I strangled my mother's dog, says Lord Heseltine

Former deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine has revealed he strangled his mother's dog.

The Tory grandee said the pet Alsatian, Kim, had "obviously had some sort of mental breakdown".

He told Tatler magazine: "I went to stroke him and he started biting me.

"If you have a dog that turns, you just cannot risk it.

"So I took Kim's collar - a short of choker chain - and pulled it tight.

"Suddenly he went limp.

"I was devoted to Kim, but he'd obviously had some sort of mental breakdown."

It comes after the ex-cabinet minister, nicknamed Tarzan, claimed to have shot dead 350 grey squirrels in six months.

In a book, Thenford, written with his wife Anne, Lord Heseltine said: "These foreign intruders may have a Walt Disney appeal in London parks, but to us they are Public Enemy Number One ... and are shot without hesitation."