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By Root 3066 0

proved to be case — this was big-hearted of him. With a more serpentine politician, I would have assumed this to be merely insurance against my victory. But Chancellor Kohl, whether as ally or opponent, was never devious. So I was very moved by his words, and by the real warmth of his feeling. I tried to overcome my confusion by explaining the peculiarities of the Tory leadership electoral system, but he said that my account only confirmed his suspicion that the system was quite mad. By now I had concluded he had a point. Then, somewhat to my relief, the conversation turned to the prospects for the IGCs and economic and monetary union, where Chancellor Kohl seemed willing to make compromises, at least on timing. Whether anything more would have come of it than from earlier assurances I cannot say; but I like to think it would have done.

The following day I would know the results of the first ballot. Peter had spoken to me on the telephone on Monday evening, and he was still radiating confidence. It had already been arranged that he would come out to Paris to be there to give me ‘the good news’, which would be telephoned through to him from the Whips’ Office. It had also been agreed precisely what I would do and say in the event of various eventualities — ranging from an overwhelming victory to a defeat on the first round. Knowing there was nothing more I could do, I threw all my energies on Tuesday into more meetings with heads of government and the CSCE proceedings. In the morning (Tuesday 20 November) I had talks with President Gorbachev, President Mitterrand and President Ozal, and lunch with the Dutch Prime Minister, Ruud Lubbers. After lunch I had a talk with President Zhelev of Bulgaria who said that President Reagan and I shared the responsibility for delivering freedom to eastern Europe and no one would ever forget that. Perhaps it took the leader of a country which had been crushed for decades under communist terror to understand just what had happened in the world and why.

The afternoon’s session of the CSCE closed at 4.30. After tea and some discussion with my advisers of the day’s events, I went upstairs to my room at the residence to have my hair done. Just after 6 o’clock I went up to a room set aside for me to await the results. Bernard Ingham, Charles Powell, our ambassador Sir Ewen Fergusson, Crawfie and Peter were there. Peter had a line open to the Chief Whip, and Charles had another to John Whittingdale back in London. I sat at a desk with my back to the room and got on with some work. Although I did not realize it then, Charles received the results first. Out of my sight, he gave a sad thumbs down to people in the room, but waited for Peter to get the news officially. Then I heard Peter Morrison receive the information from the Whips’ Office. He read out the figures: I had 204 votes, Michael Heseltine 152, and there were 16 abstentions.

‘Not quite as good as we had hoped,’ said Peter, for once a master of understatement, and handed a note of the results to me. I quickly did the sums in my head. I had beaten Michael Heseltine and achieved a clear majority of the Parliamentary Party (indeed, I got more votes in defeat than John Major later won in victory); but I had not won by a margin sufficient to avoid a second ballot. If I had held two votes that in the event had gone to Michael, I would have beaten him by the required amount. But there was little point now in making precise calculations on the consequences of the want of a nail. A short silence followed.

It was broken by Peter Morrison’s trying to telephone Douglas Hurd’s room in the residence but finding that Douglas was on the line to John Major in Great Stukeley, where the Chancellor was recovering from an operation to remove his wisdom teeth. A few minutes later we got through to Douglas who at once came along to see me. I did not need to ask for his continued support. He declared that I should stand in the second ballot and promised his own, and John Major’s, support. He proved as good as his word, and I was glad to have such a staunch friend