290 Facts About Michael Heseltine

Michael Heseltine was a prominent figure in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major, and served as Deputy Prime Minister and First Secretary of State under Major.

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

Michael Heseltine was considered an adept media performer and a charismatic minister, although he was frequently at odds with Thatcher on economic issues.

Michael Heseltine was one of the most visible "wets", whose "One Nation" views were epitomised by his support for the regeneration of Liverpool in the early 1980s when it was facing economic collapse; this later earned him the award of Freeman of the City of Liverpool in 2012.

Michael Heseltine resigned from the Cabinet in 1986 over the Westland affair and returned to the backbenches.

Michael Heseltine became a vocal critic of Thatcher, mostly because of her Eurosceptic views and confrontational approach in Parliament.

Michael Heseltine supported Major when his leadership was challenged in 1995, and was promoted to Deputy Prime Minister and First Secretary of State in return for his support.

Michael Heseltine declined to seek the leadership of the party following Major's 1997 election defeat, and served in Major's shadow cabinet as Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry while the leadership election to succeed him was taking place.

Michael Heseltine was created a life peer in 2001 and has remained a vocal advocate for modernisation within the party.

Michael Heseltine has continued to make political interventions, criticising Brexit and Boris Johnson after the 2016 Brexit referendum result.

In 2019, Michael Heseltine had the whip suspended after saying he would vote for the Liberal Democrats, rather than the Conservatives, at the 2019 European Parliament election.

Michael Heseltine was born in Swansea in Wales, the son of Territorial Army Colonel Rupert Dibdin Heseltine, TD, of the Royal Engineers during the Second World War, a factory owner and South Wales local director of Dawnays Ltd, bridge and structural engineers, and Eileen Ray.

The Heseltine family were in the tea trade: Michael Heseltine's great-grandfather, William Heseltine, was a clerk who worked his way up to being manager of Tetley, later being involved in establishing a chain of grocers; he killed himself after suffering the loss of his fortune through debt and bad investments.

Michael Heseltine's mother originated in West Wales, daughter of James Pridmore, a dock labourer who unloaded coal from ships, later hiring others to do so and founding West Glamorgan Collieries Ltd, a short-lived company that briefly worked two small mines on the outskirts of Swansea ; his father, James, worked at the Swansea docks.

Michael Heseltine was brought up in relative luxury at No 1, Eaton Crescent, Swansea.

Michael Heseltine once feared the story might reach the press: "I just know if that had got out when I was in active politics, I would never have recovered".

Michael Heseltine enjoyed angling in Brynmill Park and won a junior competition.

Michael Heseltine was educated at Broughton Hall in Eccleshall, Staffordshire, when it was briefly amalgamated with Brockhurst Preparatory school, Bromsgrove School, Worcestershire, and Shrewsbury School, Shropshire.

Michael Heseltine campaigned briefly as a volunteer in the October 1951 general election before going up to Pembroke College, Oxford.

Michael Heseltine 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.

Michael Heseltine was then elected to the Standing Committee of the Oxford Union for Trinity Term 1953.

Michael Heseltine had done little study at University, and passed his finals with the help of last-minute coaching from friends.

The Union cellars were opened on 30 October 1954, and Michael Heseltine persuaded the visiting Sir Bernard and Lady Docker to contribute to the considerable cost.

At this point Michael Heseltine went into business with another Oxford friend, Clive Labovitch, who brought out Opportunities for Graduates that year.

Michael Heseltine arranged for this to be distributed free, expanded from 40 pages to a 169-page hardback book, to final year students at all British universities, paid for by advertising.

Michael Heseltine had transferred his articles to a partner at a smaller firm of accountants located off Haymarket, feeling that this would allow him more chance of hands-on involvement in the affairs of the firms whose books he examined, rather than being a cog in a bigger machine.

Michael Heseltine estimated that he was earning more from his property business than the partner to whom he was articled.

Michael Heseltine later wrote that he admired the military, for his father had been a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Royal Engineers in the Second World War and active in the Territorial Army thereafter, but that he had felt that his business career was too important to be disrupted.

