For decades the startling story of Michael Heseltine strangling a dog with his bare hands has fed neatly into his image as the "Tarzan" of Westminster.

Finally, however, the truth of the Tory peer's bloody battle with his mother's Alsation can be disclosed as he says he is a victim of "terrible misrepresentation".

Lord Heseltine did indeed kill Kim in 1964 after his beloved pet attacked him - but, contrary to reports, the dog's demise was via a vet's needle rather than brute force.

The former frontbencher, and arch nemesis of Margaret Thatcher, set the record straight after a Tatler magazine article suggested he had throttled Kim to death with its choker chain after it suffered a "mental breakdown".

"It's a load of rubbish," he told The Telegraph. "It's all true that the dog turned on me and there was a lot of blood but I eventually managed to pacify the dog by getting hold of his choker chain, pushing it back to his paws.