Michael Heseltine

Lord Heseltine was a Member of Parliament from 1966 to 2001. He was a Cabinet minister in various departments from 1979 to 1986 and from 1990 to 1997. He was Deputy Prime Minister between 1995 and 1997. He is founder of the Haymarket Group, a privately owned media company.

In 2015, Lord Heseltine was appointed by the government as an adviser to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. Within this remit, he was chair of the Thames Estuary 2050 Growth Commission and co-chair of the Estate Regeneration Advisory Panel. His work for the government came to an end in 2017. In 2018, he published his reply to the government’s industrial strategy green paper, titled ‘Industrial Strategy’, and later published a report on devolution, ‘Empowering English Cities’. He was president of the European Movement from June 2019 to November 2024.

Lord Heseltine’s previous books include The Challenge of Europe, his political autobiography Life in the Jungle and Thenford: The Creation of an English Garden (co-written with Lady Heseltine). Lord Heseltine is an enthusiastic gardener and a vice-president of the Royal Horticultural Society.