Michael Heseltine had been lucky not to be called up for the Korean War in the early 1950s or the Suez Crisis in 1956; and 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.

Michael Heseltine spent nine weeks in the ranks as a Guardsman before being sent for three months of officer training at Mons Officer Cadet School, Aldershot, alongside men from other regiments.

Michael Heseltine was a capable cadet, reaching the rank of Junior Under-Officer and graduating with an A-Grade, but he was not awarded the Sword of Honour or promoted to the rank of Senior Under-Officer, as it was felt his age had given him an unfair advantage over younger cadets.

Michael Heseltine was commissioned as a Second lieutenant on 11 June 1959.

Michael Heseltine later recorded that he and Labovitch bought at least three properties in W1 and W2 which they were able to sell at a profit before they had completed the original purchases.

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

Michael Heseltine contemplated suing The Observer for a limerick mocking his dress sense for implying him to be homosexual, but was talked out of it.

Michael Heseltine avoided bankruptcy by such tactics as paying bills only when threatened with legal action, although he eventually settled all his debts.

Later, during the 1990s, Michael Heseltine committed a minor gaffe when he joked in a speech about how he had strung creditors along.

Between 1960 and 1964, Michael Heseltine worked as a part-time interviewer for ITV, very likely, in Crick's view, to maintain his public profile as an aspiring politician.

Lindsay Masters, who had joined the Michael Heseltine-Labovitch publishing business as an advertising manager in spring 1958, and Simon Tindall, who had joined in his early twenties as an advertising salesman while Michael Heseltine had been doing his National Service, played an increasingly large role in managing the company.

Michael Heseltine stated he spent three days trying to persuade him to stay.

However, Michael Heseltine continued as managing director of Haymarket even after being elected to Parliament in March 1966, and based himself at the company offices near Oxford Circus rather than in the House of Commons.

Town had never made a profit, but Michael Heseltine writes that its quality was instrumental in establishing Haymarket's reputation as a publishing house.

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

Michael Heseltine resigned as managing director of Haymarket on his promotion to principal opposition spokesman on transport in 1969, although he continued as chairman of the board until he became a minister in 1970, at which point he resigned from the board altogether, whilst remaining a major shareholder.

Lindsay Masters did invest, but was eventually bought out by the Saatchi brothers; Michael Heseltine later believed that he and Masters together could have made another fortune if they had reinforced one another with large shareholdings in Saatchi and Saatchi.

At the meeting to close the deal, one of the bankers recorded, "Michael Heseltine thought he was President of the Oxford Union again, and entered into a grand oration and bored everyone stiff".

In 1971 Michael Heseltine placed his shares in a trust controlled by his ministerial boss Peter Walker and by his solicitor Charles Corman.

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

Michael Heseltine's role was to bring in new publishing ideas.

Michael Heseltine believed he increased performance, although Robert Heller later recorded that he did very little, for he was too busy as a member of the Shadow Cabinet.

Michael Heseltine worked from an office at Haymarket, near Regent Street, rather than in the House of Commons.

Michael Heseltine had taken out large personal loans both to increase his stake in the company and to buy his country mansion Thenford House.

Michael Heseltine resumed management of the company after Masters' retirement in 1999.

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

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

Michael Heseltine had been the only applicant for the Conservative candidacy.

Michael Heseltine obtained plenty of publicity in the local paper and obtained a swing to the Conservatives slightly better than the national average.

Michael Heseltine clinched the selection after bringing his fiancee Anne Williams to the meeting.

Michael Heseltine got on well with the incumbent Labour member Maurice Edelman and they met for dinner sometimes during the campaign.

In March 1965, Michael Heseltine applied to be candidate for the safe Conservative seat of Tavistock in Devon, where the incumbent MP had announced his retirement two months earlier.

Michael Heseltine reached the final short list of three, the others being a dairy farmer in a senior position at the Milk Marketing Board, and a local authority lawyer, who later recalled that on the train down from London Michael Heseltine kept jumping out at every stop to check that his magazines were on display at the station newsagents.

