Interview with Michael Heseltine




 
 
 
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                                 ON THE RECORD 
 
                                                            
RECORDED FROM TRANSMISSION BBC-1                                 DATE:  1.12.96
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JOHN HUMPHRYS:                         Good afternoon. Can anyone save the 
Tories' bacon at the next election? Michael Heseltine perhaps? I'll be asking 
him what he'd do.   
 
                                       Referendums: are they really a 
substitute for proper government? And Europe...are our partners trying to get 
rid of our veto by the back door?  All that after the news read by Chris Lowe.  
                                        
NEWS 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              Let the people vote. Labour seems to be 
in love with the idea of referendums but might Mr Blair be using them to go 
over the heads of his awkward squad? We'll have a report. 
 
                                       And Britain is seen as the awkward squad 
in Europe. Our partners don't like it and they've cooked up a scheme, 
apparently, to go over our heads. 
 
                                       But first, domestic politics. Last week 
the Conservative come-back was supposed to begin.  The budget was meant to 
launch them confidently into the election campaign and begin the process of 
hacking away at Labour's enormous lead in the polls.  But the budget didn't 
exactly have the nation dancing in the streets.  The Chancellor acknowledged 
that he was giving a bit with one hand and taking a bit with the other.  And 
then, two days later, he was admitting something else.  In his typically robust 
way Mr Clarke came close to acknowledging that the Tory Party is virtually 
ungovernable: "There are sometimes parties that are simply not capable of being 
led" he said.  After all, he said, we should be "beating the Labour Party out 
of sight."   
 
                                       Well the man whose job it is to help 
lead the Tories is the Deputy Prime Minister Michael Heseltine. When I spoke to 
him earlier this morning I asked him why he thought they weren't beating Labour 
out of sight. 
 
MICHAEL HESELTINE MP:                  Well we are going to and the reason for 
that is we have the most successful economy in Europe, every day the news gets 
better and the interesting thing of course, for all the comment of the 
politicians and the commentators we're going to have a record Christmas, and 
that shows beyond per-adventure that people know that they're better off.  
 
HUMPHRYS:                              You say we are going to - when - you've 
been saying that for a very, very long time. 
 
HESELTINE:                             You look at the indicators, you can see 
what's happening.  
 
HUMPHRYS:                              When - when are you going to start 
beating them.  
 
HESELTINE:                             You can see the polls, you can see the 
by-Elections, you can see public confidence, negative equity's almost a thing 
of the past.  House prices have been rising you can see that, unemployment is 
falling, retail sales are rising.  All the classic indicators that people know 
that things are now much better and that always leads to an improved political 
climate.  It will because people are going to have to make a choice. Of course 
they don't have to make it now but they are going to have to at the next 
Election, are they going to risk it all, are they going to put Labour in charge 
with all their intervention, their tax policies, their friendliness to the 
unions, their Social Chapter, all the risks that they would then bring with 
them that would put at risk the enormous gains which this economy is now 
achieving.  
 
HUMPHRYS:                              All that might be fine, we'll come back 
to the tax thing in a minute.  All that might be fine if you had a year or two 
years or whatever to go.  You've got a few months - maybe five months left.  
What is this cataclysmic event going to be that is suddenly going to change 
people. 
 
HESELTINE:                             There is no cataclysmic event. 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              But I mean at this rate it's going to be 
2002 before you're ahead.  
 
HESELTINE:                             This is a drift of opinion and you can 
see it happening. 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              Drift is right. 
 
HESELTINE:                             No well it's happening. We were down 
what twenty-five points in the polls a few months ago, we're now up into the 
thirties and you can just see the way in which people are suddenly realising 
all those sacrifices, all those tough decisions, all that leadership which the 
Prime Minister displayed is developing into a very successful economic climate. 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              I mean it's pretty glacial isn't it. If 
you could wait until the year... 
 
HESELTINE:                             You keep saying that...it is not 
glacial.  
 
