Major trumps his rivals and floors the media critics; THE HESELTINE FACTOR

The Prime Minister's triumph in the leadership contest left much egg on many faces, report Stephen Castle and Nick Cohen

MICHAEL HESELTINE has two grand new titles, a huge new office, a legion of civil servants and, he told journalists last week, a poster celebrating his latest nickname: The Lion King.

Was this his price for saving John Major's premiership? Was a deal done, giving him the job of Deputy Prime Minister in exchange for his support in last week's leadership contest?

Mr Heseltine is adamant on the subject: "There was no conspiracy, there was no deal."

Yet the victory for Mr Major was achieved in part because of the support of the centre-left of the Conservative party. Abstentions from that quarter had been widely expected. In fact, there were only 20 abstentions and spoilt papers in all. A senior member of John Redwood's campaign team said: "We lost because 20 or 30 Heseltinees switched sides. And 10 or 15 right-wingers did the dirty on us."

Several pieces of circumstantial evidence pointed to a deal. On Monday night, there was nervousness in the Major camp. Last Tuesday morning - the day of the ballot - Mr Heseltine spent two hours in 10 Downing Street. A few of his most prominent backers in 1990, such as Peter Temple-Morris and Keith Hampson, did not vote until the afternoon. Moreover, Mr Heseltine told sympathetic MPs both publicly and privately to back Mr Major.

But if there was a deal, it was not a crude last-minute stitch-up. It is now clear that Mr Heseltine's discussions with the Prime Minister ranged over several weeks. Almost certainly he was at one stage offered, and turned down, the chairmanship of the Conservative party. When asked this directly last week, he declined to deny it, saying: "We ranged over a whole range of possible thoughts." Some have suggested that the Chancellor's job was proffered, though this is denied. The final offer does seem to have crystallised on Tuesday morning.

But it should not be assumed that, in the negotiations, Mr Heseltine held all the aces. His band of committed supporters is much smaller than it was when he challenged Margaret Thatcher. Many Heseltinees lost their seats in the 1992 election. A significant minority - people such as Edward Leigh, who worked for Mr Redwood this time - were drawn from the populist right. They are much less inclined to vote for Mr Heseltine now that Europe has polarised the party.

Members of Mr Major's team managed some deft campaigning. They argued to right-wingers that, unless they backed the Prime Minister, Mr Heseltine would be the victor. To the left they played on increasing fears of the strength of the Eurosceptic right, arguing that Mr Redwood would have great momentum behind him. One left-winger said last week: "I had calculated a long time ago that, in a hand-to-hand with Redwood, Heseltine would have lost." So it seems that many of Mr Heseltine's voters were going to back Mr Major in the first ballot anyway.

For Mr Heseltine, any public or private indication that they should do otherwise could have been fatal. Cast as the executioner in 1990, he knew he had to keep his distance this time. His henchmen were under strict orders to say nothing disloyal about the Prime Minister and not to organise. Some were sent to television studios to pledge their own support to Mr Major.

Open campaigning, it was agreed in the Heseltine camp, would not only have damaged their man's chances of winning; it would also have made it harder for him to be an effective leader even if he had emerged victorious. One backer said: "He needed clean hands if he was going to win the leadership. It would have been no easy task unifying the party and it would have been doubly difficult had he been seen to be the hatchet man".

So the best verdict is that Mr Heseltine maximised his prospects and minimised the risks. Offered something similar to David Hunt's old, rather powerless job in the Cabinet Office, he negotiated up his offer until it carried the titles of Deputy Prime Minister and First Secretary of State. In exchange he probably did nothing more than stay publicly loyal to Mr Major and refuse to give any contrary advice to his team.

As one sympathiser admitted last week, this strategy may have been based on a misjudgement. As late as Tuesday morning, many MPs and observers believed that, if 100 MPs abstained or voted against Mr Major, his position would be impossible. The total figure was 109 but Mr Major stayed. "It may be," said one pro-Heseltine MP, "that Michael assumed there would definitely be another ballot. He may have been counting his chickens."