Michael Heseltine had already spent several days driving round talking to locals and had ordered a year's worth of back copies of Tavistock's two weekly papers.

Michael Heseltine was selected by a clear majority of the Tavistock Conservative Association's Finance and General Purposes Committee.

Michael Heseltine was picked in part as a young, dynamic candidate who could face the challenge of the resurgent Liberal Party in the West Country, where Jeremy Thorpe, Peter Bessell and Mark Bonham Carter had recently won seats.

Michael Heseltine was selected after a stirring speech to around 540 assembled members of the local Conservative Association on Friday 26 March 1965.

Michael Heseltine had to learn about farming, an important issue in the seat, about which he knew almost nothing.

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

Michael Heseltine was elected Member of Parliament for Tavistock.

Michael Heseltine therefore defended Tavistock at the 1970 general election, achieving a better than average swing to the Conservatives.

Michael Heseltine applied for Mid Sussex in competition with Ian Gilmour, but they lost to Tim Renton.

Michael Heseltine applied for Mid-Oxfordshire but lost to Douglas Hurd.

Michael Heseltine wrote that he was "tempted" to enter the lists at Beaconsfield, but did not actually do so.

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

Michael Heseltine reached the final shortlist of three along with two other sitting MPs, William Shelton and Norman Fowler, and in September 1972 was selected as candidate with a clear majority at the first ballot.

Michael Heseltine maintained a constituency home in Crocker End, near Nettlebed, and still maintained a London home at Wilton Crescent.

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

In 1967, Peter Walker invited Michael Heseltine to be opposition spokesman on transport, after he had arranged a successful speaking tour of the West Country for him.

Michael Heseltine's duties included opposing Barbara Castle's 1967 Transport Bill.

Michael Heseltine led opposition to the parts of the bill which nationalised small bus companies into the National Bus Company and set up Passenger transport executives in major urban areas.

Michael Heseltine criticised Castle for wanting to give PTEs the right to manufacture or produce anything necessary for their function, which as she pointed out was almost word-for-word identical to a clause in the Conservatives' Transport Act 1962.

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

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.

Three days later, Michael Heseltine was one of around two dozen Conservative MPs who defied the whip to abstain rather than vote against the second reading of the 1968 Race Relations Bill.

Michael Heseltine argued that the Conservatives should state their own alternative policy rather than just oppose.

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.

Michael Heseltine went on a six-week tour of India, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and the US to study how their docks were run, in readiness for Labour's planned 1970 Docks Bill.

Michael Heseltine complained to Lord Jellicoe, Minister for the Civil Service, about being given inexperienced civil servants fresh out of university to work in his office.

Michael Heseltine insisted on being shown maps' of where protesters lived, so that he could see the reasons for public concerns at new roads and motorways.

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

Michael Heseltine declined to support a campaign by Plymouth MP Dame Joan Vickers to create a Tamarside Metropolitan county, and was rebuked by Sir Henry Studholme, his predecessor as MP for Tavistock, for declining to support Plymouth Council's attempt to buy more land near Sparkwell to develop light industry under its control.

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.

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

Michael Heseltine won praise for his efforts at salesmanship, but some civil servants felt that he was more committed to the plane than Tony Benn had been, and that he should have acted decisively to cut back marketing efforts sooner than he did.

Michael Heseltine did not mention Concorde at all in his books Where There's A Will or The Challenge of Europe.

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

Michael Heseltine cancelled the British Geostationary Technological satellite and handed back the grant to the Treasury.

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

Michael Heseltine was caricatured as such, complete with loin-cloth, in the If series drawn by satirical political cartoonist Steve Bell.

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".

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".

Airey Neave believed Michael Heseltine had been lying and urged Stoddart to pursue the matter.

The Hovertrain incident came to be regarded as the worst example of lying to the House of Commons since the Profumo affair a decade earlier, and Michael Heseltine survived because full details only emerged during the Parliamentary summer recess.

Michael Heseltine immediately gave a press conference in which he denied that he had lied.

