Michael Heseltine
Michael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine, CH, PC, was born 21 March 1933. He 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.
Political Career[edit]
Having served as a junior and middle rank minister through the government of Edward Heath (1970-1974), became secretary of state for the environment when the Conservative Party returned to power in 1979 under Margaret Thatcher. Later he was secretary of state for defense, but he left the government dramatically, walking out of a Cabinet meeting in January 1986 in protest at her style of running the government. He then became on the backbenches a focus of an alternative Conservatism, preaching what he characterized as a "caring capitalism", taking a more enthusiastically pro-European Community line than Thatcher, and opposing some of the government's more controversial policies, such as the (community charge) poll tax. He succeeded in defying the laws of gravity which normally ensure that ministers who resign office steadily disappear from public view. Heseltine then returned to government as Secretary of State for the Environment, with particular responsibility for 'reviewing' the Community Charge, widely and correctly expected to lead to poll tax being abolished, allegedly declining an offer of the position of Home Secretary. Following 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.
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 Redwood 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. 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.
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. Heseltine resigned his Henley-on-Thames constituency at the 2001 election, being succeeded by Spectator editor Boris Johnson, but remained outspoken on British politics. He was created a life peer 12 July 2001 taking the title Baron Heseltine, of Thenford in the County of Northamptonshire.
Education[edit]
Baron Heseltine was educated at Pembroke College, Oxford, where he took a degree in philosophy, politics, and economics and where his debating skills and already perceived business sense led to his becoming president of the Union in 1954.
