* As Mrs Thatcher prepared for the reshuffle announcement, she scribbled a few points on the back of a document outlining the changes, such as ‘Cecil – not returning’ and ‘Announcements tomorrow evening’. This document survives among the papers she lodged at Churchill College. From the context it seems that these jottings related to a conversation she had with Bernard Ingham on the evening of Sunday 1 September. She also wrote ‘13 years old’ (Thatcher notes on reshuffle, undated but from context 1 September 1985, CAC: THCR 1/14/14). Given the later speculation that one of her motives in reshuffling Brittan may have been rumours about child-abuse accusations, the possibility has to be considered that, in these three words, she was referring to these. This seems unlikely, however, since there is no evidence that any new accusations against Brittan had reached her since those of the previous year, so she would not have needed to write one down on a piece of paper just before the reshuffle. (She would also have been most reluctant, given her habitual caution, to commit any such thing to paper.) There is a much more likely explanation. On 22 August, there was a terrible air disaster at Manchester airport, in which fifty-four people died. Returning from holiday in Austria, Mrs Thatcher diverted her plane to visit the crash site and meet the survivors. They included three seriously injured thirteen-year-olds – two girls, both of whom had lost parents and other close relatives, and one boy. The press continued to carry reports about these children (and other victims) through the ensuing fortnight. On the day before the reshuffle took place, a commemorative Mass was held in Manchester. In that context it would not have been surprising for Mrs Thatcher to have asked for, or received news of, the three children from Ingham and for her to have scribbled a reference to them. (The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance provided by Chris Collins on this issue.)
* In a moment that could have come from Yes Minister, one of Brittan’s first acts as DTI secretary was to write to oppose a levy on blank audio-cassettes which had recently been proposed in a letter from the then Home Secretary – himself (Interview with Andrew Lansley).
* This quotation has been significantly embroidered over time. It seems to have originated in a 1984 profile of David Young written by Alan Pike, the industrial correspondent of the Financial Times. Young was then chairman of the Manpower Services Commission, not a minister. Pike quoted Mrs Thatcher as saying: ‘Other people come to me with their problems. David Young comes with his achievements.’ (See Alan Pike, Financial Times, 7 April 1984; letter to editor, 24 November 2010.)
* Alan Clark, who found himself one of Young’s junior ministers, and had previously been much opposed to him, recorded their first meeting after Young’s appointment: ‘He is pleasant, charming almost, and fresh … He talks at twice the speed of Tom King, but listens too, cracks jokes, is full of bright ideas. I can quite see why the Lady fancies him. He is utterly different from the rest of the Cabinet – yet without being caddish.’ (Clark, Diaries, 3 September 1985, p. 119.)
* Bernard (‘Bernie’) Grant (1944–2000), council leader, London Borough of Haringey, 1985–7; Labour MP for Tottenham, 1987–2000.
* Richard O’Brien (1920–2009), educated Oundle and Clare College, Cambridge; chairman, Manpower Services Commission, 1976–82; chairman, Archbishop of Canterbury’s Commission on Urban Priority Areas that published the Faith in the City report in 1985; chairman, Policy Studies Institute, 1984–90; knighted, 1980.
† David Sheppard (1929–2005), educated Sherborne, Trinity Hall, Cambridge and Ridley Hall Theological College; Bishop of Liverpool, 1975–97; vice-chairman, Commission on Urban Priority Areas, 1983–5; created Lord Sheppard of Liverpool, 1998.
‡ Canon Eric James (1925–2012), educated Dagenham County High School and King’s College London; director, Christian Action, 1979–90; a chaplain to HM the Queen, 1984–95.
§ A. H. (Albert Henry) Halsey (1923–2014), educated Kettering Grammar School and LSE; Reith lecturer, 1977; Professor of Social and Administrative Studies, Oxford University, 1978–90; Professorial Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford, 1962–90.
¶ Mrs Thatcher was also not pleased to discover that the secretary to the report had been seconded by the Department of the Environment for two years at public expense and promoted within the civil service while away.
