Brexit: Lord Heseltine Suggests Corbyn Could Be PM

Tarzan has spoken and the Westminster jungle is listening closely.

Michael Heseltine, one of the most famous “Big Beasts” of the Conservative Party, has uttered the words that any self-respecting Tory thought they would never hear.

Can he see Jeremy Corbyn as Prime Minister? “Six months ago I would have laughed if you had suggested that,” growled the former Deputy Prime Minister, now a Tory peer. “So would everybody else.”

“No longer. He’s ahead in the opinion polls. I’m wholly opposed to Corbyn becoming Prime Minister. All I can say is the man who was written off as an electoral disaster, actually came through in a way that was much better than people thought.”

For such a prominent Tory grandee to even imagine Corbyn as potential PM material – far less talk about it publicly – is an anathema. The Labour leader, says Heseltine, is “capable of anything.” Having spent half a lifetime in the Commons opposing everything Corbyn stands for, the Peer reluctantly admits that his decades as a major political figure have taught him not to underestimate the Labour leader after the result of the general election in June.

And what of his own leader, Theresa May, the woman who sacked him from his role as a Government adviser for backing plans to allow a “meaningful vote” on the final Brexit deal.

The man who has been affectionately nicknamed “Tarzan” within the Tory Party because of his abrasive manner and long flowing blond hair, has no doubts. ”She won’t fight the next election as the leader of the Conservative Party. But at the moment the warring tribes have an interest in keeping her in power because they can’t agree on a successor.”

Intriguingly Heseltine will not suggest any names – at least not out loud. “I have no idea who in the front rank of Conservative politics will come up with a credible policy for the national self-interest of this country.”

Mischievously, he added: “Like everyone, I wait and see, ” side-stepping the fact that many in the party are waiting to see the preferred leadership candidates of grandees such as Heseltine, Michael Howard and Norman Lamont.

And what does Heseltine think of Boris Johnson, the enigmatic Foreign Secretary whose leadership hopes are rapidly fading?

The Peer is damning in his back-handed praise of the old Etonian celebrity politician: ”We all like Boris, he makes us laugh.“ There’s a BUT and it is a stinging one: “I want to know what people think, not just whether they can make good jokes.”

His view of Johnson is shaped by the Foreign Secretary”s decision to enthusiastically support the Leave campaign, after heavily flirting with Remain, and then playing as big a role as anyone in selling Brexit to voters during last year’s referendum campaign.

In Heseltine’s view, Johnson is to blame for the “ greatest constitutional crisis of modern times.”

He also revealed that he had advised the Prime Minister to appoint three Brexiteers to the three Cabinet posts in charge of severing ties with Europe. The result was the selection of Johnson, David Davis and Liam Fox to handle the Brexit process and deliver on their own promises from the Brexit referendum campaign.

Again, Heseltine is damning in saying that he believes they are “the right people to prove the job can’t be done.”

“It was the only political answer I could see – to let the Brexiteers prove that their policies work. Patently they don’t. There are no policies. They are just floundering along and, I’m afraid, they must be allowed to continue to do that until the public gets the message.”

by Bob Graham

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