from February 1974.
Following the Conservative victory in the 1970 General Election
United Kingdom general election, 1970
The United Kingdom general election of 1970 was held on 18 June 1970, and resulted in a surprise victory for the Conservative Party under leader Edward Heath, who defeated the Labour Party under Harold Wilson. The election also saw the Liberal Party and its new leader Jeremy Thorpe lose half their...
Heseltine was promoted to the Government by the Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
Edward Heath
Edward Heath
Sir Edward Richard George "Ted" Heath, KG, MBE, PC was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and as Leader of the Conservative Party ....
serving briefly as a junior minister at the Department of Transport
Department for Transport
In the United Kingdom, the Department for Transport is the government department responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland which are not devolved...
before moving to the Department for the Environment
Secretary of State for the Environment
The Secretary of State for the Environment was a UK cabinet position, responsible for the Department of the Environment . This was created by Edward Heath as a combination of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Public Building and Works on 15...
where he was partly responsible for shepherding the Local Government Act 1972
Local Government Act 1972
The Local Government Act 1972 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974....
through Parliament. In 1972, he moved to the Department of Industry, which he subsequently shadowed, now as a member of the Shadow Cabinet - during the subsequent spell in opposition.
As Minister for Aerospace in 1973, Heseltine was responsible for persuading other governments to invest in Concorde
Concorde
Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde was a turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner, a supersonic transport . It was a product of an Anglo-French government treaty, combining the manufacturing efforts of Aérospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation...
and was accused of misleading the House of Commons when he stated that the government was still considering giving financial support to the Tracked Hovercraft
Tracked Hovercraft
Tracked Hovercraft was an experimental high speed train developed in the United Kingdom during the 1960s. It combined two British inventions, the hovercraft and linear induction motor, in an effort to produce a train system that would provide 250 mph inter-city service with lowered capital...
when the Cabinet had already decided to withdraw funding. Although his chief critic Airey Neave
Airey Neave
Airey Middleton Sheffield Neave DSO, OBE, MC was a British soldier, barrister and politician.During World War II, Neave was one of the few servicemen to escape from the German prisoner-of-war camp Oflag IV-C at Colditz Castle...
disliked Heseltine as a brash 'arriviste' Neave's real target, in the view of Heseltine's PPS Cecil Parkinson
Cecil Parkinson
Cecil Parkinson, Baron Parkinson, PC , is a British Conservative politician and former Cabinet Minister.-Early life:...
, was Heath, whom Neave detested and later helped to topple from party leader in 1975.
Heseltine was Shadow
Shadow Cabinet
The Shadow Cabinet is a senior group of opposition spokespeople in the Westminster system of government who together under the leadership of the Leader of the Opposition form an alternative cabinet to the government's, whose members shadow or mark each individual member of the government...
Industry Secretary throughout the Conservative's 1974-79 time in opposition gaining notoriety following a 1976 incident in the House of Commons during the debate on measures introduced by the Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
Government to nationalise
Nationalization
Nationalisation, also spelled nationalization, is the process of taking an industry or assets into government ownership by a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being...
the shipbuilding
Shipbuilding
Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to before recorded history.Shipbuilding and ship repairs, both...
and aerospace
Aerospace
Aerospace comprises the atmosphere of Earth and surrounding space. Typically the term is used to refer to the industry that researches, designs, manufactures, operates, and maintains vehicles moving through air and space...
industries. Accounts of exactly what happened vary but the most colourful image portrayed Heseltine seizing the mace
Ceremonial mace
The ceremonial mace is a highly ornamented staff of metal or wood, carried before a sovereign or other high official in civic ceremonies by a mace-bearer, intended to represent the official's authority. The mace, as used today, derives from the original mace used as a weapon...
and brandishing it towards Labour left-wingers who were celebrating their winning the vote by singing the Red Flag. The Speaker suspended the sitting. Heseltine subsequently acquired the nickname Tarzan
Tarzan
Tarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungles by the Mangani "great apes"; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer...
and was thereafter depicted as such, complete with loin-cloth, in the "If
If... (comic)
If... is an ongoing political comic strip which appears in the UK newspaper The Guardian, written and drawn by Steve Bell since its creation in 1982.-Style:...
" series drawn by satirical political cartoonist Steve Bell
Steve Bell (cartoonist)
Steve Bell is an English political cartoonist, whose work appears in The Guardian and other publications. He is known for his left-wing views and distinctive caricatures.-Early life:...