** Richard Chartres (1947–), educated Hertford Grammar School, Trinity College, Cambridge, Cuddesdon Theological College, Oxford and Lincoln Theological College; Bishop of London, 1995–; preached the address at Lady Thatcher’s funeral at St Paul’s Cathedral, 17 April 2013; Archbishop of Canterbury’s chaplain, 1980–84.
* It has been frequently stated that the anonymous minister was Norman Tebbit. He denied it: ‘It was not Marxist. I am not at all sure that any minister did describe it as such. More likely it was a BBC or Guardianista thinking that was what a Thatcherite minister would have said’ (Interview with Lord Tebbit).
* Runcie won the Military Cross in Willie Whitelaw’s regiment, the Scots Guards, in 1945, for his acts of courage as a tank commander. He was the only archbishop, at least since the Middle Ages, known deliberately to have killed his fellow men.
† Runcie did occasionally try private communication with Mrs Thatcher. On one occasion, he slipped a personal letter into her handbag at a drinks party. She then forgot about it and it lay there unopened for ten days until a secretary found it. (Interview with Sir Mark Lennox-Boyd.)
‡ Immanuel Jakobovits (1921–99), educated University of London and Jews’ College and Yeshivah Etz Chaim, London; Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth of Nations, 1967–91; knighted, 1981; created Lord Jakobovits, 1988.
* Sir Thomas (‘Tam’) Dalyell of the Binns (1932–), educated Eton and King’s College, Cambridge; Labour MP for West Lothian, 1962–83; for Linlithgow, 1983–2005; Member, European Parliament, 1975–9. He never called himself Thomas nor used his title.
† When Ponting first came under suspicion for the leak, and was suspended without pay, Mrs Thatcher sent a message while on holiday: ‘I think this is a bit rough. He and his family will have to live on something. We should, I believe, wait for the verdict …’ (Thatcher to Barclay, 18 August 1984, Prime Minister’s Papers, Security, Investigation … into documents relating to the sinking of the General Belgrano, Part 1 (document consulted in the Cabinet Office)).
* Although the company was correctly known as ‘Westland’, this plural version was commonly used by ministers and officials.
† Yeovil was of particular concern to the Conservative government, because a Liberal, Paddy Ashdown, had gained the seat from the Tories at the previous general election. They wanted to win it back. The seat remained in Liberal hands until 2015.
* The Department of Trade and Industry was the lead or ‘sponsor’ department in the Westland affair, because the Ministry of Defence, as an actual and potential customer of Westland, had an interest to declare. This involvement of two departments, though inevitable, was to prove incendiary.
† John Cuckney (1925–2008), educated Shrewsbury and St Andrews University; appointments with various industrial and financial companies including chairman of Westland, 1985–9; knighted, 1978; created Lord Cuckney of Millbank, 1995.
‡ This hiring was so well concealed that, even at the height of the drama just after Christmas, when the Sunday papers were threatening to run the story that Reece was advising Westland and spending Christmas Day at Chequers, Bernard Ingham had to write to ask Mrs Thatcher whether any of this was true. It was. (Reece was divorced, and on his own for Christmas: Mrs Thatcher probably invited him more out of friendship than policy.) She sent no recorded reply. (See Ingham to Thatcher, 28 December 1985, Prime Minister’s Papers, Aerospace, Westland Helicopters, Part 2 (document consulted in the Cabinet Office).)
* Heseltine believed that Whitelaw ‘never approved of me’, for reasons that he never exactly understood. It may have been something to do with Whitelaw’s view of business, which he once expressed to Heseltine thus: ‘I hate busin
essmen. I hate businessmen. I hate businessmen.’ ‘Willie,’ Heseltine replied, ‘I am a businessman.’ (Interview with Lord Heseltine.)
* Richard Mottram (1946–), educated King Edward VI Camp Hill School, Birmingham and University of Keele; private secretary to Secretary of State for Defence, 1982–6; Permanent Secretary, Office of Public Service and Science, 1992–5; MOD, 1995–8; Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, 1998–2002; Department for Work and Pensions, 2002–5; Intelligence, Security and Resilience, 2005–7; knighted, 1998.
