Michael Heseltine was one of the leading British political figures of the late 20th century. He served as a Conservative MP from 1966 to 2001. After stepping down as an MP, Heseltine was appointed to the peerage as Lord Heseltine.

Beginning his career as a businessman, Heseltine converted to Conservative politics and served in senior roles in each of Edward Heath, Margaret Thatcher and John Major’s governments. Heseltine’s ambition to become prime minister greatly contributed to Thatcher’s downfall in 1990. He stood unsuccessfully in the 1990 Conservative leadership contest.

In 2019, Heseltine had the Conservative whip suspended after announcing he would vote for the Liberal Democrats in the European Parliament election of that year, due to his strong opposition to Brexit. A lifelong Europhile, Heseltine was a prominent Remain voice during the 2016 Brexit referendum and continues to regularly appear on television and in print lamenting Britain’s departure from the European Union and advocating for closer ties.

Heseltine had the Conservative whip restored in July 2024.

Michael Heseltine: rise to prominence (1951-1985)

Heseltine joined the Conservative Party in 1951. He was elected as the Conservative MP for Tavistock (later Henley) at the 1966 general election.

Heseltine was appointed as junior minister in Edward Heath’s government after the 1970 general election, serving in the Department of Transport. Heseltine rose quickly through the party ranks and was appointed to the shadow cabinet after the Conservative defeat at the February 1974 general election.

Heseltine served successively in Heath and Thatcher’s shadow cabinet from 1974 to 1979.

In May 1976, Heseltine seized the ceremonial mace in the House of Commons and brandished it towards the government benches. The protest came at the climax of a chaotic debate on a government bill to nationalise large parts of the aircraft and shipbuilding industries. Heseltine’s mace-swinging was the culmination of a fiercely contested procedural debate.

Heseltine accused the government of breaking a “pairing” arrangement. A “paired” MP is a parliamentarian that has voluntarily promised not to vote – in a pact between government and opposition whips. In the relevant vote, the government’s motion was moved and agreed to by a single vote, 304 to 303. Had the Labour MP not broken his pairing agreement, convention would have compelled the speaker to defeat the motion with his casting vote. Once the result was announced, a gleeful group of Welsh Labour MPs began to sing The Red Flag, a traditional socialist and party anthem.

Heseltine, in his capacity as shadow industry secretary, had led the debate for the Conservative opposition. He responded by removing the ceremonial mace – the symbol of royal authority in parliament – from its perch.

After the speaker suspended the sitting, Heseltine, otherwise known as Tarzan for his famous mane of golden hair, issued an almost-immediate apology for his actions. “I was unwarrantably provoked by the singing of the Red Flag”, he said.

Heseltine faced calls to resign from the shadow cabinet. He was subsequently shuffled, against his will, to the post of shadow environment secretary.

When the Conservatives returned to power in 1979, Heseltine was appointed as secretary of state for the environment under Margaret Thatcher. Throughout this period, he was seen as a leading “wet” (a term for Conservatives critical of Thatcherite policies).

During his tenure as a cabinet minister, Heseltine established himself as a strong advocate of regional policy and urban regeneration. He famously visited Merseyside soon after the 1981 Toxteth riots in Liverpool while environment secretary. This precipitated the creation of the Merseyside Development Corporation.

As environment secretary, Heseltine also spearheaded the Housing Act 1980, which established a “right to buy’’ for council house tenants. This represented one of the flagship of Margaret Thatcher’s first Conservative government. Addressing the commons on 15 January 1980, Heseltine described the proposals as”perhaps as profound a social revolution as any in our history” and the single greatest “transfer of so much capital wealth from the state to the people.”

Heseltine said right to buy would “transform the personal prospects of millions of our citizens, offering to turn them at their wish from tenants to owners.”

He added: “It will establish their rights as individuals above the bureaucracies of the State. It will come to be seen among the finest traditions and philosophies of the Conservative Party.”

Michael Heseltine: the ‘Westland affair’ 1985/1985

In a cabinet reshuffle conducted shortly before the 1983 election, Heseltine was made secretary of state for defence. Three years later in 1985/1986, Heseltine proved the central actor in the sensational “Westland affair”.

As defence secretary, Heseltine championed a rescue package from a European consortium for the Westland helicopter company – which was suffering severe financial difficulties. In taking this stance, he clashed with Thatcher and Leon Brittan, the trade and industry secretary, who favoured a rival bid by the American Sikorsky Fiat group. Observers were hence treated to the unusual spectacle of a cabinet member (Heseltine) appearing to pursue a policy that was diametrically at odds with the government’s stated intentions.