. During the 1980s this macho
Machismo
Machismo, or machoism, is a word of Spanish and Portuguese origin that describes prominently exhibited or excessive masculinity. As an attitude, machismo ranges from a personal sense of virility to a more extreme male chauvinism...
image was reinforced by the satirical TV puppet show Spitting Image
Spitting Image
Spitting Image is a British satirical puppet show that aired on the ITV network from 1984 to 1996. It was produced by Spitting Image Productions for Central Television. The series was nominated for 10 BAFTA Awards, winning one for editing in 1989....
, which portrayed him as a camouflage wearing psychopath reminiscent of the 1960s white British mercenary of the Congo "Mad Mike" Col. Mike Hoare
Mike Hoare
Thomas Michael Hoare is an Irish mercenary leader known for military activities in Africa and his failed attempt to conduct a coup d'état in the Seychelles.-Early life and military career:...
. This was after an occasion when, as Defence Secretary in Margaret Thatcher's government, he had been persuaded to don a camouflaged anorak over his suit while inspecting troops in the rain on 6 February 1985 when he deployed 1500 police and soldiers to fence off RAF Molesworth to prevent anti-nuclear protesters from entering the cruise missile base.
Member of the Cabinet
Prime Minister Margaret ThatcherMargaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
appointed Heseltine to the cabinet
Cabinet (government)
A Cabinet is a body of high ranking government officials, typically representing the executive branch. It can also sometimes be referred to as the Council of Ministers, an Executive Council, or an Executive Committee.- Overview :...
as Secretary of State for the Environment in 1979 after her election victory that year. He was a key figure in the sale of council house
Council house
A council house, otherwise known as a local authority house, is a form of public or social housing. The term is used primarily in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Council houses were built and operated by local councils to supply uncrowded, well-built homes on secure tenancies at...
s and was sent in as a troubleshooter to deal with the explosion of violence in Britain's inner cities
Inner city
The inner city is the central area of a major city or metropolis. In the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland, the term is often applied to the lower-income residential districts in the city centre and nearby areas...
in the aftermath of the Brixton and Toxteth riots
Toxteth riots
The Toxteth riots of July 1981 were a civil disturbance in Toxteth, inner-city Liverpool, which arose in part from long-standing tensions between the local police and the black community...
during the early 1980s. As Environment Secretary in 1981 he opened Britain's first Enterprise Zone
Urban Enterprise Zone
In the United States, Urban Enterprise Zones , also known as Enterprise Zones, are intended to encourage development in blighted neighborhoods through tax and regulatory relief to entrepreneurs and investors who launch businesses in the area. UEZs are areas where companies can locate free of...
at Corby
Corby
Corby Town is a town and borough located in the county of Northamptonshire. Corby Town is 23 miles north-east of the county town, Northampton. The borough had a population of 53,174 at the 2001 Census; the town on its own accounted for 49,222 of this figure...
in Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
. Heseltine was responsible for developing the policies that led to five bi-annual National Garden Festival
National Garden Festival
The National Garden Festivals were part of the cultural regeneration of large areas of derelict land in Britain's industrial districts during the 1980s and early 1990s. Five were held in total - one every two years, each in a different town or city - after the idea was pushed by environment...
s starting in 1984. He established Development Corporation
Development Corporation
In England and Wales, Development Corporations are bodies set up by the UK government and charged with the urban development of an area, outside the usual system of Town and Country Planning in the United Kingdom...
s that were directly appointed by the minister and overrode local authority planning controls, a controversial measure in Labour strongholds such as East London, Merseyside and North East England.
Heseltine then served as Secretary of State for Defence from January 1983 - his presentational skills being used to take on the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is an anti-nuclear organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty...
in the June 1983 General Election - until January 1986, when he resigned in a bitter dispute with Margaret Thatcher over the Westland Affair
Westland affair
The Westland affair was a political scandal for the British Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher in 1986. The argument was a result of differences of opinion within the government as to the future of the United Kingdom helicopter industry. The struggling Westland company, Britain's last...
. Heseltine gathered his papers, got up from his chair and proclaimed "I can no longer be a member of this Cabinet" and then left the room. Heseltine then stormed out of Downing Street
Downing Street
Downing Street in London, England has for over two hundred years housed the official residences of two of the most senior British cabinet ministers: the First Lord of the Treasury, an office now synonymous with that of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and the Second Lord of the Treasury, an...
and famously announced his resignation to the assembled media.