Michael Heseltine said that his statement that further investment was "under consideration" was not just the normal euphemism for a decision that had not yet been announced, but was actually technically true, as at that time he was still talking to Hawker Siddeley and British Rail about buying part of the Hovertrain business.

The Bill was threatened by a revolt of Tory backbenchers whose seats were affected, and Heath gave Michael Heseltine a dressing down for his lack of energy in promoting it.

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

Nonetheless, Michael Heseltine emerged from the Heath government with an enhanced reputation.

Michael Heseltine had avoided the worst crises of that government: the two miners' strikes, incomes policy, industrial relations policy and Northern Ireland, as well as any direct involvement in British entry into the EEC.

Michael Heseltine had attained a higher public profile than many Cabinet ministers, and by 1974 he was being seriously tipped as a future Prime Minister.

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

Michael Heseltine was shadowing Tony Benn, who planned a major expansion of public ownership through the National Enterprise Board.

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

Ten days before the October 1974 election, at which Michael Heseltine bucked the national swing by increasing his majority at Henley, he urged Heath to consider his position by the end of the year.

Whitelaw admired his drive and energy but looked down on him as "new Money" and is said to have commented that Michael Heseltine was "the sort of man who combs his hair in public".

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

Michael Heseltine did not work easily with women as senior colleagues, as was shown by the difficulty experienced by Elinor Goodman in obtaining promotion from secretary to journalist at Campaign, and his reluctance to let Josephine Hart sit on the Haymarket Board.

Michael Heseltine fully expected to be sacked from the Shadow Cabinet by the new leader, but was retained, in part because Thatcher was impressed by his fierce opposition to Benn's Industry Bill, and partly because a senior figure, possibly Geoffrey Howe, argued for his retention.

Michael Heseltine first emerged as a platform orator at the Conservative National Council in March 1975, and then at the autumn conferences in 1975 and 1976.

Michael Heseltine dictated his speech ideas beforehand to his scriptwriters, who had to discard a good deal of unintelligible material.

Amid riotous scenes of Labour left-wingers singing The Red Flag Michael Heseltine picked up the Mace, the symbol of Parliament's authority, until Jim Prior grabbed it off him.

Speaker Thomas suspended the sitting and made Michael Heseltine wait until next day to apologise so that tempers could cool.

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.

Michael Heseltine was particularly cross at having to give up the job of Shadow Industry Secretary to John Biffen.

Michael Heseltine accepted on condition that he would not have to take the Environment job when the Conservatives returned to office.

Thatcher was impressed by Michael Heseltine's campaigning and love of headlines during the May 1979 election, in contrast to most of the Shadow Cabinet.

Michael Heseltine preferred to be Secretary of State for the Environment after all, entering the Cabinet for the first time.

Michael Heseltine opposed the abolition of exchange controls in 1979 and opposed Geoffrey Howe's tight budget in 1981, suggesting a public sector pay freeze instead.

Michael Heseltine favoured privatisation of state owned industries, a novel idea in 1979 as the Conservatives were initially only proposing to denationalise the industries nationalised by Labour in the 1970s.

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

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.

Only a quarter of Michael Heseltine's agenda consisted of manifesto commitments and other political goals; the rest of it consisted of administrative and organisational changes.

Peter Hennessy observed that Michael Heseltine was more interested in the nuts and bolts of Whitehall reform than any minister since David Lloyd George.

Michael Heseltine was quite ruthless about moving civil servants with whom he was dissatisfied, but nonetheless staff thought he had mellowed somewhat since the early 1970s, and was more relaxed and fun to work with.

Michael Heseltine preferred to reach decisions through informal discussion rather than wading through paperwork.

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

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

Michael Heseltine personally interrogated the heads of department.

Thatcher was impressed by MINIS, and in February 1983 Michael Heseltine was invited to give a presentation about them to other senior ministers and civil servants, in the hope that they might be adopted by other departments.

Michael Heseltine favoured the policy of giving away houses, a policy first mooted from the backbenches by Peter Walker in the mid-1970s, not least as some local authorities were spending more on maintenance than they were recouping in rents.

