101 Facts About Michael Heseltine

1. Michael Heseltine criticised the Coalition's policy on Europe, but he does support the tightening of immigration laws.

2. Michael Heseltine was responsible for developing the policies that led to five bi-annual National Garden Festivals which began in 1984.

3. In 1972 Michael Heseltine was a strong supporter of Heath, who was suffering from an open rebellion against his leadership of the Conservative party by Enoch Powell and Ronald Bell.

4. In 1967, Michael Heseltine secured Haymarket's financial future by a deal with British Printing Corporation.

5. Michael Heseltine built a housing estate at Tenterden, Kent which failed to sell and was beset with repair problems until after his election to Parliament, [2] founded the magazine publishing company Haymarket in collaboration with another Oxford friend Clive Labovitch and early in the 1960s acquired the famous magazine Man About Town whose title he shortened to About Town then simply Town.

6. Michael Heseltine was born in Swansea in Wales, the son of Rupert Heseltine, a factory owner and Eileen Ray.

7. Michael Heseltine was seen as a "One Nation" Tory, epitomised by his support for the regeneration of the City of Liverpool, at a time when it was facing economic collapse.

8. Michael Heseltine entered the Cabinet in 1979 as Secretary of State for the Environment, where he promoted the " Right to buy " campaign that allowed two million families to purchase their council houses.

9. Michael Heseltine was born in the Year of the Rooster.

10. Michael Heseltine was born in England on a Tuesday, March 21, 1933.

11. Michael Heseltine made several visits to Manchester in the aftermath of the IRA bomb on 15 June 1996—he won the praise of opposition politicians for cutting red tape to arrange remedial measures.

12. Michael Heseltine instituted an internal audit system called "MINIS", ironically, in Crick's view, as Heseltine's own company Haymarket had often been chaotically organised.

13. Michael Heseltine had almost daily dealings with the industrialist Arnold Weinstock, Head of GEC—as transport minister Heseltine had once summed him in to the ministry to ask why the electronic signs on the motorway, built by GEC, did not work properly.

14. Michael Heseltine insisted on being addressed as "President" and being referred to as "the President".

15. Michael Heseltine mocked Shadow Chancellor John Smith's "prawn cocktail offensive" to try to butter up City opinion.

16. On 12 February 1973, Michael Heseltine gave a written answer on Peter Walker's behalf to a written question from Labour MP David Stoddart, that a further injection of government money was still "under consideration".

17. Michael Heseltine voted against the bill on three subsequent votes, arguing that it was based on "sheer naked racialism" and that Britain should honour promises previously made to the Kenyan Asians.

18. In 1968 Margaret Thatcher became Michael Heseltine's boss for a year; he found her "embarrassingly rude".

19. Michael Heseltine snagged a new press nickname to go with the job—"Lion King" instead of "Tarzan.

20. Michael Heseltine is one of the signatories of a statement by senior Conservatives calling for a second referendum over Brexit.

21. Michael Heseltine said: "I don't know how someone who made that speech can, within a few weeks, say Brexit is Brexit and ask the nation to unite behind it.

22. Michael Heseltine criticised the Coalition's policy on Europe, but he did support the tightening of immigration laws.

23. Michael Heseltine was interviewed in 2012 as part of The History of Parliament's oral history project.

24. Michael Heseltine was appointed to head the cities task force having been responsible for urban policy twice as Environment Secretary under Thatcher and Major.

25. Michael Heseltine played an important role in taking charge of the Millennium Exhibition in Greenwich and ensuring that it happened, even having a meeting with Tony Blair, Leader of the Opposition, in January 1997 to agree that a Labour Government would back it.

26. Michael Heseltine made several visits to Manchester in the aftermath of the IRA bomb on 15 June 1996—he won the praise of opposition politicians for cutting red tape to arrange remedial measures.

27. Michael Heseltine had a two-hour meeting with Major on the morning of the leadership vote.

28. Michael Heseltine always stated categorically that he would never stand for party leader against Major.

29. Michael Heseltine was attacked by Marcus Fox, James Pawsey, Nicholas Winterton, Bill Cash, Rhodes Boyson and his former supporter David Evans who called openly for him to be sacked.

30. Michael Heseltine was seen as more interested in large than in small and medium-sized companies, and in 1992 was only with difficulty persuaded to refer Lloyds Bank's takeover bid for Midland Bank to the Office of Fair Trading.