HUMPHRYS:                              If you look at the polls.  
 
HESELTINE:                             I've said they've moved very 
significantly and anyway most pollsters believe that they give a false 
impression.  
 
HUMPHRYS:                              Not that false.  
 
HESELTINE:                             They do believe that they are still 
giving a false impression.  I'm not saying today that we are yet in the lead, 
I'm not saying that, I don't believe that as a matter of fact because I think 
that it is taking time for people to realise that the benefits they're enjoying 
in higher confidence in the shops, higher house prices, more housing starts. 
All of that are the consequence of the decisions the Government took and that 
message has to come across. As it comes across people will start saying: now 
what is the risk of Labour and they will see those risks evermore starkly.  
 
HUMPHRYS:                              Or, they might say: this was the 
Government that promised us tax cuts and moreover that are telling us in the 
poster campaigns that they are running that we have had those tax cuts. The 
reality is the precise opposite.   Even in terms of direct taxation they 
haven't had it. They're paying more - fifty pounds more per family according to 
the Treasury's own figures. 
 
HESELTINE:                             The fact is that there have been 
twenty-five Tory tax cuts and that is a very fair.... 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              And loads of Tory tax increases and they 
end up paying more tax than they were paying.  
 
HESELTINE:                             Rather fewer.  
 
HUMPHRYS:                              The Treasury's got it wrong? 
 
HESELTINE:                             No, no it is the way that you 
extrapolate the figures.  What has actually happened is that people's incomes 
have gone up very significantly and therefore on the higher income they paid 
rather more tax than they would have done on the lower income.  But the fact is 
that they are much better off.  
 
HUMPHRYS:                              The average family is fifty pounds worse 
off according to the Treasury.  
 
HESELTINE:                             I'm so sorry John that is not the case.  
 
HUMPHRYS:                              Well the Treasury says it is. 
 
HESELTINE:                             The Treasury figures quite clearly are 
that this year coming alone people will be three hundred and seventy pounds 
better off after tax, after inflation, that's this year alone.  If you take the 
time from the Budget, I mean..sorry from the Election, you'll find the figure 
is nearly one thousand one hundred pounds.  
 
HUMPHRYS:                              Okay let's take the time from the 
Election.  According to the Treasury and these are House of Commons library 
figures we got from the Treasury, in the past forty-eight hours, since the last 
Election the average family in terms of direct taxation is fifty pounds worse 
off.  You told them you were going to cut taxes.   
 
HESELTINE:                             You keep repeating the same mistake.  
I've just told you the... 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              Well the Treasury's not often mistaken 
on these matters.  
 
HESELTINE:                             The Treasury have confirmed the figures 
because the Chancellor wouldn't have used them otherwise.  
 
HUMPHRYS:                              You're using different figures from me, 
I'm talking about... 
 
HESELTINE:                             You are selecting one particular 
statistic and using it to give a false impression.  
 
HUMPHRYS:                              Because it's the one you've chosen 
yourself. 
 
HESELTINE:                             The one that I've chosen is the one the 
Chancellor used which is the right one. 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              Well... 
 
HESELTINE:                             I'm sorry, that is the right figure. 
Three hundred and seventy pounds next year for the average family and that 
is...you've only got to take, everybody knows interest rates have come down 
very significantly. That is a huge release of cash into people's spending 
capabilities. 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              Well how about denying the figure I've 
given you, how about denying the fifty pounds figure. 
 
HESELTINE:                             How can you reduce the level of tax, 
income tax from twenty-five to twenty-three p in the pound and say that people 
are worse off.  How can you do that, how can you do that.
 
HUMPHRYS:                              Because you...you can ask me a question 
and I will answer it.  You cut their allowances, you push up National 
Insurance, that's how you do it, that's what the Treasury says you've done.  
 
