In a city so notoriously anti-Tory as Liverpool, Michael Heseltine is one of the few Conservative politicians to be guaranteed a warm welcome.
He owes his popularity to his status as the unofficial "Minister for Merseyside" following the 1981 Toxteth riots, which led directly to the International Garden Festival in 1984 and the first glimmerings of the city's regeneration after its disastrous period of economic slump.
But despite this, there was one occasion 40 years ago when Mr Heseltine was greeted with rotten eggs and abuse while on a visit to one of the city's toughest estates in Croxteth. The then Environment Secretary, his smart suit splattered with eggs, looked bemused as his police escort ushered him away and bundled him into a waiting car, which children had also scrambled over to break eggs on the windows and roof.
READ MORE : Liverpool's lost 'adult funhouse' that was like a 'second home' to clubbers
The impetus for the demo on August 2, 1982, was not because he was a member of Margaret Thatcher's hated administration. In fact it was over a grassroots local issue to do with a controversial school closure plan.
Most of the protesters were mums and children from the local Croxteth Comprehensive School - better known as "Croccy Comp" - which the Government had ordered to be closed because of falling pupil numbers. A sit-in was being staged at the school by demonstrators who were determined to keep it open.
In an ECHO report from the time, Mrs Olwyn Thurlow, who had a 17-year-old daughter at Croxteth Comp, said: "We are staying in this school and no one will take it away from us. None of us are sorry he (Heseltine) got hit with eggs."
Mum of four Janet Mooney, of Petherick Road, Croxteth, was also quoted as saying: "Before today we behaved peacefully and all our protests passed off without any violence. Nobody bothered to listen to us and today our patience snapped.
"I threw an egg and I'm glad it hit him. If we have to show force to get people to take notice then we certainly will. Perhaps now they will sit up and listen. I would do the same again."
But Mr Heseltine's meeting with community group representatives was mainly concerned with schemes to provide better housing and leisure facilities for Croxteth, including a plan to use the comprehensive for community projects or leisure depending on residents' suggestions.
A local councillor accused Mr Heseltine of "playing with fire" after a request to meet parents from the school was turned down. He warned: "The kids of Croxteth think they will achieve what they need by doing what the kids of Toxteth are doing - rioting."
In regards to the school closure, Mr Heseltine said at the time: "It is not my position to deal with the situation. There is a real opportunity in the context of providing services for the community in the school buildings. I have asked for ideas from residents, and will put them to the city council."
And not everyone was impressed with the actions of the demonstrators on that summer's day. Community representative Maureen Unsworth said: "Mr Heseltine said he would come back; but now, he might not. And if he doesn't we will have lost everything we have been fighting for."
The following January, three women appeared before magistrates charged with using threatening, abusive and insulting words and behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace in connection with the incident. They each received a fine.
As for Croxteth Comprehensive, it gained a temporary reprieve but was finally closed in 2010.