Backbenches and leadership contest
He returned to the backbenchesBackbencher
In Westminster parliamentary systems, a backbencher is a Member of Parliament or a legislator who does not hold governmental office and is not a Front Bench spokesperson in the Opposition...
where he became increasingly critical of Margaret Thatcher's performance, declining to support the passage of the Community Charge
Community Charge
The Community Charge, popularly known as the "poll tax", was a system of taxation introduced in replacement of the rates to part fund local government in Scotland from 1989, and England and Wales from 1990. It provided for a single flat-rate per-capita tax on every adult, at a rate set by the...
(popularly known as the poll tax) through Parliament in 1988, although he actually voted against the government only when he supported an amendment proposed by his ally Michael Mates
Michael Mates
Michael John Mates is a Conservative Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for the constituency of East Hampshire from 1974 to 2010.He has been a member of the Privy Council since February 2004.-Education:...
that would have adjusted the charge tax to take account of ability to pay. He abstained in the November 1989
Conservative Party (UK) leadership election, 1989
The 1989 Conservative Party leadership election took place on 5 December 1989. The incumbent Margaret Thatcher was opposed by the little known 69-year-old backbencher MP Sir Anthony Meyer, Bt.-Background:...
Conservative Party leadership election, in which Sir Anthony Meyer
Anthony Meyer
Sir Anthony John Charles Meyer, 3rd Baronet was a British soldier, diplomat, and Conservative and later Liberal Democrat politician, best known for standing against Margaret Thatcher for the party leadership in 1989...
challenged for the party leadership and repeatedly insisted that he could "not foresee ... circumstances" in which he would challenge Thatcher for the leadership. Following Sir Geoffrey Howe's resignation speech in November 1990 Heseltine announced his candidacy for the leadership of the Conservative Party.
During the subsequent leadership election
Conservative Party (UK) leadership election, 1990
The 1990 Conservative Party leadership election in the United Kingdom took place in November 1990 following the decision of former Defence and Environment Secretary Michael Heseltine to stand against the incumbent Conservative leader and Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.Thatcher failed to win...
, he polled 152 votes (just over 40%) in the first round of voting by Conservative MPs, enough to prevent an outright Thatcher victory (the rules required an incumbent leader to obtain a majority of 15%; Thatcher had polled 204, just under 55%). Heseltine was thought by many pundits to be on course to beat her in the second ballot as many Conservative MPs were now rumoured to be ready to switch support from Thatcher and only 26 would have had to do so to give Heseltine the overall majority he needed in the second ballot.
With lukewarm support from her Cabinet, most of whom told her that she could not win and faced with the bitter prospect of a Heseltine premiership Thatcher withdrew from the contest. That weekend, many Conservative MPs were faced with the anger of their local party members who overwhelmingly supported Thatcher but did not at that time have a vote in leadership elections, and opinion polls showed that John Major would also boost Conservative support if leader (previously Heseltine's unique selling-point). In the second ballot, a week after the first, Heseltine's vote actually fell to 131 (just over 35%) as some MPs had voted for him in the first ballot as a protest against or to try to oust Thatcher but preferred to vote for other candidates now that they had a wider choice. John Major
John Major
Sir John Major, is a British Conservative politician, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990–1997...
, with 185 votes, was only two votes short of an overall majority and Heseltine immediately and publicly conceded defeat announcing that he would vote for Major if the third ballot went ahead (it did not, as Douglas Hurd
Douglas Hurd
Douglas Richard Hurd, Baron Hurd of Westwell, CH, CBE, PC , is a British Conservative politician and novelist, who served in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major between 1979 and his retirement in 1995....
, who had finished a distant third, also conceded). Although for the rest of his career Heseltine's role in Thatcher's downfall earned him enmity from Thatcher's supporters in the Conservative Party, this opprobrium was not universal. In a reference to the reluctance of the Cabinet to support Thatcher on the second ballot, Edward Leigh
Edward Leigh
Edward Julian Egerton Leigh is a British Conservative politician. He has sat in the House of Commons as the Member of Parliament for Gainsborough in Lincolnshire since 1997, and for its predecessor constituency of Gainsborough and Horncastle between 1983 and 1997...
said of Heseltine: "At least he stabbed her in the front".
Return to the Cabinet
Heseltine then returned to government as Secretary of State for the Environment, with particular responsibility for 'reviewing' the Community ChargeCommunity Charge
The Community Charge, popularly known as the "poll tax", was a system of taxation introduced in replacement of the rates to part fund local government in Scotland from 1989, and England and Wales from 1990. It provided for a single flat-rate per-capita tax on every adult, at a rate set by the...