HESELTINE:                             But you were talking about direct taxes. 
I'm now talking about the overall impact of all taxes.  When you take the 
overall impact of all taxes the issue is very clear, people next year on 
average will be three hundred and seventy pounds better off and since the 
Election one thousand one hundred pounds better off and it's just worth 
comparing that one thousand one hundred with something like sixty pounds in the 
previous Labour Government.  It's the most extraordinary transformation of 
living standards, look around you.  I mean before we leave it, look around, 
look at the shops, look at what people are buying, look at the cars, look at 
the refrigerators, look at the television sets, look at the PCs, look at the 
videos and tell me people are worse off.  It is preposterous. 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              If you're telling me that throughout our 
history we get better off I would agree with you.  But if you are telling me 
that you have cut direct taxes as you promised to do in 1992, I am telling you 
- and you've not denied it because you can't because the Treasury says so - 
that is not true. 
 
HESELTINE:                             John you keep saying this... 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              But it's the Treasury who says... 
 
HESELTINE:                             ...but I'm telling you you cannot be 
anything other than better off in direct terms if income tax is twenty-three in 
the pound..pence in the pound as opposed to twenty-five. There are seven 
million people in this country today paying a standard rate of twenty p in the 
pound as opposed to twenty-five, you cannot sustain the argument. 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              Let's leave it at that then and move on 
to another reason why I suggest, perhaps, you're not doing as well at the 
moment as you would like to be doing.  Ken Clarke, I quoted him to you earlier 
when I said you ought now to be beating the Labour Party out of sight.  The 
reason he gave why you're not doing that at the moment is because this Party, 
this Conservative Party is one that is not capable of being led, there's your 
problem isn't it.  
 
HESELTINE:                             Now don't go on. Look I read the.. 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              And I heard it.. 
 
HESELTINE:                             I read the PA text.   
 
HUMPHRYS:                              Should have heard the whole interview 
perhaps. 
 
HESELTINE:                             Do you want to interview me, and let me 
speak, or do you want to keep yammering on interrupting me?   
 
HUMPHRYS:                              Go on I won't yammer.  
 
HESELTINE:                             The fact is I read the PA text, and 
there was no grounds whatsoever for the headline that is associated with that 
text.  What Ken Clarke was doing was discussing with Jimmy Young, who is a very 
impressive interviewer, and allows people to say their thing, 
uncharacteristically if I may say so, what he was doing was discussing an 
anonymous Tory backbencher, so somebody said, under a Cassandra column, in an 
extreme left wing paper called Tribune, who had said that there were problems 
with the leadership of the Conservative Party.  We don't even know such an MP 
exists, we don't even know it isn't Mandelson up to his dirty tricks department 
again. We don't know it isn't the same guy who savaged Tony Blair the week 
before, we've no idea.  But Ken Clarke was talking about that particular 
phenomenon, and did say, that in that context, about that person, it reveals an 
inability to create a leadership situation, and so it does, if such a person 
exists, and then there is only one of them. 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              Right, can I ask you a question now? 
 
HESELTINE:                             Yes please, it's the best way out, I'll 
get a chance to say a few words, now it's your turn, and I won't interrupt, 
like you.  All the time. 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              What Ken Clarke said was 'I congratulate 
John Major on his leadership qualities', but he went on to say, 'there are some 
parties that are not capable of being led'.  Now if you're telling me that he 
based that - some parties are not capable of being led - on the words of one 
anonymous writer in a Labour publication, I'm going to suggest to you that Ken 
Clarke must have lost his brain for a moment there, he doesn't do that, he knew 
exactly what he was saying. 
 
