Michael Heseltine

Michael Heseltine in 2013

Michael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine, CH, PC (/ˈhɛzəltaɪn/; born 21 March 1933) is a British politician. Heseltine served as a Conservative Member of Parliament from 1966 to 2001. He 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.

Heseltine was created a life peer in 2001 and criticised Brexit and Boris Johnson following the 2016 Brexit referendum result. In 2019, Heseltine had the whip suspended after saying he would vote for the Liberal Democrats, rather than the Conservatives, at the 2019 European Parliament election.

Quotes

• I was unwarrantably provoked by the singing of The Red Flag. [...] I thought "here is a neo-Marxist group in the House of Commons." Having cheated over the motion, cheated in the lobbies, I thought that in the circumstances they might as well have the mace as well!
  I rapidly realised this was a reflection on the authority of the Speaker and the House I tried to apologise and will do so unreservedly as soon as I can.
  • "Red Flag is waved at the Tory Bull", The Guardian (28 May 1976)
  • The Ceremonial mace in the House of Commons represents the monarch's authority. Without it being in place, the Commons cannot legitimately meet or pass legislation. The vote (on the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Bill) had passed by a single vote, but was disputed by the opposition on the grounds that pairing arrangements had been compromised by the Labour government. Heseltine was then Shadow Secretary of State for Industry.

• I have followed the inspiration of Churchill, Macmillan, Heath and Thatcher, who gave Britain a leading position in one of the power blocks of the 21st century. I have seen that overturned on a cynical exploitative combination of promises led by Boris Johnson. He won a large majority on the slogan Get Brexit Done. Yet here we are, years later, when the criticism, even from its most fanatical supporters like Nigel Farage, is that Brexit has failed.
  • "Boris Johnson’s legacy? He has ruined Britain’s place in the world", The Observer (11 June 2023)

Quotes about Michael Heseltine

• Michael was one of the great, commanding political figures of my time and I always admired and sympathized with him.
  • Ken Clarke, Kind of Blue: A Political Memoir (2016), p. 151

• I have since come to know Michael Heseltine well, and now count him as a friend. But at this time I found him hard to read. He made no effort to enlist me as an ally even though I knew that we had several points in common. We both held a generous view of the role of the Conservative Party in social matters; neither of us denied the importance of government action in carrying this through. We both believed strongly in Britain's role in the European Union, though Michael carried his enthusiasm for integration faster and further than I did. But our temperaments were different. Michael was a cavalry leader, relying on the excitement of a charge to carry him to success. For example, I was surprised and dismayed by his vehement desire to transform the structures of the Civil Service which had always been part of my working life. Michael relished and I disliked the scent of danger.
  • Douglas Hurd, Memoirs (2003), p. 359

• The issue before Cabinet, Margaret said, was quite simply the restoration of the doctrine of collective Cabinet responsibility (not something of which she was at all times the most devoted adherent herself). To that end Michael would have to be gagged, by the requirement that he could say nothing on the issue without first clearing it with Robert Armstrong, the Cabinet Secretary.
  Michael objected that this was wholly impracticable, and that in any case collective Cabinet responsibility could scarcely apply since she had not permitted a proper collective discussion of the issue. He spoke quietly, and not at all aggressively, and sought to find some compromise arrangement. But Margaret was adamant. She could see that Michael was now isolated in the Cabinet. The general view of the colleagues was that Michael had become obsessed with the issue, and had lost all sense of proportion... She pressed home her advantage; whereupon Michael slammed his Cabinet folder shut, saying "If this is the way this Government is going to be conducted, I no longer wish to be part of it", picked the folder up and strode out of the room. It was the most dramatic moment in any Cabinet I have attended.
  • Nigel Lawson, The View from No. 11: Memoirs of a Tory Radical (1992), p. 678

• Michael is one of the most talented people in politics. His talents are selective and cultivated to what always seemed to me the point of exaggeration. But anyone who has seen him on television or on a public platform will quickly accept that they are real enough.
  Michael and I are similar in some ways, very different in others. We are ambitious, single-minded and believe in efficiency and results. But whereas with me it is certain political principles that provide a reference point and inner strength, for Michael such things are unnecessary. His own overwhelming belief in himself is sufficient.
  • Margaret Thatcher, The Downing Street Years (1993), p. 423

• I decided to give Michael his big chance and put him into Defence. There Michael's strengths and weaknesses were both apparent. He defended our approach to nuclear arms with great panache and inflicted a series of defeats on CND and the Labour Left. He reorganized the MoD, rationalizing its traditional federal structure. Supported by me in the face of departmental obstruction, he brought in Peter Levene to run defence procurement on sound business lines.
  These were real achievements. But Michael's sense of priorities was gravely distorted by his personal ambitions and political obsessions.
  • Margaret Thatcher, The Downing Street Years (1993), p. 424

• I said about Andrew Neil that I couldn't understand his position: "He says he is a Thatcherite but in fact Heseltine is a corporate dirigeste – the exact opposite of Thatcherism."
  • Woodrow Wyatt, journal entry (16 November 1990), quoted in Woodrow Wyatt, The Journals of Woodrow Wyatt, Volume Two, ed. Sarah Curtis (1999), p. 390
  • Andrew Neil, the editor of The Sunday Times, supported Heseltine in the first ballot of the 1990 Conservative leadership election