UK has swung away from the EU, Tarzan

In his heyday, there was no greater scourge of the political Left than Michael Heseltine. He earned his nickname, Tarzan, in 1976 after wielding the Commons Mace when MPS voted by a majority of one to push through Labour’s plans to nationalise the aircraft and shipbuilding industries. He was incensed by socialist MPS singing The Red Flag to celebrate their victory. Later that year, at the Tory conference in Brighton, he delivered a celebrated speech that likened the Labour government to a “one-legged army limping away from the storm they had created – left, left, left”. They were, he added, a rabble of political extremists who would hoist the Red Flag, symbol of an alien creed, over the country. As defence secretary, Heseltine was an implacable critic of the doctrine of unilateral nuclear disarmament that the Left had foisted on the Labour leadership, and which had been adopted as official party policy. His credentials as a Left-basher cannot be faulted.

Yet faced with the prospect of a Labour government far more extreme than anything he excoriated back then, Lord Heseltine believes that it would be less damaging to the UK than leaving the European Union. He has been a consistent supporter of membership of what is now the EU; but he has, surely, allowed his pro-european passion to get the better of his anti-left judgment. By what possible measure would handing over the government of this country to Jeremy Corbyn and John Mcdonnell compare to Britain being administered like most other countries on Earth?

It is not necessary to be in the EU to be a vibrant, free-market economy intent on improving the overall wealth of its citizens. Arguably, the rules and regulations are a hindrance to enterprise, not a help. Moreover, the superstate ambitions at the heart of the project are not shared by many in Britain. But one thing that we know would bankrupt the country, because Lord Heseltine has told us so many times, is a Left-wing government.

Messrs Corbyn and Mcdonnell have pledged to renationalise the utilities privatised by the Conservative governments of which Lord Heseltine was a member. This would not happen after Brexit, provided Labour is kept out of office. Yet the party is more likely to get into power if the Conservatives continue to be riven by a civil war over Europe, which the referendum was supposed to settle, but whose outcome Remainers such as Lord Heseltine refuse to accept. It is time they did.