HESELTINE:                             Ken Clarke does not lose his brain.  
I've read the text of what he actually said, and there is only one 
interpretation from it, and that is he was talking about this particular 
article.  And the fact of the matter is, Ken Clarke, along with the Prime 
Minister, is presiding over the economic miracle that is recognised 
internationally as having transformed this country.  I mean it's quite 
extraordinary to me that we sit in a swelter of gloom in this country, moaning 
on about this, that and the other, when when this Government was elected the 
economy was seen as the sick man of Europe.  Today it's the Enterprise Centre 
of Europe, praised by international commentators, economic observers, and the 
recipient of massive inward investment by hard nosed foreign companies who know 
where the best place to invest is. 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              Well, let me try and explain why there 
was this gloom on the part of your own Chancellor then, this party that's not 
capable of being led.  It's because every time there's a bit of a problem, or 
perceived to be a bit of a problem on the backbenchers, your own party, they 
rise in revolt.  Now they did it over the Single European Currency 
regulations.  You had a story going, you tried to get a story going about 
Labour's tax bombshell, and you told me about Labour's taxes earlier, so 
perhaps we can not touch on that for the moment, but that got wiped off the 
front pages because of another so called back bench rebellion, demanding a 
debate on this and that, forcing the Prime Minister to do something he didn't 
want to do, forcing Ken Clarke to stand up the day before the budget in the 
House of Commons and make a statement to pacifiy, or try to pacify, the 
backbenchers, the party that is incapable of being led. 
 
HESELTINE:                             Well, the fact is the party was led, the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer made a statement, it turned out that everything the 
Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer had been saying was true, 
and the preoccupation and concern about the matter therefore was set on one 
side.  Now, it is very important to recognise that in the context of Europe 
there are divisions right across British society.  Let's have no illusions, you 
take industry, there are people who believe one thing, people who believe in 
another. You can take party politics in all parties, you should have heard 
Peter Shaw, from the backbenches of the Labour Party, saying the sort of things 
he was saying when we were having that debate, he was savaging the position of 
the front bench of the Labour Party, savaging it, and I don't actually get in a 
great state about that, because he always has been a raving anti-European and 
he doubtless will die a raving anti-European, that's up to him.  But the fact 
is there are divisions in all parties, in every side of society, and throughout 
the industrial and commercial world, it's a very important issue. 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              And what we've now got is Mr Major, 
reportedly, saying this morning, because he has been under so much pressure, 
and because Tony Blair has stolen his thunder yet again with another one of his 
promises this time to hold a referendum on the single European currency, as 
you've done under certain circumstances, Mr Blair giving assurances apparently 
about to give assurances, that you will not go into a Single European Currency 
in 1999 come what may.  Is that right? 
 
HESELTINE:                             I love this stuff.  Tony Blair, in your 
words, has stolen his thunder.  What has Tony Blair done?  He's made exactly 
the same statement that John Major made about the referendum.  No you said 
'stolen his thunder'. 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              Because he hadn't done it previously. 
 
HESELTINE:                             Yes, but John Major gave the lead.  John 
Major was out in front.  
 
HUMPHRYS:                              Is he going to be out in front with this 
as well now? 
 
HESELTINE:                             Tony Blair, like a sort of gambling 
poodle, lollops along and says 'me too', and you say 'stolen his thunder'.  
It's Tony Blair all over.   The nuclear disarmament issue, he's now come round 
to our view.  He was anti-Europe, now he's for Europe.  He was in favour of 
nationalisation, now he likes privatisation.  This is the man who can never be 
relied upon to stand on anything if public opinion even trembles he's out there 
with a soundbite trying to get ahead of it.  You know that definition of a 
politician?  American politician, waits to see which way the crowd in running, 
rushes in front and shouts 'follow me'.  That's Tony Blair, you cannot trust a 
man like that to run this country. 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              Is Mr Major now taking the initiative 
again, and is he prepared to say to his Party 'we will not go into a Single 
European Currency in 1999'. 
 