† The alternative view, held by some inside the No. 10 private office, was that Powell was becoming ‘a bit of an empire-builder’ (Correspondence with David Willetts).
* Brittan also believed that Ingham simply did not understand the issues involved in the Westland case: ‘Behind the façade of a blunt Yorkshireman was a blunt Yorkshireman’ (Interview with Lord Brittan of Spennithorne).
† In Charles Powell’s view, the level of detail in the Westland affair was simply too great for Whitelaw to cope with (Interview with Lord Powell of Bayswater).
* The Libyan share of Fiat was 14 per cent, and the Fiat share of the Sikorsky Westland offer was 14.9 per cent. Fiat also provided lots of other defence products for Britain without any complaint from the government. So Heseltine was laying it on a bit thick.
* This included a sweetener about German interest in the EH101 helicopter project in which Westland had been struggling with Italy and a threat that a Sikorsky-owned Westland would be shut out of Europe.
† Because of the importance of being seen to be neutral, Mrs Thatcher had no other direct contact with Reece throughout the Westland affair. Her informal conduit for messages from Reece was Woodrow Wyatt.
‡ Chris Moncrieff (1931–), political editor, the Press Association, 1980–94.
* Mayhew’s superior, the Attorney-General Sir Michael Havers, was absent because of illness.
† Sir Patrick Mayhew (1929–), educated Tonbridge and Balliol College, Oxford; Conservative MP for Royal Tunbridge Wells, February 1974–83; for Tunbridge Wells, 1983–97; Solicitor-General, 1983–7; Attorney-General, 1987–92; Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, 1992–7; knighted, 1983; created Lord Mayhew of Twysden, 1997; retired from the House of Lords, 2015.
* Wyatt, who wrote columns for the News of the World and The Times, liked to act as an informal intermediary between Mrs Thatcher and Rupert Murdoch, who owned both papers. He was close to Mrs Thatcher and defended and interpreted her to his readers. He used to telephone her most Sundays and she usually took his calls. From 1985, he kept journals. When these were published, on his instructions, after his death in 1997, they were widely attacked and their reliability was questioned. Most of this anger, however, stemmed from the fact that Wyatt had broken confidences. Although one should allow for the inaccuracy and self-serving qualities endemic in the diary form, his diaries are a good source for the ‘off duty’ remarks and attitudes of many of the leading figures of the age, including Mrs Thatcher. They often reveal her private reactions to public events when she considered herself among friends.
* Colette Bowe (1946–), educated Notre Dame High School, Liverpool, Queen Mary College, University of London and LSE; director of information, DTI, 1984–7; chairman of Ofcom, 2009–14; created dame, 2014.
* Referring to additional material that Heseltine would have seen in drawing his conclusions, which he had not, Mayhew now gave Heseltine the freedom not to write the correction which he had demanded in his earlier letter. Heseltine seized upon this and promptly informed David Horne that no correction was required.
† Mayhew considered this ‘very brave’ of Havers, because he (Havers) wanted to be Lord Chancellor, and was risking this ambition by displeasing Mrs Thatcher. In fact, she gave Havers the job he wanted in June the following year. It probably would have looked too vindictive for her to have done otherwise. Charles Powell was less impressed: ‘The biggest leaker was Havers – every lunch-time to his chums at the bar of the Garrick Club’ (Interview with Lord Powell of Bayswater).
‡ It repeated the same headline on the other half of its front page referring to an explanation for a black eye given by the snooker player Alex ‘Hurricane’ Higgins.
§ The action was not pursued.
* It has been suggested, for example by John Campbell (Campbell, Margaret Thatcher: The Iron Lady, p. 488) that it was Nicholas Ridley, the Transport Secretary, who tipped Heseltine over the edge, having been ‘primed’ to push the point about the Cabinet Office clearance of all statements. The evidence of Armstrong’s notebook – the only full record – does not support this, but Ridley, in his own memoirs (Nicholas Ridley, My Style of Government: The Thatcher Years, Hutchinson, 1991, p. 49), says he pressed Heseltine three times to agree to the clearance procedure.