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

Council leaders who came to appeal to Michael Heseltine were often humiliated by being interrogated about their budget, to demonstrate their lack of detailed knowledge, before the council treasurer was allowed to speak.

Michael Heseltine then banned supplementary rates and imposed stiffer sanctions on overspending councils.

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.

Michael Heseltine argued that the worst offenders were the large metropolitan counties and that the simplest solution was simply to abolish them.

When Michael Heseltine objected after the election, Thatcher gave him "one of the most violent rebukes I have ever witnessed in Cabinet" according to Jim Prior, who believed that the issue helped fuel the hostility between Michael Heseltine and Thatcher and Brittan, which would later exhibit itself as the Westland Affair.

In opposition, in the late 1970s, Michael Heseltine had been committed to reducing central government control over local government.

Michael Heseltine became the troubleshooter to deal with the explosion of violence in Britain's inner cities in the aftermath of the Brixton and Toxteth riots of 1981.

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

Michael Heseltine visited Liverpool accompanied by a dozen or so officials from different ministries.

Timothy Raison, a junior Home Office minister, went ostensibly to check on race matters but actually to ensure that Michael Heseltine did not interfere in police matters.

Michael Heseltine visited council estates, often accompanied by gangs of grinning children trying to be noticed on television, and his flamboyance as a self-made man went down surprisingly well in a City famous for turning out flamboyant figures in the entertainment industry.

Michael Heseltine talked to black community leaders, who complained about police bias and brutality, and he later had an awkward private meeting with the Chief constable Kenneth Oxford about the matter.

Michael Heseltine arranged for the bosses of the leading banks and building societies to tour the area in a coach, and asked them to each second a bright young manager to the DOE for a year.

Michael Heseltine circulated a 21-page minute to Cabinet on his return, entitled It Took a Riot.

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.

Michael Heseltine had prepared the ground with a small dinner for Whitehall mandarins including Robert Armstrong and Ian Bancroft.

Shortly after his appointment as Minister for Merseyside, Michael Heseltine gave his annual party conference speech, in which he condemned talk of repatriation and called for more public spending on inner cities.

Colette Bowe, a DTI official who was deputy director of the task force, recorded that Michael Heseltine was the most effective minister she had ever seen at getting the official machine to do his bidding through a mixture of charm and tough questions.

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

Jones, a self-made businessman, got on well with Michael Heseltine, and Jones claimed that Michael Heseltine admitted to him late one night that he was a Liberal at heart, but could not bear the thought of having no realistic chance to win power.

Michael Heseltine arranged for Liverpool to receive unused government grants for other cities, although the money was less than had been clawed back from Liverpool through council spending cuts.

Michael Heseltine played an important role in the redevelopment of Albert Dock, the development of Wavertree Technology Park and the development of Cantril Farm estate into Stockbridge Village, arranging for Barratt Developments to build many new houses for owner occupiers.

Michael Heseltine played an important role in the development of Urban Development Corporations, directly appointed by the minister and overriding local authority planning controls to spend government money on infrastructure.

Michael Heseltine opened Britain's first Enterprise Zone at Corby in Northamptonshire.

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

Thatcher felt that Michael Heseltine was "restless" at the Environment, and that he would bring efficiency reforms to Defence, whilst she wanted to keep him away from economic and social issues.

Michael Heseltine appointed her Principal Private Secretary Clive Whitmore as Permanent Under-Secretary for Defence.

Michael Heseltine put together a small group of seven civil servants called Defence Section 19 to brief MPs and other opinion formers, and argue the case for Britain to have nuclear weapons.

Opinion polls showed the public to be opposed to Trident and Cruise missiles, but opposed to unilateral disarmament, so Michael Heseltine steered the debate away from the former and towards the latter.

At the advice of John Ledlie Michael Heseltine visited at the US Air Base at RAF Greenham Common, and after long prior discussion Michael Heseltine insisted on wearing a combat jacket.

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.

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.

Blaker did much of the work while Michael Heseltine got the publicity.

