M.P.s band together for Brittan resignation

Press, 25 January 1986, Page 11

M.P.s band together for Brittan resignation

NZPA-Reuter London The British Prime Minister, Mrs Margaret Thatcher, yesterday faced a new crisis over the Westland helicopter affair as members of her party clamoured for the resignation of her Secretary for Trade, Mr Leon Brittan, over the leaking of a secret letter.

A meeting of 100 Conservative Parliamentarians voted to support a call for Mr Brittan’s resignation after Mrs Thatcher admitted to Parliament that he authorised the leak, which led to a Government inquiry. One Conservative Parliamentarian, Mr Alex Fletcher, said: “The Government is embarrassed. And whoever causes that embarrassment should re-

sign.” Although the meeting gave continued support to Mrs Thatcher, many threatened that if Mr Brittan did not go they would vote against the Government in an emergency debate on Monday over the Westland affair, now in its sixth week. The call by the influential 1922 Committee, which groups 300 Conservative parliamentarians without Government posts, was widely seen as a warning to Mrs Thatcher to abandon her stubborn support of the embattled Secretary for Trade.

Mrs Thatcher, reporting on the leak inquiry, described to Parliament how Mr Brittan authorised the disclosure to the press of

the contents of a letter from the Solicitor-Gen-eral, Sir Patrick Mayhew, to the then Secretary for Defence, Mr Michael Heseltine. She said she had not known about the action taken but approved of it in retrospect because it helped clear up inaccuracies made by Mr Heseltine over the future of the ailing Westland firm, Britain’s only helicopter maker. Political commentators said Mrs Thatcher could ill afford the resignation of another Minister after Mr Heseltine’s decision to quit the Cabinet on January 9 over what he said were deliberate attempts by the Government to thwart a European-led rescue of Westland which he favoured.