Westland Affair - December 1985

December 1985

Thatcher then convened two meetings to discuss Westland with Heseltine, Brittan, Tebbit, William Whitelaw, Geoffrey Howe and Nigel Lawson on 5 and 6 December. Brittan argued that NAD's opposition should be set aside, but Heseltine, Howe and Tebbit disagreed. Thatcher called a Cabinet meeting for 9 December, which Cuckney also attended to give a speech. Cuckney said that it was the management's view that the Sikorsky option was the best one. A majority of the Cabinet meeting agreed to dismiss NAD's opposition but Thatcher gave consent to both Heseltine and Brittan to explore a possible European deal which Westland's management could accept. She gave them until 4 pm on 13 December and if by then Westland rejected the European package, NAD's recommendations would be formally rejected. Westland chose Sikorsky instead of the European firms but Heseltine wanted another Cabinet meeting. Thatcher rejected his demands because Westland had made up its mind on which deal it would recommend.

At a Cabinet meeting on 12 December Heseltine, without warning, tried to discuss Westland but Thatcher was not willing to without the necessary papers. Heseltine was angry and claimed a meeting on Westland had been cancelled but Thatcher argued that no such meeting had ever been scheduled. Heseltine wanted his views on the alleged cancelled meeting to be included in the Cabinet minutes; it was not going to be mentioned until the Cabinet Secretary noticed they were absent, and added it himself.

Later, the European consortium came up with a new bid and Heseltine thought the Government's policy should be changed to enable the European bid to succeed. The disagreements between Brittan and Heseltine over Westland became public and were widely reported in the media.