DS19 was wound up three months after the 1983 election, at which Michael Heseltine was widely credited with helping the Conservatives achieve a landslide victory.

Michael Heseltine disliked dealing with paperwork, and insisted on having plenty of time to take decisions, and that all reports sent to him had to be first run past one of his advisers for comments.

Michael Heseltine drew up plans on a flight back from Kuwait to merge the services further, so that the three chiefs of staff reported directly to the Chief of Defence Staff instead of being treated as colleagues, whilst some supply services were to be merged.

Bramall admired Michael Heseltine's "great drive" and his "style, energy and vision about Europe", but was displeased at Michael Heseltine's rudeness.

Crick observes that with the exception of some defence chiefs, many people who worked with Michael Heseltine came to "admire and respect him", although those who see him from afar are more suspect.

Michael Heseltine supported Thatcher's attempt to ban trade unions from GCHQ.

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

Michael Heseltine strongly supported, and by some accounts pushed for, the prosecution of Ponting.

Michael Heseltine later said that Thatcher had not been involved in the decision to prosecute.

Stanley was seen as the villain of the piece, whereas Michael Heseltine had merely declined to correct false statements made by others.

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

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.

Michael Heseltine came close to misleading the House of Commons over the meeting of NATO defence ministers at Montebello, Quebec, in October 1983.

Michael Heseltine stated that no "specific" proposals had been made to update NATO short range and tactical nuclear weapons.

Some senior military figures felt that Michael Heseltine was obsessed with the minutiae of running the department rather than thinking strategically about defence priorities and procurement.

Dwin Bramall recalled that Michael Heseltine never showed an interest in the strategy papers he sent him.

The journalist Hugo Young later recalled Michael Heseltine briefing journalists confidentially that spending and funding could be reconciled until 1986, by which time he expected "to be gone".

In Cabinet, Michael Heseltine resented being kept out of economic debates and suspected he might be reshuffled to the job of Secretary of State for Northern Ireland as Jim Prior had been.

Michael Heseltine favoured European cooperation in defence procurement, feeling that this allowed Europe to compete with US firms which receive huge orders from The Pentagon.

Michael Heseltine played an important role in persuading West German defence minister Manfred Worner to back the joint Anglo-German-Spanish-Italian Eurofighter, and contrary to the wishes of Thatcher who preferred an American or British fighter.

In spring 1985 Michael Heseltine displayed little interest in Westland helicopters when approached by Tebbit at the time of Alan Bristow's bid for the company, as plenty of American helicopters were available to meet Britain's defence requirements.

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

Howe and Tebbit were not unsympathetic to Michael Heseltine's proposed consortium, and the decision was deferred to the Cabinet Economic Affairs Committee on Monday 9 December 1985.

Michael Heseltine did, but Westland's directors rejected it.

Michael Heseltine had expected that there would be a second meeting of E to discuss his consortium, but no such meeting was called; Thatcher later stated that the Monday meeting had agreed to leave the decision to Westland to take, but it later emerged that Ridley and Lord Young had placed such a meeting in their diaries and had been told by Number Ten that it had been cancelled.

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

Michael Heseltine asked for his dissent to be minuted, and this was not done, although Cabinet Secretary Robert Armstrong stated that this had been an error and added it himself.

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

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

Michael Heseltine then wrote to David Horne of Lloyds Merchant Bank, who was advising the European consortium, giving him the advice which Thatcher had declined to include in her letter to Cuckney.

Michael Heseltine decided against sending him a letter threatening him with the sack, which had been drafted.

Michael Heseltine had won the moral high ground over the leaking saga, but Lawson recorded that he seemed obsessive at Cabinet and attracted little sympathy.

Some ministers and civil servants believed Michael Heseltine could have been persuaded to return had it not been for the public announcement.

At 4pm that day Michael Heseltine delivered a 3,000 word, 22 minute resignation statement at the Ministry of Defence.

Michael Heseltine's statement denounced Thatcher's managerial style and suggested she was a liar who lacked integrity.