, widely and correctly expected to lead to poll tax being abolished, allegedly declining an offer of the position of Home Secretary. After the 1992 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1992
The United Kingdom general election of 1992 was held on 9 April 1992, and was the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party. This election result was one of the biggest surprises in 20th Century politics, as polling leading up to the day of the election showed Labour under leader Neil...
he was appointed Secretary of State for Trade and Industry choosing to be known by the title, dormant since 1974, of President of the Board of Trade and promising to intervene "before breakfast, dinner and tea" to help British companies.
Heseltine's responsibilities also included Energy, which was previously a separate ministry. When plans were made in 1992 for the privatisation of British Coal it fell to Heseltine to announce that 31 collieries were to close including many of the mines in Nottinghamshire that had continued working during the 1984-5 strike. Although this policy was seen as a betrayal by the Nottinghamshire miners there was hardly any organised resistance to the programme. The following week a threatened rebellion by some Conservative MPs over the plans led to the number of closures being scaled back to the 10 least viable mines. The government stated that since the pits were money losers they could be sustained only through unjustifiable government subsidies. Mine supporters pointed to the mines' high productivity rates and to the fact that their monetary losses were due to the large subsidies that other European nations were supplying their coal industries. Whilst Heseltine is generally seen as a One Nation
One Nation Conservatism
One nation, one nation conservatism, and Tory democracy are terms used in political debate in the United Kingdom to refer to a certain wing of the Conservative Party...
Conservative, his reputation in the coalfields remains low. The band Chumbawamba
Chumbawamba
Chumbawamba is a British musical group who have, over a career spanning nearly three decades, played punk rock, pop-influenced music, world music, and folk music...
released the critical song "Mr Heseltine meets the public" that portrayed him as an out-of-touch figure with; the same group had once dedicated a song to the village of Fitzwilliam, West Yorkshire
Fitzwilliam, West Yorkshire
Fitzwilliam is a small village on the edge of West Yorkshire, England. It is located in the City of Wakefield district. Technically, it is part of the town of Hemsworth and governed by Hemsworth Town Council as well as Wakefield M.D.C., but the Land Registry and Post Office recognise Fitzwilliam...
, which was reduced to a ghost town
Ghost town
A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...
following the closure of local pits.
In June 1993, Heseltine suffered a heart attack whilst in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, which led to concerns on his ability to remain in government after he was televised leaving hospital in a wheelchair. In 1994 Chris Morris
Chris Morris (satirist)
Christopher Morris is an English satirist, writer, director and actor. A former radio DJ, he is best known for anchoring the spoof news and current affairs television programmes The Day Today and Brass Eye, as well as his frequent engagement with controversial subject matter.In 2010 Morris...
jokingly implied on BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
that Heseltine had died, and persuaded MP Jerry Hayes
Jerry Hayes
Jeremy Joseph James Hayes, known as Jerry Hayes, is a British former Conservative politician, the MP for Harlow in Essex from 1983 until 1997. He subsequently returned to practising criminal law.-Political career:...
to broadcast an on-air tribute. Morris was subsequently suspended. Heseltine, who after being seen as an 'arriviste' in his younger days, was now something of a grandee and elder statesman and reemerged as a serious political player in 1994 helped by his flirting with the idea of privatising the Post Office and by his testimony at the Arms to Iraq Inquiry at which it emerged that he had refused to sign the certificates attempting to withhold evidence. The cover of Private Eye
Private Eye
Private Eye is a fortnightly British satirical and current affairs magazine, edited by Ian Hislop.Since its first publication in 1961, Private Eye has been a prominent critic and lampooner of public figures and entities that it deemed guilty of any of the sins of incompetence, inefficiency,...
announced "A Legend Lives" and one major newspaper ended an editorial by proclaiming that the "balance of probability" was that Heseltine would be Prime Minister before the end of the year - this being at a time when John Major's leadership had lost much credibility after the "Back to Basics" scandals. However there was no leadership election that autumn.
Deputy Prime Minister
In mid-1995, John Major found himself consistently opposed by a minority of Eurosceptic MPs in his party and challenged them to "put up or shut up" by resubmitting himself to a leadership election in which he was unsuccessfully opposed by John RedwoodJohn Redwood
John Alan Redwood is a British Conservative Party politician and Member of Parliament for Wokingham. He was formerly Secretary of State for Wales in Prime Minister John Major's Cabinet and was an unsuccessful challenger for the leadership of the Conservative Party in 1995...
the Secretary of State for Wales
Secretary of State for Wales
The Secretary of State for Wales is the head of the Wales Office within the British cabinet. He or she is responsible for ensuring Welsh interests are taken into account by the government, representing the government within Wales and overseeing the passing of legislation which is only for Wales...
