THE FORMER British deputy prime minister, Mr Michael Heseltine, has ended weeks of speculation about his political future and ruled out any possibility of taking a seat in the next shadow cabinet.
He has also warned the Tories, still divided over Europe in the final hours before the second round of voting in the leadership contest gets underway tomorrow, that they cannot defeat Labour unless they vote for the pro Europe candidate, Mr Kenneth Clarke, as party leader.
Shortly after the Tory defeat by Labour in last month's election, Mr Heseltine suffered a mild heart attack. He made a quick recovery but rumours about his political future have continued.
Announcing his intention to step back from the frontline of politics yesterday, Mr Heseltine said that as he had not decided to run for the Tory leadership he had "assumed" he would not be in the shadow cabinet.
Mr Heseltine told BBC TV's On the Record programme: "I have more or less got off the train. You have to, in the end, face up to this in public life. 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.
Singing the praises of the former chancellor and current front runner in the leadership contest, Mr Heseltine said he didn't have "the slightest doubt" that Mr Clarke should be the next leader of the Conservatives. With Mr Clarke's "experience" and "popular support" he said, he possessed "the maturity to lead our party now through a difficult period of recovery and into a winning posture, [and] a broad appeal at the time of the next election."
The other candidates in the leadership contest, Mr William Hague and Mr John Redwood, each stepped up their campaigns in anticipation of the second round of voting. Mindful of the number of MPs' votes he needs to transfer to his camp if he is to beat Mr Clarke and Mr Redwood, Mr Hague warned the Eurosceptic wing of the party that a future Tory government might have to retrieve powers given away" by the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, at the Amsterdam summit today and tomorrow.
However, although he may be the bookmakers' favourite for the leadership, Mr Hague's mother, Mrs Stella Hague, said yesterday she did not want her son to win the contest, believing he would enjoy a better career as a management consultant.
Not to be outdone in the final scramble for votes, Mr Redwood accused Mr Hague of changing his views on Europe and the single currency in particular, "day by day". And attempting to embarrass Mr Clarke into an admission of support for the single currency, Mr Redwood said he would be happy to see him in his cabinet if he adopted a Eurosceptic stance.
Mr Clarke quipped: "John is a hardline Eurosceptic. William has spent the last few days making himself harder line Eurosceptic and they're not going to get many proEuropeans into the cabinet if that becomes the key element of their appeal."
Meanwhile the former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, Lord Archer, will call for a radical reform of the party's organisation in a lecture today when he delivers the Robert Kennedy Memorial Address at the Oxford Union. Lord Archer will urge the party "not only to take a leaf from Labour's book but steal almost every chapter."