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

Up until Westland, Thatcher had approved of most of what Michael Heseltine had done, even though their politics were rather different.

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

Michael Heseltine did not regard this as an insurmountable problem, as neither Heath nor Thatcher had been particularly "clubbable" either.

Michael Heseltine had often had a reputation for being very cold and aloof with backbench MPs and party activists.

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

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.

Michael Heseltine was a qualified supporter of the social charter.

Michael Heseltine was seen as devoted to Europe as a matter of what he perceived as Britain's self-interest, not on an emotional level like Edward Heath, Roy Jenkins or Kenneth Clarke.

Out of office Michael Heseltine called for money, including the receipts from council house sales, to be spent on infrastructure investment instead of tax cuts.

Michael Heseltine called for reductions in tax relief on mortgage interest payments and pension contributions, in the hope of encouraging investment into industry rather than into property and finance, echoing views being promoted by Will Hutton at the time.

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

Michael Heseltine remained aloof from factional plotting in the Commons, and voted with the left-wing Lollard faction in backbench committee elections.

Michael Heseltine later said that he regretted resigning from the Cabinet in 1986, as he subsequently often wondered if he and Nigel Lawson might have been able to persuade Thatcher to abandon the tax.

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

Michael Heseltine argued that there was too much green belt building and stated that as a property developer he had never built on a "green" site, forgetting that he had done so in Tenterden in the early 1960s.

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

Michael Heseltine spoke out frequently on defence matters, supported the government's ban on Spycatcher, the new Official Secrets Act 1989 and called for an independent Bank of England, although perhaps as a stepping stone to the setting up of a European Central Bank.

Michael Heseltine wrote a six-page public letter to his local Association chairman, calling for more regard for the wide range of opinions in the party.

Michael Heseltine then left for the Middle East to visit King Hussein of Jordan and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir.

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 Michael Heseltine the overall majority he would need in the second ballot.

Michael Heseltine was disappointed not to receive the support of old allies on the second ballot; these included Secretary of State for Defence Tom King, Cecil Parkinson and Norman Lamont.

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.

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

Michael Heseltine disappointed many of his supporters by not pushing for them to get jobs in Major's new administration.

Ian Grist was sacked from the Welsh Office and Michael Heseltine Mates was eventually given a Minister of State position following the 1992 election.

Michael Heseltine now had a remit to reform it, and invited the opposition parties to take part in his review of options.

Various options were leaked to the press to test public reaction, and at one point Michael Heseltine appeared to have settled on a tax graded both according to the size of the property and the number of adults living in it.

Crick regards the commission as a mistake for which Michael Heseltine has received too little blame.

Michael Heseltine proposed plans for developing an East Thames corridor.

Michael Heseltine received a standing ovation at the October 1991 Party Conference, seen as a sign of his rehabilitation with party activists, and was included on the A-Team to prepare for the 1992 election.

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

Michael Heseltine was a leading performer in the election and it was felt that had the Conservatives lost he might well have won the party leadership and been Leader of the Opposition, while if they won he would probably be given Trade and Industry, the job he had always wanted.

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

NEDO, which had been set up to coordinate industrial policy in the early 1960s, was abolished by Chancellor Norman Lamont in June 1992, although Michael Heseltine was able to absorb some of the staff into the DTI to set up working parties to shadow specific industries.

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.

Michael Heseltine's responsibilities included Energy, as the separate Energy ministry was abolished.

An early leak had seen little reaction but Michael Heseltine was taken aback by the public anger.

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

The band Chumbawamba released the critical song "Mr Michael Heseltine meets the public" that portrayed Michael Heseltine as an out-of-touch figure; the same group had once dedicated a song to the village of Fitzwilliam, West Yorkshire, which was reduced to a ghost village by the closure of the local coal pits.

In February 1993, Michael Heseltine announced that unlike the Dutch and Belgian governments, Britain would not be contributing to any bailout of Anglo-Dutch DAF Trucks.

On 21 June 1993, Michael Heseltine suffered a serious heart attack in Venice.

