Lord Michael Heseltine in Conversation with Shelagh Fogarty

Lord Heseltine has a strong connection with Liverpool, having played a key role in its regeneration through the 1980s. Perhaps the greatest testament of all is that Heseltine – often dubbed “Minister of Merseyside” – holds the distinction of being a Conservative MP who was awarded the Freedom of Liverpool by a Labour-led council back in 2012. Leading the conversation will be Liverpool-born broadcaster, Shelagh Fogarty. In her 30-year career in news she has covered the social and political trends at home and abroad interviewing thousands of people. Michael Heseltine was one of her first big political interviews, as a young reporter at BBC Radio Merseyside, when his creative and determined work for Liverpool sat awkwardly with huge opposition here to the Thatcher Government in which he was a senior player. The two have come together many times in the years since, most recently on the issue of Brexit. Shelagh will delve into the pain and powerplay of those turbulent times on Merseyside thirty years ago and get Lord Heseltine’s thoughts on how a rupture with Europe might impact on us now.