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Michael Heseltine
Michael Heseltine was born in 1933 was educated at Shrewsbury School and Oxford University. He became President of the Oxford Union in 1954 before briefly becoming an accountant. He spent some time doing his National Service before becoming self-employed as a property developer and magazine publisher.
He contested the safe Labour seat of Gower in 1959 and then a marginal Coventry seat in 1964 before entering Parliament in 1966 as the MP for Tavistock.After the Conservatives won power in 1970 Heseltine spent some time as a junior Minister at the Departments of Transport, Environment and Industry. Under Margaret Thatcher's leadership, Heseltine was the shadow spokesman on Industry from 1974 to 1979 before entering the Cabinet in 1979 as the Secretary of State for Environment after the Conservative's election victory.
In 1983 Heseltine became the Secretary of State for Defence, before his controversial resignation over the Westlands affair in 1986. He then returned to the back-benches before contesting the leadership of the Conservative Party in 1990. Although he did not win, his challenge meant Margaret Thatcher was defeated and John Major became Prime Minister. Heseltine became the Secretary of State for Environment again until the 1992 General Election. After the Conservatives won again in 1992, Heseltine became the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry from 1992 until 1995 and then Deputy Prime Minister from 1995 to 1997.
Although Heseltine had been expected to stand in the 1997 Conservative Party leadership, his health and heart problems meant that he did not contest the leadership, but instead supported the unsuccessful candidature of Kenneth Clarke. He stood down from his seat of Henley in 2001 which he had held since 1974 and was elevated to the Peerage as Baron Heseltine of Thenford. Heseltine was critical of the leadership of Iain Duncan-Smith, but supported David Cameron in his leadership bid, and has since had a role in the development of urban affairs policy since 2006.