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Conservative leadership battle is 'arms race to be the most Faragiste', Michael Heseltine says
The race to succeed Theresa May risks descending into a Nigel Farage lookalike contest, with consequences which could blight the Conservatives’ electoral prospects for a generation, Michael Heseltine has warned.The former deputy prime minister said the Tory Party is in danger of being captured by the “narrow nationalism and phobia-filled and poisonous politics” of Mr Farage, driving away millions of Conservative voters who support a Final Say referendum on EU membership.He warned that if the new prime minister rejects a public vote, he or she will be faced with the bleak alternatives of a harmful no-deal Brexit or a general election which could lead to a Jeremy Corbyn-led government.The peer, who had the Tory whip suspended after voting Liberal Democrat in last week’s European elections, said he would not be silenced or forced into betraying his belief in the EU project.Contenders in the leadership race have taken increasingly hardline positions on Brexit, with Esther McVey stating that the UK should “actively embrace” withdrawal without agreement and frontrunner Boris Johnson promising to ensure it happens on 31 October, “deal or no deal”.Newly declared contender James Cleverly said he was "Brexit tooth and claw", though he said no-deal was “not my preferred destination”.Ms McVey, Mr Johnson, Andrea Leadsom and Dominic Raab have all said they would be prepared to take the UK out of the EU without a deal in October. But foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt warned it would be “political suicide”.In a speech to mark his appointment as president of the European Movement, Lord Heseltine said he viewed the impending contest with “dread”.“The prospect of a new Prime Minister being chosen by perhaps little more than 100,000 Conservative Party members in the current circumstances fills me with dread,” he said.“There will be an arms race in which candidates vie against each other for who can be the most Faragiste.”Despite confident assurances from leadership candidate of their intention to renegotiate the withdrawal agreement obtained by Ms May last November, Lord Heseltine said that the new PM will soon themselves unable to get a new deal or to persuade the House of Commons to back any form of Brexit.Any attempt in these circumstances to run down the clock to a no-deal Brexit by default on Halloween would be “nothing short of a democratic and constitutional outrage”, he said.“If successful, the consequences for businesses, for young people and for the integrity of the United Kingdom itself would rightly be hung around the neck of the Conservative Party for a generation to come,” warned Lord Heseltine.But the alternative of a general election would be “similarly bleak”, with the Tories potentially forced into alliance with a newly-elected cohort of Brexit Party MPs.“The consequence would either be a Tory-led or a Corbyn-led minority hung Parliament that would settle nothing, or the prospect of the Conservative Party – the party of Disraeli, Churchill, Macmillan and Thatcher – in alliance with and captured by the narrow nationalism, phobia-filled and poisonous politics of Nigel Farage,” said Lord Heseltine.He added: ““Today, I want to appeal to every sensible Conservative MP, to potential leadership candidates, even to the Labour leader, not to force Brexit upon us now. I ask them to stand up, to speak out for our democratic right to have our say on Brexit.“Whether you want to leave the EU or to stay in, the only way to unlock the Brexit process in Parliament, the only way secure a stable majority in Parliament, the only way to legitimise the outcome so we can build a lasting settlement in the country is to give the people the final say.”
Michael Heseltine has had the Conservative Party whip suspended after saying he would vote for the Liberal Democrats in this week’s European parliament elections.
The Tory peer’s comments led to calls for him to be expelled from the party.
Lord Heseltine, a former deputy prime minister, said it was a “matter of conscience” and that he wanted to vote for a candidate who would oppose Brexit.
“I cannot, with a clear conscience, vote for my party when it is myopically focused on forcing through the biggest act of economic self-harm ever undertaken by a democratic government,” he said in an article in the Sunday Times.
His call for the Conservatives to move back to the political centre ground was supported by former PM Sir John Major.
But hardline Brexiteer MP Andrew Bridgen reacted with fury, telling BBC Radio 5 Live that “Lord Heseltine’s arrogance that he knows better than the majority of the electorate [is] really quite breathtaking”.
On Monday night a spokesman for the Tories said: “Lord Heseltine has given more than half a century of service to the Conservative Party, and his longstanding and sincerely held views on Europe are well understood.
“But, with his long experience, he will know that publicly endorsing the candidates of another party is not compatible with taking the Conservative whip in parliament.
“As a result, the chief whip in the House of Lords has informed Lord Heseltine that he will have the Conservative whip suspended. This will be reviewed if he is willing to support Conservative candidates at future elections.”
Lord Heseltine, 86, was a key figure in Sir John’s and Margaret Thatcher’s governments, and advised David Cameron.
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