. There was speculation that Heseltine's supporters would engineer Major's downfall in the hope that their man would take over, but they stayed loyal to Major.
Heseltine, who showed his ballot paper to the returning officers to prove that he had voted for Major, commented that "John Major deserves a great deal better than that from his colleagues".
He was then was promoted to Deputy Prime Minister
Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a senior member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. The office of the Deputy Prime Minister is not a permanent position, existing only at the discretion of the Prime Minister, who may appoint to other offices...
and First Secretary of State. In this capacity he chaired a number of key Cabinet committees and was also an early key enthusiast for the Millennium Dome
Millennium Dome
The Millennium Dome, colloquially referred to simply as The Dome or even The O2 Arena, is the original name of a large dome-shaped building, originally used to house the Millennium Experience, a major exhibition celebrating the beginning of the third millennium...
. In December 1996 Heseltine, angering eurosceptics, joined with Conservative Chancellor
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters. Often simply called the Chancellor, the office-holder controls HM Treasury and plays a role akin to the posts of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the...
Kenneth Clarke
Kenneth Clarke
Kenneth Harry "Ken" Clarke, QC, MP is a British Conservative politician, currently Member of Parliament for Rushcliffe, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice. He was first elected to Parliament in 1970; and appointed a minister in Edward Heath's government, in 1972, and is one of...
in preventing any movement away from the government's official refusal to decide on whether or not to join the single currency.
After Labour won the 1997 election
United Kingdom general election, 1997
The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...
, Heseltine suffered further heart trouble and declined to stand for the Conservative Party leadership again although there was still speculation that Clarke might have stood aside for him to stand as a compromise candidate. He became active in promoting the benefits for Britain of joining the single European Currency appearing on the same stage as Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
, Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
and Robin Cook
Robin Cook
Robert Finlayson Cook was a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Livingston from 1983 until his death, and notably served in the Cabinet as Foreign Secretary from 1997 to 2001....
as part of an all-party campaign to promote Euro
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
membership. He was also made a Companion of Honour by John Major
John Major
Sir John Major, is a British Conservative politician, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990–1997...
in the 1997 resignation Honours List.
Retirement
Heseltine resigned his Henley-on-Thames constituency at the 2001 election, being succeeded by SpectatorThe Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
editor Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is a British journalist and Conservative Party politician, who has been the elected Mayor of London since 2008...
, but remained outspoken on British politics. He was given a life peer
Life peer
In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the Peerage whose titles cannot be inherited. Nowadays life peerages, always of baronial rank, are created under the Life Peerages Act 1958 and entitle the holders to seats in the House of Lords, presuming they meet qualifications such as...
age as Baron Heseltine, of Thenford
Thenford
Thenford is a village and civil parish about northwest of the market town of Brackley in South Northamptonshire and east of Banbury in nearby Oxfordshire.Thenford's toponym is derived from the Old English for "Ford of the Thegns"....
in the County of Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
.
In December 2002, Heseltine controversially called for Iain Duncan Smith
Iain Duncan Smith
George Iain Duncan Smith is a British Conservative politician. He is currently the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and was previously leader of the Conservative Party from September 2001 to October 2003...
to be replaced as leader of the Conservatives by the "dream-ticket" of Clarke as leader and Michael Portillo
Michael Portillo
Michael Denzil Xavier Portillo is a British journalist, broadcaster, and former Conservative Party politician and Cabinet Minister...
as deputy. He suggested the party's MPs vote on the matter rather than party members as currently required by party rules. Without the replacement of Duncan Smith, the party "has not a ghost of a chance of winning the next election" he said. Duncan Smith was removed the following year. In the 2005 party leadership election
Conservative Party (UK) leadership election, 2005
The 2005 Conservative leadership election was called by party leader Michael Howard on 6 May 2005, when he announced that he would be stepping down as leader in the near future. However, he stated that he would not depart until a review of the rules for the leadership election had been conducted,...
, he backed young moderniser David Cameron
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....
.