Michael Heseltine took four months off from work, and did not make a speech at the party conference in October 1993, instead amusing the audience by appearing on the platform and performing mock exercises with his arms.

In 1994 Chris Morris jokingly implied on BBC Radio 1 that Michael Heseltine had died, and persuaded MP Jerry Hayes to broadcast an on-air tribute.

Michael Heseltine, who had been seen as an arriviste in his younger days, was now something of a grandee and elder statesman.

In fact after half a dozen meetings over the course of a week, and Michael Heseltine insisting on reading Bingham LJ's judgement in the Makanjuola case, Michael Heseltine had agreed to sign a slightly different version of the PII which made clear his reservations.

Michael Heseltine acted to enforce a squeaky clean image at this time, by announcing an inquiry in July 1994, into allegations of insider dealing by Jeffrey Archer, and by personally announcing an inquiry into whether a weapons manufacturing company called BMARC had broken government guidelines on trading with Iraq in the late 1980s.

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.

However, Michael Heseltine was gaining some popularity with the Tory Right at this time, helped by his opposition to lowering the gay age of consent from 21 to 18, and his attack on the European Community as overregulated and sclerotic.

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

Hampson believed that Michael Heseltine might have won, as did Philip Stephens of the Financial Times.

Michael 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".

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

Michael Heseltine was promoted to Deputy Prime Minister and First Secretary of State.

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

Michael Heseltine chaired four Cabinet Committees, including Environment and Local Government, and two new committees: Competitiveness Committee and the Coordination and Presentation of Government Policy which met every weekday at 8.30am.

The matter of a referendum on joining the euro, after much press speculation, was raised again at Cabinet by Douglas Hogg in the spring of 1996, very likely with Major's approval; Clarke records that Michael Heseltine spoke "with passionate intensity" at Cabinet against a referendum, believing both that referendums were pernicious and that no concession would be enough to please the Eurosceptics.

Clarke, who had already threatened resignation over the issue, opposed the measure and, although Clarke and Michael Heseltine were in a small minority, Major deferred a decision.

Michael Heseltine had opposed a referendum on euro membership when Thatcher proposed it in 1990.

Clarke, writing in 2016 after the Brexit Referendum, comments that he and Michael Heseltine later agreed that they had separately decided to give way because of the pressure Major was under, and that the referendum pledge "was the biggest single mistake" of their careers, giving "legitimacy" to such a device.

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

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.

On 3 May, the day after the government was defeated at the 1997 general election, Michael Heseltine suffered an attack of angina and had a tube inserted into an artery; at 64, and twenty years older than the new Prime Minister, he declined to stand for the Conservative Party leadership again.

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.

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

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.

Michael Heseltine stood down from his Henley constituency at the 2001 election, being succeeded by Spectator editor and future prime minister Boris Johnson, but he remained outspoken on British politics.

Michael Heseltine was created a life peer on 12 July 2001 taking the title Baron Heseltine, of Thenford in the County of Northamptonshire.

Michael Heseltine suggested the party's MPs vote on the matter rather than party members as currently required by party rules.

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

In 2008 Michael Heseltine took part in the BBC Wales programme Coming Home about his Welsh family history.

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

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

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

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.

Michael Heseltine later said that it was "quite unacceptable" for Germany to be in dominant position in Europe, having lost the Second World War.

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

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

On 26 November 2019, in preparation for the 2019 general election, Michael Heseltine said he could not support Boris Johnson because the Prime Minister was pursuing an "utterly disastrous" policy that would make Britain poorer and less influential, and he called on voters to back the Liberal Democrats to deny Johnson a majority in Parliament.

Michael Heseltine's wife was delighted, as an admirer of the poet, but Heseltine himself did not initially know who he was.

At the beginning of November 2016, drawing on an interview with Tatler magazine, it was reported that Michael Heseltine had confessed to strangling his mother's Alsatian in 1964, after the animal had drawn blood, which was falsely interpreted as him having killed the dog.

Michael Heseltine later stated that he had, in fact, subdued the animal using its choke collar after it had attacked him.