Editing Michael Heseltine (section)

===1990 leadership contest===
{{Further|1990 Conservative Party leadership election}}
Heseltine was being quietly urged to challenge Thatcher for the party leadership by [[David Mellor]], the Arts Minister, but in a carefully worded formula Heseltine had repeatedly insisted that he could "not foresee ... circumstances" in which he would do so. Then came the Conservative defeat at the [[1990 Eastbourne by-election|Eastbourne by-election]] (18 October) and the resignation of Deputy Prime Minister [[Geoffrey Howe]] (1 November).<ref name=crick338-342>Crick 1997, pp. 338–42.</ref>

Heseltine wrote a six-page public letter to his local Association chairman, calling for more regard for the wide range of opinions in the party. Heseltine then left for the Middle East to visit King [[Hussein of Jordan]] and Israeli Prime Minister [[Yitzhak Shamir]]. Association officers sent him a 97-word reply (5 November) saying that they supported Thatcher's leadership. The party's regional agent had been present at their meeting, but they insisted he had not interfered with their reply. Round about the same time Thatcher's press secretary [[Bernard Ingham]] briefed journalists that Heseltine had "lit the blue touch paper then retired", although he denied having demanded that Heseltine "put up or shut up"; the ''Daily Mail'' front page asked "does he have the courage?" and ''The Times'' commented that if he did not throw his hat into the ring he would deserve to have it "stuffed down his throat". Thatcher brought the annual leadership election forward by a fortnight, causing [[Alastair Campbell]]  to write in the ''Daily Mirror'' that "Tarzan the Tory Ape Man had made a right monkey of himself". A week later, after meeting Heseltine, the constituency officers issued another letter saying that they regretted how their reply had been construed as criticism.<ref name=crick338-342/>

Then came Howe's resignation speech in the Commons on 13 November, in which he launched a strong attack on Thatcher;<ref name=crick344-345>Crick 1997, pp. 344–5.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|author=Department of the Official Report (Hansard), House of Commons, Westminster |url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199091/cmhansrd/1990-11-13/Debate-1.html#Debate-1_spnew49 |title=House of Commons Hansard Debates for 13 November 1990 |publisher=Publications.parliament.uk |access-date=29 April 2010}}</ref> next morning Heseltine announced his candidacy for the leadership, saying that over 100 MPs had asked him to stand and that he was better placed than Thatcher to lead the Tories to a fourth election victory.<ref name=crick344-345/>

During the subsequent leadership election on 20 November, he polled 152 votes (40.9%) in the first round of voting by Conservative MPs, enough to prevent an outright Thatcher victory. (The rules required an incumbent leader to obtain a majority of at least 15% on a first ballot; Thatcher polled 204 votes, equal to 54.8%).  Heseltine was thought by many pundits to be on course to beat her in the second ballot as many Conservative MPs were now rumoured to be ready to switch support from Thatcher and only 27 would had to have done so to give Heseltine the overall majority he would need in the second ballot.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/20/newsid_4318000/4318718.stm | work=BBC News | title=1990: Thatcher fails to win party mandate | date=20 November 1990}}</ref>

With lukewarm support from her Cabinet, most of whom had told her that she could not win and faced with the bitter prospect of a Heseltine premiership, Thatcher withdrew from the contest and announced her resignation on the morning of 22 November, although she continued to serve as prime minister until a new party leader had been chosen.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/22/newsid_2549000/2549189.stm | work=BBC News | title=1990: Thatcher quits as prime minister | date=22 November 1990}}</ref>

Heseltine was disappointed not to receive the support of old allies on the second ballot; these included [[Secretary of State for Defence]] [[Tom King, Baron King of Bridgwater|Tom King]] (whom he asked in vain to second his nomination, but who was angry at a leadership contest when British troops were soon to [[Gulf War|go to war in Kuwait]] and supported [[Douglas Hurd]]), [[Cecil Parkinson]] and [[Norman Lamont]] (who managed [[John Major]]'s campaign).<ref>Michael Heseltine, ''Life in the Jungle'', [[Hodder & Stoughton]], 2000, {{ISBN|0-340-73915-0}}, p. 370.</ref> Over the weekend on 24–25 November, many Conservative MPs were faced with the anger of their local party members who overwhelmingly supported Thatcher but did not at that time have a vote in leadership elections, and opinion polls showed that chancellor [[John Major]] would also boost Conservative support if leader (previously Heseltine's unique selling-point). Heseltine had never done much to court support among younger MPs the way Major had, and was seen as aloof even by his own supporters. In the second ballot, a week after the first, Heseltine's vote actually fell to 131 (just over 35%) as some MPs had voted for him in the first ballot as a protest against or to try to oust Thatcher but preferred to vote for other candidates now that they had a wider choice. [[John Major]], with 185 votes, was only two votes short of an overall majority. Heseltine immediately and publicly conceded defeat, announcing that he would vote for Major if the third ballot went ahead (it did not, as Hurd, who had finished a distant third, also conceded).<ref>Crick 1997, pp. 353–8.</ref>

Although for the rest of his career Heseltine's role in Thatcher's downfall earned him enmity from Thatcher's supporters in the Conservative party, this opprobrium was not universal. In a reference to the reluctance of the Cabinet to support Thatcher on the second ballot, [[Edward Leigh]] said of Heseltine: "At least he stabbed her in the front".<ref>Crick 1997, p. 356.</ref>

Heseltine believed that he would have defeated Thatcher if she had contested the second ballot. It has been suggested that ''he'' should have withdrawn after weakening her on the first ballot, and that he would have been restored to the Cabinet whether or not she continued as prime minister; he writes that this was never seriously suggested at the time.<ref>Michael Heseltine, ''Life in the Jungle'', [[Hodder & Stoughton]], 2000, {{ISBN|0-340-73915-0}}, pp. 369–74.</ref>