31. Michael Heseltine believed that he would have defeated Thatcher if she had contested the second ballot.

32. Michael Heseltine had never done much to court support among younger MPs the way Major had, and was seen as aloof even by his own supporters.

33. Michael 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 27 would had to have done so to give Heseltine the overall majority he would need in the second ballot.

34. Michael Heseltine was being quietly urged to challenge Thatcher for the party leadership by David Mellor, the Arts Minister, but in a carefully worded formula Heseltine had repeatedly insisted that he could "not foresee.

35. Michael Heseltine clashed bitterly at this time with his former friend Nicholas Ridley.

36. Michael Heseltine took an interest in the reduction of long-term unemployment, advocating Swedish-style Workfare.

37. Michael Heseltine was in close touch with President of the European Commission Jacques Delors, who paid a 3-hour visit to his Victoria office, diplomats Nicholas Henderson and Antony Acland and economist Christopher Johnson, who is thought to have persuaded him of the merits of European monetary union.

38. Michael Heseltine campaigned in 100 constituencies in the 1987 election, attracting more publicity than many Cabinet ministers, although seldom mentioning Thatcher by name.

39. Michael Heseltine was not one to befriend and gossip with colleagues or backbenchers.

40. Michael Heseltine was portrayed by Spitting Image as a swivel-eyed lunatic holding a toy helicopter.

41. Michael Heseltine supplied extra material about the risk of losing European business, which Thatcher did not include in her reply to Cuckney.

42. Michael Heseltine had failed to drum up enough support among possible allies like Tebbit, Howe, Walker, Norman Fowler and Tom King.

43. Michael Heseltine raised his concerns with Tebbit, Whitelaw and John Wakeham.

44. Michael Heseltine was as angry as Thatcher at the US invasion of Grenada, a Commonwealth country.

45. Michael Heseltine allowed his deputy Peter Blaker to debate with CND, but refused to do so himself, believing that he would be at a disadvantage against the attractive Joan Ruddock.

46. Michael Heseltine was appointed in January 1983, with the backing of Nott and Party Chairman Cecil Parkinson.

47. Michael Heseltine faced initial suspicion from Labour-led Merseyside Council, but got on well with Sir Trevor Jones, Liberal leader of Liverpool City Council.

48. Michael Heseltine was already chairman of the Merseyside Partnership, set up his predecessor Peter Shore, to channel government money into Liverpool.

49. Michael Heseltine resisted demands by Leon Brittan, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury with whom he already enjoyed a somewhat antagonistic relationship, that central government have power to cap the spending of local authorities.

50. Michael Heseltine insisted on the doubling of rents to encourage buying.

51. Michael Heseltine was a convert to the sale of council houses, a policy pioneered by some Conservative local authorities, eg.

52. Michael Heseltine instituted an internal audit system called "MINIS", ironically, in Crick's view, as Heseltine's own company Haymarket had often been chaotically organised.

53. Michael Heseltine was faced with calls for his resignation from the Shadow Cabinet; he thought it would play well with the public, but in Crick's view it helped to cement a reputation for impulsiveness and poor judgement.

54. Michael Heseltine toyed with standing himself for the second ballot, but voted for Whitelaw.

55. Michael Heseltine had lost faith in Heath over the second miners' strike and over his personal abrasiveness; his patron Peter Walker had come to have similar doubts about Heath.

56. Michael Heseltine was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet in June 1974 as Industry spokesman.

57. Michael Heseltine was not popular with his ministerial peers at this time.

58. Michael Heseltine has claimed never to have been bothered what people called him, although the nickname amused his wife: "It was quite fun to be married to Johnny Weissmuller".

59. Michael Heseltine had started almost from nothing, but Haymarket had only succeeded when bought out by the big conglomerate BPC.

60. Michael Heseltine had almost daily dealings with the industrialist Arnold Weinstock, Head of GEC—as transport minister Heseltine had once summed him in to the ministry to ask why the electronic signs on the motorway, built by GEC, did not work properly.

61. Michael Heseltine was a key mover in the setting up of the European Space Agency in 1973.

62. Michael Heseltine arguably did not make aerospace policy any more interventionist than it already was.

63. Michael Heseltine appointed Cecil Parkinson, whom he had met on an accountancy course in the mid-1950s, as his Parliamentary Private Secretary, ostensibly on the grounds that he knew even less about aerospace than he did.

64. Michael Heseltine was still responsible for transport, but for local government reform, covered in the Local Government Act 1972.

