LORD Heseltine has revealed that he had a nickame other than “Tarzan” and “Hezza”.
But he didn’t dare reveal it when he was at the forefront of politics in case it gave his opponents a reason to mock him.
That’s because the nickname was “great tit”.
But before you start sniggering, the former Henley MP explained that this was the name given to him as the organiser of a bird watching club at his preparatory school.
Lord Heseltine, now 83, told the At Lunch programme on BBC Radio 4 that the name had remained a closely guarded secret for years while he was in Government.
He said: “I organised a bird watching club, nothing wrong with that, until I tell you the name of it, which was the Tit Club and every member had a name. There was a blue tit, a marsh tit and a cold tit, but I was the great tit. So you can understand why I’ve never told that story.
“You can imagine what it would have done to me in the House of Commons.
“The point of the story is that it showed initiative and leadership.”
Asked which of his nicknames he liked best, Lord Heseltine, in typical fashion, didn’t mince his words.
“I don’t care,” he replied. “The great thing is if you have a got a nickname that gives you public credibility.”
He also referred to his recent swipe at his successor and fellow Conservative Boris Johnson over the EU referendum debate.
The former Mayor of London has been campaigning for “Brexit” and compared the EU’s aims in creating a “single authority” in Europe to those of Napoleon and Hitler. Lord Heseltine, who is campaigning for a Remain vote, claimed Mr Johnson had lost his judgment and could not take the “strain” of campaigning.
He told the programme: “I have been amazed by the number of people who have come up to me and said, ‘thank God you said it, it needed saying’.
“I think if anything I haven’t pushed it far enough. There’s only one way out [for Mr Johnson] and that’s to apologise.”
Asked if he would apologise, Lord Heseltine replied: “Apologise? You must be joking!”
Despite the disagreement, he insisted he felt calm, saying: “I describe myself as like a pancake — you can’t get a rise out of me.
“A long time in public life has taught me the advantage of that. I’ve strong feelings but I know what I’m saying.”
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