On 6 January, the crisis deepened markedly after a “confidential” letter from the solicitor general, Patrick Mayhew, was leaked to the press. The letter accused Heseltine of “material inaccuracies” in his lobbying for a European consortium rescue package. The leak raised questions about the prime minister’s own involvement and integrity.

In the following days, Thatcher issued an order that all public comments on the Westland controversy should be cleared through the Cabinet Office to maintain collective responsibility. Thatcher was at pains to overcome the impression that the government was at war with itself; it is also speculated that she feared Heseltine’s popularity. Heseltine responded by marching out of the cabinet meeting. The literally outgoing defence secretary is said to have proclaimed: “I can no longer be a member of this cabinet”.

In a subsequent press conference, Heseltine stated: “If the basis of trust between the prime minister and her defence secretary no longer exists, there is no place for me with honour in such a cabinet.”

In a commons statement on 23 January, Thatcher stated that Brittan had authorised the leaking of the 6 January letter. An inquiry, requested by Mayhew, accused Brittan of conspiring against his cabinet colleague.

Brittan resigned as trade and industry secretary on 24 January, after his conduct was roundly criticised during a meeting of the 1922 committee of Conservative backbenchers. In his letter of resignation, Brittan said he had come to the conclusion that he could “no longer command the full confidence of my colleagues.”

In 2015, Thatcher’s official biographer, Charles Moore, said the prime minister’s hands “were not entirely clean” in respect of the leaking of the letter. However, her survival is said to have been secured by a faltering and unfocused performance by Neil Kinnock, the then Labour leader, in the House of Commons.

In a speech to the commons on 19 October 1986, Brittan accused Heseltine of having consistently “undermined” the government over the Westland affair.

The Westland affair became a lightning rod for criticism of Thatcher’s political style and approach to government. While the US takeover was generally seen as successful, Thatcher’s reputation for straight-talking was damaged. Meanwhile, Heseltine’s conduct fuelled rumours as to his political ambitions.

Michael Heseltine: leadership challenge and late-political career (1990-2001)

Heseltine continued in a disruptive vein until November 1990, when he unsuccessfully challenged Thatcher for the Conservative leadership. Galvanised by Geoffrey Howe’s searing resignation speech, Heseltine launched a leadership challenge on 14 November. “I have a better chance now than Mrs Thatcher of leading the Conservative Party into a fourth electoral victory and avoiding the ultimate calamity of a Labour government”, the former defence secretary declared.

The first ballot of Conservative MPs took place on 20 November. Thatcher, who was attending a summit in Paris, secured 204 votes (54.8%) to Heseltine’s 152 (40.9%). There were 16 abstentions. Under the complex rules of the Conservative Party, established in 1975, a candidate required a majority of 15% of the total electorate to win outright. Thatcher’s majority was 52 votes; she needed 56. The prime minister had fallen short by just four votes.

Heseltine responded: “I’m overwhelmed with gratitude to my parliamentary colleagues who in such large measure have given me their support. The results that we have are within one or two of the firm pledges that we had received by this morning. I will therefore allow my name to go forward.”

Upon her return to London, Thatcher conducted a series of one-on-one meetings with her cabinet ministers. Many pledged their personal loyalty. But the majority warned her that she would lose a second ballot against Heseltine and that her continued candidacy could fracture the party. Confronted with the loss of cabinet support, she decided to withdraw to allow other candidates to enter the race and thwart Heseltine.

Thatcher announced her resignation as prime minister on 22 November.

John Major, the chancellor of the exchequer, and Douglas Hurd, the home secretary, announced their candidacies for the Tory leadership mere hours after Thatcher’s announcement.

In the second ballot held on 27 November, Major secured 185 votes. Heseltine won 131, while Hurd was supported by 56 Conservative colleagues. Major was two votes short of the required majority and his rivals conceded.

This experience inspired Heseltine’s famous observation that “he who wields the knife never wears the crown”.

Heseltine went on to hold a series of senior roles under Major. He was initially re-appointed as environment secretary – this gave Heseltine responsibility over the deeply unpopular community charge, or “poll tax”.

In March 1991, Heseltine announced the government’s plans for a new system of local government finance. The announcement, mocked as a humiliating U-turn by critics of the government, marked the abandonment of one of Thatcher’s most contentious policies. The council tax system was implemented in 1993.

Heseltine was appointed as president of the Board of Trade in the Department of Trade and Industry in 1992.