65. Michael Heseltine was promoted to principal opposition spokesman on transport in November 1969, although unlike his predecessors Thatcher and Walker, he was not a member of the Shadow Cabinet.

66. Michael Heseltine was one of a group of 15 Conservative MPs to vote against the 1968 Commonwealth Immigration Bill on second reading.

67. Michael Heseltine was MP for Henley from February 1974 until his retirement from the House of Commons in 2001.

68. Michael Heseltine was one of 180 applicants for the safe Conservative seat of Henley, whose MP John Hay was stepping down.

69. Michael Heseltine stressed his agreement with Liberal principles and fought extremely hard, achieving a small swing to the Conservatives, bucking the national trend.

70. Michael Heseltine contested the safe Labour seat of Gower at the October 1959 general election.

71. Michael Heseltine has now retired from day-to-day management, handing over to his son Rupert.

72. Michael Heseltine acted as a consultant to Haymarket during his period out of government office between 1974 and 1979.

73. Michael Heseltine was forced, in the face of a strike, to recognise the National Union of Journalists among his staff.

74. Michael Heseltine became managing director of Bow Group Publications in 1960, mainly looking after advertising and circulation for its Crossbow magazine.

75. Michael Heseltine 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.

76. Michael Heseltine was brought up in relative luxury at No 1, Uplands Crescent.

77. Michael Heseltine entered the Cabinet in 1979 as Secretary of State for the Environment, where he promoted the "Right to Buy" campaign that allowed two million families to purchase their council houses.

78. Michael Heseltine served as a Member of Parliament from 1966 to 2001, and was a prominent figure in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major, including serving as Deputy Prime Minister under the latter.

79. Michael Heseltine quit the government in consequence, storming out in the middle of a Cabinet meeting in Downing Street in protest against the prime minister's style.

80. Michael Heseltine sees Brexit as a historic loss of power for Britain and feels Britain's interests are in Europe.

81. Michael Heseltine supported George Osborne's Budget measures in 2013 and Iain Duncan Smith's welfare reforms, but showed concerns over the legalisation of same-sex marriage.

82. Michael Heseltine said in this programme that he regarded Wales as his home and identified strongly with his Welsh ancestry.

83. In November 1999 Michael Heseltine was invited by Hague to be the Conservative candidate for the new position of Mayor of London, but he declined.

84. Michael Heseltine was made a Companion of Honour in the 1997 resignation Honours List.

85. Michael Heseltine 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.

86. In 1996 Michael Heseltine was one of the more hawkish ministers in urging non-cooperation with the European Community over the beef ban.

87. Michael Heseltine was given a swipe card to enter 10 Downing Street whenever he liked and the right to attend any committee he wished.

88. Michael Heseltine was active in leading British trade delegations to South Africa, South America, India and Russia, but despite his enthusiasm for European Unity was seen to display little interest in the nuts and bolts of trade negotiations with the continent.

89. Michael Heseltine insisted on being addressed as "President" and being referred to as "the President".

90. Michael Heseltine mocked Shadow Chancellor John Smith's "prawn cocktail offensive" to try to butter up City opinion.

91. Michael Heseltine proposed plans for developing an East Thames corridor.

92. Michael Heseltine supported the government's planned market-led reforms to the NHS and water privatisation in 1989.

93. Michael Heseltine attended two meetings about the company's future in June 1985, chaired by Thatcher.

94. Michael Heseltine wanted warmer relations with the Soviets and was sceptical about the US Strategic Defense Initiative, putting in a brief and grudging appearance at Caspar Weinberger's Ditchley Park Conference about the topic in 1985.

95. Michael Heseltine supported the prosecution of Sarah Tisdall for leaking his public relations plans for the arrival of cruise missiles in 1983.

96. Michael Heseltine made such a claim in a speech at Exeter in April 1983, and distributed to Tory candidates information about the background of leading members of CND.

97. Michael Heseltine proposed a regional office and a review of the status of the Metropolitan Counties, as well as greater government emphasis on Merseyside in future.

98. Michael Heseltine said: "There is in this country a deeply ingrained desire for home ownership.

99. Michael Heseltine instituted Peter Walker's custom of morning "prayer" meetings, now common in Whitehall but an innovation at the time.

100. On his first day Michael Heseltine took him out to lunch at the Connaught and drew up a list of what he wanted to accomplish in office.

101. Michael Heseltine passed the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, a conservation measure.