Following Cameron's election to the leadership he set up a wide-ranging policy review. Chairmen of the various policy groups included ex-Chancellor Kenneth Clarke
Kenneth Clarke
Kenneth Harry "Ken" Clarke, QC, MP is a British Conservative politician, currently Member of Parliament for Rushcliffe, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice. He was first elected to Parliament in 1970; and appointed a minister in Edward Heath's government, in 1972, and is one of...
and other former cabinet ministers John Redwood
John Redwood
John Alan Redwood is a British Conservative Party politician and Member of Parliament for Wokingham. He was formerly Secretary of State for Wales in Prime Minister John Major's Cabinet and was an unsuccessful challenger for the leadership of the Conservative Party in 1995...
, John Gummer
John Gummer
John Selwyn Gummer, Baron Deben, PC is a British Conservative Party politician, formerly Member of Parliament for Suffolk Coastal, now a member of the House of Lords. He is Chairman of the environmental consultancy company Sancroft International and Chairman of Veolia Water...
, Stephen Dorrell
Stephen Dorrell
Stephen James Dorrell is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he served in the Cabinet of Prime Minister John Major as Secretary of State for National Heritage and Secretary of State for Health...
and Michael Forsyth
Michael Forsyth, Baron Forsyth of Drumlean
Michael Bruce Forsyth, Baron Forsyth of Drumlean PC, Kt is a British financier and politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Stirling from 1983 to 1997 and served in the cabinet of John Major as Secretary of State for Scotland from 1995 to 1997...
as well as ex-leader Iain Duncan Smith
Iain Duncan Smith
George Iain Duncan Smith is a British Conservative politician. He is currently the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and was previously leader of the Conservative Party from September 2001 to October 2003...
. Heseltine was appointed to head the cities task force having been responsible for urban policy twice as Environment Secretary under Thatcher and Major.
He was ranked 170th in the Sunday Times Rich List
Sunday Times Rich List
The Sunday Times Rich List is a list of the 1,000 wealthiest people or families in the United Kingdom, updated annually in April and published as a magazine supplement by British national Sunday newspaper The Sunday Times since 1989...
2004 with an estimated wealth of £240 million. He is a keen gardener and arboriculturalist
Arboriculture
Arboriculture is the cultivation, management, and study of individual trees, shrubs, vines, and other perennial woody plants. It is both a practice and a science....
and his arboretum
Arboretum
An arboretum in a narrow sense is a collection of trees only. Related collections include a fruticetum , and a viticetum, a collection of vines. More commonly, today, an arboretum is a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants intended at least partly for scientific study...
was featured in a one-off documentary on BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
in December 2005.
Publications
- Michael Heseltine, Raising The Sights - A Tory Perspective, in the Primrose LeaguePrimrose LeagueThe Primrose League was an organisation for spreading Conservative principles in Great Britain. It was founded in 1883 and active until the mid 1990s...
Gazette, vol.91, no.2, Aug/Sept 1987 edition, London. - Julian CritchleyJulian CritchleySir Julian Michael Gordon Critchley was a British Conservative Party politician.Born in Islington, the son of a distinguished neurosurgeon, as a boy Critchley was brought up in Swiss Cottage, north London, and Shropshire, where he attended preparatory school, and later Shrewsbury School...
, Heseltine - The Unauthorised Biography, André DeutschAndré DeutschAndré Deutsch was a British publisher.After having learned the business of publishing working for Francis Aldor with whom he was interned in the Isle of Man during the Second World War and who had introduced him to the industry, André Deutsch left Aldor's employment after a few months to continue...
, London, September 1987, ISBN 0-233-98001-6 - Michael Crick, Michael Heseltine: A Biography, Hamish Hamilton, 1997, ISBN 0-241-13691-1
- Michael Heseltine, Life in the Jungle, Hodder & StoughtonHodder & StoughtonHodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint of Hachette.-History:The firm has its origins in the 1840s, with Matthew Hodder's employment, aged fourteen, with Messrs Jackson and Walford, the official publisher for the Congregational Union...
, 2000, ISBN 0-340-73915-0, written with the acknowledged assistance of Heseltine's lifelong friend Anthony HowardAnthony Howard (journalist)Anthony Michell Howard, CBE was a prominent British journalist, broadcaster and writer. He was the editor of the New Statesman, The Listener and the deputy editor of The Observer...
.
External links
- Haymarket Group
- BBC: Heseltine: Political CV
- Guardian: Aristotle article on Michael Heseltine
- Guardian interview with Michael Heseltine by Simon Hattenstone
- Interview about battling CND for the WGBH series,
- War and Peace in the Nuclear Age
- Thatcher's First Cabinet
- Michael Heseltine's interview about Europe, economics, and how he really got on with Thatcher.
External links
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