Heseltine leaves the stage

Heseltine Backs Clarke as he Leaves the Frontline

The former Deputy Prime Minister, who was a key member of both John Major's and Margaret Thatcher's Cabinets, said that as he had decided not to go for the "biggy" - to run for the leadership - he assumed he would not be in the next shadow cabinet.

But he coupled his declaration with a warning to the party not to vote a Euro-sceptic into the leadership, saying this risked stoking party disunity and losing the next election.

He believed Mr Clarke, the former Chancellor, was the leadership candidate most likely to produce policies which would reunite the party. Mr Heseltine said, "I have assumed I will not be a member of a shadow cabinet. I have more or less got off the train. You have to, in the end, face up to this in public life.

"Whilst I intend to remain an active MP and represent my constituents, I assume that having explained I wouldn't stand for the leadership, at that point I was telling people I would expect the party to move on," he said.

"I have assumed that I wouldn't be any part of the shadow cabinet. I think if you've got to my position, where I've been Deputy Prime Minister, and you don't go on for the biggy, you're not going to continue in the second position," he told BBC's On The Record.

Mr Heseltine was made Environment Secretary by Margaret Thatcher when she swept to power in 1979, and was later Defence Secretary until he dramatically walked out of her Cabinet in a row over Westland Helicopters in January 1986.

He will be remembered as the man who was nearly Prime Minister. It was his failed leadership challenge which prompted Mrs Thatcher's fall from power in November 1990.

And in the leadership contest of 1995, he was reported to have struck a deal with Mr Major which resulted in him being made deputy Premier in return for not trying to topple the then Prime Minister.