FORMER Prime Minister Sir John Major will deliver the inaugural Edward Heath Lecture in the Salisbury Guildhall on Wednesday evening.

The theme of this year’s lecture will be ‘The Meaning and Lessons of Magna Carta Today’. It will be delivered to an invited audience of 200 people.

The Foundation Trustees have established the lecture series as an opportunity for respected speakers to explore subjects of importance to Sir Edward and of relevance to his interests and legacy.

Sir John said: “I was delighted to be invited to deliver the first Edward Heath Lecture in Salisbury, the City that he loved and made his home, and in the fiftieth anniversary year of his winning the Conservative Party leadership.

"As Prime Minister, at what was a very difficult time for Britain, Sir Edward’s central legacy was entry into the European Common Market. But his administration was also marked out by his courageous, albeit ultimately unsuccessful, attempts to reform Britain's destructive industrial relations and to bring power sharing to Northern Ireland."

Sir John’s visit to Salisbury will commence in the afternoon with a tour of Edward Heath’s former home, Arundells and will be welcomed to the house by a short recital by senior boys from Bishop Wordsworth’s School.