HESELTINE:                              No, he won't say that.  He will not 
add, or detract from the statement that he's very properly made, and which is 
totally consistent with the one thing that will determine the Prime Minister's 
view, the one thing, and that's British self interest.  He knows perfectly 
well, and he's spelt it out, extremely articulately and very informally in a 
sense, at the Tory party conference in Bournemouth when he answered a question, 
it wasn't a set speech, he just got out there and he talked to the people 
straight from the shoulder, about the issue, and the issue is very, very 
simple.  Discussions are going on about what a single currency regime would 
look like in Europe, if it happens.  If it happens, one way or the other, in or 
out, it is of interest to us, because we are part of the time zone, because we 
have the city of London and the massive financial interests that represents.  
So we have to be part of any discussion about what it would be like, whether 
we're in or out, and in that circumstance, we're taking part, Ken Clarke is 
taking part, in the detailed discussions.  Now in those circumstances, if you 
go along to people and you say to them, 'oh we're only here for the ride, we're 
going to have nothing to do with this, nothing to do with it at all', your 
ability to influence the discussion is zilch.  They'll simply say if you're not 
going to have any part in it, don't waste our time discussing what it could be 
like, push off, is what they would say. 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              So what are the circumstances then. 
We know the circumstances in which you will not go into a Single European 
Currency, we've heard them many times.   What are the circumstances in which 
you would? 
 
HESELTINE:                             Well the circumstances in a sentence are 
these.  If the Government determined that having all the facts and all the 
circumstances, and all the timings in front of it, it believed that Britain had 
more to gain from going in than staying out. 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              So why might it have more to gain?   
Give me your own interpretation, your own vision of why, what those things 
might be that might decide us to go in, as early as 1999 even? 
 
HESELTINE:                             Well, I think the truth is that the 
timing is likely in terms of the actual introduction of council, to be later 
than that, as people know, but of course decisions would be needed earlier than 
that, so there is a time scale, an evolving time scale, and I think it's 
nit-picking to try and talk about a particular date on that John. 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              Alright, just give me your vision then, 
of those circumstances in which we would go in. 
 
HESELTINE:                             Well, the circumstances on which we 
would go in would depend upon whether economic convergence had been achieved, 
whether those countries that wanted to and were prepared to become members, had 
achieved sufficient economic convergence, and had been able to do it over a 
period in which confidence was gained, that it wasn't a sort of one-off fixing 
of the books so-to-speak, that there was no watering of the disciplines that 
would give people confidence about the continuation of the proper regimes, and 
in those circumstances we would have to decide whether Britain had more to gain 
than staying out than going in.  That would be the case, and if you went in 
there would be arguments, that people would say: Well, you're going to have one 
currency, so you cut out the exchange costs of changing from currency to 
currency.   If you are inside it will be argued: You're inside a big currency 
bloc and therefore you have the strength of a currency bloc, and you might have 
a more stable ability to influence world market forces.  It would be argued 
that the disciplines of the currency bloc, if they were the right disciplines, 
if might in fact give you lower levels of inflation and interest levels in this 
country than outside.  It would be argued that if you were outside that you 
would in any case have to adjust your economic policy to take account of what 
was happening.   You've got all these sorts of arguments... 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              I take your point that there are.... 
 
HESELTINE:                             ... and there were arguments on the 
other side, but those are some of the arguments that would be paraded. 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              Right, and those are the advantages, yes 
I take your point.  
 
HUMPHRYS:                              But what are the circumstances in which 
those might come about.  Can you envisage those circumstances? 
 
HESELTINE:                             Well, I think my answers have already 
given you the indication, because I've explained that you have got to get the 
economic convergence, you've got to have the criteria, you've got to prove that 
you can do it, you've got to believe in the instruments and the institutions 
that are going to monitor it.  You've got to believe that the influence of this 
country in that process would be sufficient to protect your vital interests.  
And these are dramatic political issues. 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              And when you talk about economic 
convergence you mean more than just the financial things.  You mean employment, 
you mean growth prospects, you mean all that sort of thing do you, apart from 
the obvious financial inflation, interest rates and all that? 
 
HESELTINE:                             Well, the essential standards by which 
the formuli had been drawn up are much more to do with the financial and fiscal 
arrangements than they are about the.... 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              Absolutely.  You seem to be saying more 
than that. 
 
