Former Tory cabinet minister Michael Heseltine has revealed he tried to speak to Prime Minister Boris Johnson about Everton's new stadium and Liverpool's loss of World Heritage Status.
Mr Heseltine , a former Deputy Prime Minister, who was dubbed 'Minister for Merseyside' for his efforts to support Liverpool during its struggles in the 1980s, was speaking to comedian Matt Forde on his Political Party podcast.
The ex-cabinet minister, also known as Tarzan, was given the Freedom of Liverpool after his efforts in turning around the city's fortunes following the Toxteth riots and the problems faced in the 1980s.
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This included work to revamp the Albert Dock, organise the Garden Festival and standing up for Liverpool in cabinet meetings with Margaret Thatcher.
A vocal critic of Boris Johnson, Mr Heseltine was speaking about his dealings with the under-fire Prime Minister and referenced a recent incident following a trip to Liverpool.
He said: "I have never tried to trespass on his (Johnson's) premiership, but I did try the other day, because I was in Liverpool and the area I know so well had been declared a World Heritage Site and it was about to be withdrawn because of a development - Everton Football Club."
Liverpool was stripped of its World Heritage Status last summer, with UNESCO pointing to the over-development of the city's north docks as the key reason.
These developments include Peel's £2 billion Liverpool Waters project and Everton's new home ground at Bramley Moore Dock.
Mr Heseltine said he went to visit the north docks and believed he could intervene to avoid the city losing its heralded status.
He told the podcast: "(The stadium) is a major economic development, but it was upsetting the World Heritage Status.
"And I went to see it and I thought I saw what could be done to avoid this.
"I said to one or two of the leading figures in Liverpool, I think I could talk to the Prime Minister, so I went back the next morning and I picked up the phone and I said 'I want ten minutes with the Prime Minister."
But he described his struggles to get through to Mr Johnson, something he put down to the team around him in Number 10.
He said: "They asked, 'What do you want to talk about?' I explained, then nothing much happened, then much later on I got a phone call back saying this is what the department thinks or something.
"So I said 'I didn't ask what the department thinks, I wanted to talk to the Prime Minister.
"Anyway, I never did and to this day I don't know if it was that Boris said no.
"Any reasonable interpretation of today's events tells me he never got to hear that I wanted to talk to him.
"My own view is that he would have talked to me, but I think there was such a web of gossamer between him and the real world politics, that I suspect I just got fobbed off by one of these people who have probably been fobbed off themselves now."
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