As a senior minister in the Major government, Heseltine was closely involved in the events surrounding “Black Wednesday” in September 1992. The UK joined the ERM in October 1990 as the central plank of the Conservative government’s anti-inflation strategy, pegging the pound to the German Deutsche Mark at a rate of DM 2.95. However, the high interest rates required to maintain this peg, coupled with a deep domestic recession, put the pound under immense pressure. The crisis came to a head on 16 September. In an attempt to defend the pound’s position as it tumbled through its ERM floor, the Bank of England spent billions of pounds of its foreign currency reserves buying sterling. These decisions were taken by a small group of senior Conservative ministers, including Heseltine, Norman Lamont, Kenneth Clarke and Douglas Hurd. Clarke later referred to the process as Major “dipping our hands in the blood”.

Heseltine chose not stand in the 1995 Conservative leadership contest, triggered by John Major after he dared critics to “put up or shut up”. The senior Conservative MP ultimately rowed in behind Major.

In a cabinet reshuffle on 5 July 1995, Heseltine was appointed deputy prime minister to further shore up Major’s premiership. He held this role until the 1997 general election, which resulted in a Labour landslide under Tony Blair.

Heseltine’s ambition endured. However, he declined to stand in the 1997 Conservative leadership in account of health issues.

Heseltine was one of the progenitors of the millennium exhibition project. In 1996, it was announced that he would convene a ministerial group to lead on the project for the government. After Labour took charge of the project following the 1997 election, Heseltine defended its ambition. In 1998, he said the festival would “celebrate the millennium with a great national occasion that shows pride in our past and confidence in the future.”

Heseltine expressed criticisms of William Hague’s leadership of the Conservative Party from 1997 to 2001 and his embrace of Thatcherite principles. Notably, Heseltine rebuked Hague after he delivered a speech warning that continued integration with the European Union would turn Britain into a “foreign land”.

Heseltine responded: “Does anyone seriously think that France is a ‘foreign’ country? Or that Germany is a ‘foreign’ country?”

He added: “These are great giant nation states fighting for their self-interest and they believe their self-interest is better sought and protected and advanced in concert with their neighbours than apart from them.”

Heseltine spoke of a “dilemma” over whether to vote Conservative at the next general election.

Heseltine stood down as an MP at the 2001 general election and was elevated to the peerage shortly thereafter.

Heseltine advised against the election of Iain Duncan Smith as Conservative leader in 2002. He warned that the party would be “out to lunch” for a generation if it elected Duncan Smith as its leader.

Michael Heseltine: wealth

Heseltine made his fortune in publishing as the co-founder of Haymarket Media Group in 1957.

In 1959, the company relaunched Man About Town, which became an influential men’s consumer magazine, later evolving into About Town and Town. Haymarket grew into a major international media company.

Michael Heseltine and Boris Johnson

When Michael Heseltine stood down from the House of Commons seat of Henley at the 2001 election, Boris Johnson was selected as the Conservative candidate to succeed him.

Johnson said at the time it was “an honour and a privilege” to follow Heseltine.

Since then, the Heseltine and Johnson relationship has been markedly less cordial, particularly regarding Europe.

In 2016, Heseltine claimed Johnson would not become prime minister due to his “obscene remarks” on Europe. This intervention came after Johnson claimed that the EU had the same goal as Hitler in trying to create a political superstate.

Lord Heseltine remained a consistent and vocal critic of Johnson throughout his time as prime minister.

Michael Heseltine and party affiliation

In May 2019, Heseltine had the Conservative whip suspended in the Lords after stating he would vote for the Liberal Democrats in that month’s European Parliament elections. He was a strong supporter of a second referendum following the 2016 vote to leave the European Union. A Conservative spokesperson said the peer should have known that “publicly endorsing the candidates of another party is not compatible” with taking the whip.

At the time, he said: “I cannot, with a clear conscience, vote for my party when it is myopically focused on forcing through the biggest act of economic self-harm ever undertaken by a democratic government.”

In March 2019, Heseltine had addressed the anti-Brexit “Put it to the People” march in London.

Heseltine reiterated his call for traditional Conservative voters to support the Liberal Democrats ahead of the 2019 general election.

He stated: “I’m telling them to vote for what they believe and what the Conservative Party has stood for all my life and certainly all of theirs – and to put country first.

“And what I think that means in practical terms is they either vote for the defrocked Conservative candidates, of which we have three excellent examples here, or they vote Lib Dem.”

Heseltine had the Conservative whip restored in July 2024.

Personal life

Heseltine was born on 21 March 1933.

In 1962, Heseltine married Anne Harding Williams. They have three children.

Heseltine is a passionate gardener and arboriculturist, having developed extensive gardens and an arboretum at his home, Thenford House in Northamptonshire. He has appeared alongside his wife on the BBC’s Gardener’s World and co-authored a book, Thenford: The Creation of an English Garden (2016).