HESELTINE:                             No, I'm not saying more than that.  But 
the judgement that you make will not be just about the arid calculation of 
figures.  The judgement you will make will be one about the likelihood of it 
continuing, about the effects of transfer payments, depending on the levels of 
varying unemployment in different parts of the bloc that happened to be 
considering going forward.   I mean it's a very big issue, and just the fact 
that we're discussing it now really won't make anyone interested in the subject 
realise how complex a judgement it is.   That's why John ... let me go back to 
why we're having this discussion, because the Prime Minister said we do not 
know the answers to these questions, and we cannot know until we get to a 
position where the facts are clear.   In Britain's self-interest we must be 
part of a dialogue, but we must not take a decision until we can see what suits 
this country. 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              Alright. 
 
HESELTINE:                             And brilliantly, he's secured that 
position in the Maastricht Treaty. 
 
HUMPHRYS                               Okay, but let's look at the politics of 
this.  I mean you've spent a little bit of time there explaining what the 
advantages would be.   There will be people in your Party listening to you and 
saying: There he goes again, Michael Heseltine, Euro-enthusiast.  He's crazy 
about Europe"   They will hate every word you have just said.  Pretty much.... 
 
HESELTINE:                             It's very interesting what you've just 
said.  Now, when you started saying to me: Now we all know what the 
disadvantages are, you didn't want me to talk about that. 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              Because we talk about it a great deal, 
and it's helpful to talk about the.... 
 
HESELTINE:                             Exactly, exactly.   At that stage I said 
to myself, now I know what Humphrys is up to.  He's trying to get me to talk 
about the advantages. 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              Reasonable enough.  
 
HESELTINE:                             Oh, yes, yes. So that we'd have a whole 
focus about the potential advantages during the course of which all the time   
I said these are the advantages, there are disadvantages.  So that you then, 
having got it all written down there, can take.... 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              We write off script as they say... 
 
HESELTINE:                             You may not have a job next week if 
you're off script you know. 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              I decide on the questions, I can tell 
you that.  
 
HESELTINE:                             So that once I've talked about potential 
advantages, academic advantages, you can then say, "Ah now, you will have 
divided the Tory Party... 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              I didn't say.... 
 
HESELTINE:                             ...and we're back on this tedious 
debate....you said tedious... 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              It's not tedious at all. 
 
HESELTINE:                             You said: lots of people out there in 
your Party are saying, "Ah there he goes again".   
 
HUMPHRYS:                              And is not that the truth? 
 
HESELTINE:                             That is your attempt to get me into a 
position where we have this stale, arid business about division. 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              It isn't stale and arid if a Government 
is hamstrung by its backbenchers. 
 
HESELTINE:                             What I was trying to do was to answer 
your questions, intelligent questions as they were, but it was quite apparent 
to me from the moment you started, that you were trying to take me to the 
position where you could drop me into a Tory Party row, and my judgement of you 
is sufficiently accurate to... 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              If only I were as Machiavellian as you 
suggest.  
 
HESELTINE:                             ...to realise that what you were doing, 
and the moment I completed the answer that's what you did. 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              But I am putting to you the...there is 
nothing wrong with talking politics, you are the master of it, everybody says 
and what we're talking about, if I can just finish the question, what we are 
talking about here is a Prime Minister - perhaps - and a Deputy Prime Minister 
- perhaps - looking at the possible advantages of Britain going into a single 
European currency, now, though there may well be advantages - the whole notion 
- the whole concept of a single European currency and Britain's membership of 
it is an anathema for many people in your Party, that makes it difficult to 
govern, that surely is a valid question, that isn't me trying to stir up 
trouble - it's pointing to an obvious problem facing the Prime Minister, we 
have seen it in the past and I am suggesting to you we will see it again in the 
future. 
 