† Heseltine denied this (Interview with Lord Heseltine).
‡ Clive Whitmore, Heseltine’s Permanent Secretary, dined with him the night before, and formed no sense that he was about to resign. He wondered whether, if no cameraman had been outside in Downing Street, Heseltine would have resigned at all. (Interview with Sir Clive Whitmore.)
* The private office also had to get immediate consent to the appointment from the Queen, who was at Sandringham (Correspondence with Lord Armstrong of Ilminster).
* The journalist Nicholas Coleridge happened to be ill at the time of the resignation, and so lay in bed watching the story continuously on television. He noted that Heseltine wore six different ties in the course of one day – blue and yellow designed by Gianfranco Ferré, a white tie ‘embossed like a pie frill’, a plain black tie, then ‘green geometric Pucci of Florence, followed by the Guards tie for the Six O’Clock News and a restrained red polka dot on a black background for the late headlines’. (Spectator, 25 January 1986.)
* This memo is actually dated 8 January. If this dating were correct, it would sensationally prove that Mrs Thatcher had contrived Heseltine’s resignation in advance. It is entitled ‘Handling of Heseltine resignation’. Internal evidence, however, proves that it was written after the event, on 9 January.
* John Smith (1938–94), educated Dunoon Grammar School and Glasgow University; Labour MP for Lanarkshire North, 1970–83; for Monklands East, 1983–94; Secretary of State for Trade, 1978–9; Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1992 until his death from a heart attack in 1994.
* A ‘concert party’ is the term used when individuals, secretly acting in concert, buy up a company’s shares to acquire control.
† When taxed with the suggestion of a concert party to back the Sikorsky bid, John Cuckney preferred a different phrase: it was a ‘fan club’, he said. (Quoted in Michael Heseltine, Life in the Jungle, Hodder & Stoughton, 2000, p. 323.)
‡ The author is grateful to Lord Heseltine for pointing this out to him.
* Alan Bristow, who came round to supporting the European bid, also bought shares. A secondary scandal broke out in February when he claimed that two Thatcher-backing peers – later named as Lords Forte and King – had tried to get him to switch sides with the offer of a knighthood. What precisely happened was unclear, but obviously neither man had the power to bestow honours.
† John Whittingdale (1959–), educated Winchester and University College London; Conservative MP for Colchester South and Maldon, 1992–7; for Maldon and East Chelmsford, 1997–2010; for Maldon, 2010–; special adviser to Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, 1984–7; political secretary to the Prime Minister, 1988–90; private secretary to Margaret Thatcher, 1990–92; Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, 2015–.
* Parliamentary front-bench wind-up speeches always had to end precisely for each 10 p.m. vote, and so had to be curtailed if the earlier debate had run on too long. This meant they were sometimes severely abbreviated.
* She did not say that he had to be fished out of lunch with his department’s former Permanent Secretary at Morgan Grenfell bank, which was advising Sikorsky.
&nbs
p; * Alexander Fletcher (1929–89), educated Greenock High School; Conservative MP for Edinburgh North, November 1973–83; for Edinburgh Central, 1983–7; Minister, DTI, 1983–5; knighted, 1987.
† Marcus Kimball (1928–2014), educated Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge; Conservative MP for Gainsborough, February 1956–83; created Lord Kimball, 1985.
‡ Gerald Malone (1950–), educated St Aloysius’ College, Glasgow and Glasgow University; Conservative MP for Aberdeen South, 1983–7; for Winchester, 1992–7; PPS to Secretary of State, DTI, 1985–6; Deputy Chairman, Conservative Party, 1992–4; Minister of State, Department of Health, 1994–7.
§ This was Sir John Stokes, MP for Halesowen and Stourbridge.
* Brittan also spoke to Willie Whitelaw, who advised him to stay. Characteristically, the next day, after Brittan had resigned, Whitelaw told Woodrow Wyatt that ‘Of course Brittan had to go’ (Wyatt, The Journals of Woodrow Wyatt, vol. i, 25 January 1986, p. 71).
* A reference to the heavyweight television political interviewer.
Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography, Volume 2 Page 114
