A FORMER Tory minister has warned the Conservative Party it will never get back into power if it panders "to the likes of Nigel Farage".
Michael Heseltine – who served as a Tory MP between 1966 and 2001 – sent out a stark warning to his party on the BBC's Politics Live, suggesting that much political discourse from the likes of Farage and Donald Trump was purely about "racial tensions and hatred".
A poll last week showed Reform performing better than Labour and the Conservatives for the first time.
Heseltine, 91, is releasing a book this week entitled From Acorns to Oaks: An Urgent Agenda to Rebuild Britain and was asked about his claim within it that the Conservatives cannot win another election if they lurch to the right.
Asked if that is what they are doing, Heseltine said: "It’s what the whole political system is doing in this country and across Europe.
"What do you think Mr Trump is doing when he says the immigrants are all criminals and this sort of stuff? What do you think Farage is doing when he’s talking about getting our country back?
Lord Michael Heseltine: "It's all about racial hatred... we saw it with the Jews in the 1930s, we saw it with Enoch Powell in the 1960s... the Tory Party will not come back to power if it panders to the likes of Nigel Farage." pic.twitter.com/VMa3sta8NC
— Haggis_UK 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 (@Haggis_UK) January 27, 2025
"It’s all about racial hatred, racial tensions. We saw it with the Jews in the 1930s, we saw it with Enoch Powell in the 1960s, and we’ve now got a new version of it across Europe and in America.
"The Conservative Party will not come back to power if it panders to the likes of Nigel Farage."
Heseltine was a prominent figure in the governments of both Margaret Thatcher and John Major, serving as deputy prime minister under Major from 1995 to 1997. He has been in the Lords since he stopped being an MP.
His new book is described as a "potpourri of reminiscences" about his life and previously unexplored aspects of his political career. Within the pages, he sets out what he believes are the "policies that are urgently needed to unite the country by driving growth, increasing prosperity and restoring hope".
He has previously been extremely critical about Brexit. Ahead of the General Election he said it would be the “most dishonest in modern times” because neither of the main parties wanted to debate the consequences of the UK having left the EU.
He added no key problem affecting the UK can be “honestly addressed” without considering the impact of Brexit.