HESELTINE:                             We faced exactly that decision in 
the 1970's over Europe itself, we faced exactly that decision over the Single 
Market in 1985.  It has always been like that but in the end if you are a Prime 
Minister and you lead a great Party you'll have to make up your mind, you have 
to persuade people and the Prime Minister very rightly has said I couldn't 
begin to do that until I have persuaded myself - I can't persuade myself until 
I have the facts - when I have got the facts I will then make up my mind and I 
will persuade my Party, that is exactly what Mr. Heath and Mrs Thatcher had to 
do - interestingly enough in the teeth of opposition from the Labour Party who 
are always against these things.  
 
HUMPHRYS:                              Yes, but you expect the two Parties to 
be opposed to it, but I mean we have now got the situation, we had the 
Chancellor going off to a conference, the ECOFIN Conference, the Financial 
Ministers Conference in Brussels tomorrow, and he is being watched very closely 
by members of your Party who are afraid that even if we are not - even though 
we have our opt out from the Single European Currency - there are regulations 
there that will affect Britain - whether we go in or not - and they are 
terrified of that, aren't they right to be nervous of that? 
 
HESELTINE:                             They are right to be interested but they 
are wrong to be nervous because the Chancellor of Exchequer is in every way 
competent to fight for this British interest, that's what he's doing.  And 
where they would have overwhelming cause for concern is if he wasn't there 
because if he wasn't there just think what the people who were there would do 
to Britain's self interest. Do you think if Ken Clarke said: well I don't think 
I'll turn up on ECOFIN on Monday.  Do you think the French and the Germans and 
all these other people well say: well the Brits aren't here we better be fair 
to them, we better see that British self-interest is protected.  Do you think 
they'll do that? 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              Yes but even though he's there, even 
though he's there, he can't give the copper bottomed guarantees that they want. 
He offered a qualification himself in the House of Commons last week, as near 
copper bottomed as we can get as I recall is what he said.  
 
HESELTINE:                             But you see, I mean Ken Clarke is a very 
experienced negotiator and I've had some small experience of negotiating in 
Europe with our European colleagues. They're all very tough you know, they 
don't give an inch, they go on arguing until the ink is dry on the paper for 
French and German self-interest. The issue is whether we want to fight for 
British self-interest. This Government does, that's why we go to these 
conferences and constantly fight our corner.  Sometimes we're unpopular because 
we say no. The Prime Minister said no at Maastricht, that's the danger of Tony 
Blair. He has said he's never going to be isolated in Europe. I can tell you 
how to get a position where you're never isolated, roll-over.  
 
HUMPHRYS:                              But, if you're doing as Mr Clarke is 
doing, because he has to, you've made it prefectly clear he has to, saying I 
can't actually give you these copper bottomed guarantees that you want on these 
regulations. You can understand why your backbenchers are saying: well this is 
a bit frightening isn't it, we've got to keep an eye on what these guys are up 
to.   This is why I raise the question of politics that you were so dismissive 
about. 
 
HESELTINE:                             You're now talking about what comes out 
of ECOFIN on Monday. I think you may find rather less comes out of ECOFIN on 
Monday than you think. But the fact is that these discussions will be going on 
through to the Dublin Summit and maybe beyond that. Who knows when these issues 
will be resolved. That's why Ken can't give you guarantees because until the 
documents are agreed you cannot guarantee what's going to be in them. 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              They want those guarantees don't they. 
 
HESELTINE:                             John, they're very sophisticated these 
politicians. They know there's a process of negotiation going on. You cannot 
know the outcome of a negotiation until the documents are signed. There's no 
question of anything being signed and delivered at ECOFIN on Monday.  
 
HUMPHRYS:                              Final ten seconds. You promised a 
majority of sixty at the next Election for the Conservatives it must be noted. 
 
HESELTINE:                             Of course. 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              Is that still it? 
 
HESELTINE:                             Absolutely. 
 
HUMPHRYS:                              Sixty? 
 
HESELTINE:                             Yes we're going that way.  
 
HUMPHRYS:                              Michael Heseltine thank you very much 
indeed.  
 
HESELTINE:                             Thank you.