Thatcher Backs Cabinet Aide in 6-Hour Debate : New Disclosures Keep Industry Secretary Under Heavy Fire

The political storm buffeting Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government threatened Wednesday to engulf one of her senior ministers despite her efforts to defend him in a six-hour parliamentary debate.

A confidential letter published hours before the debate strengthened suggestions that Secretary for Trade and Industry Leon Brittan misled Parliament earlier this week on crucial points of the affair, which political commentators here have labeled Thatcher’s most serious domestic crisis since she won reelection in 1983.

Brittan has already been forced to apologize to Parliament when Thatcher’s office admitted Monday that it possessed a letter that he had denied existed.

Long-simmering differences between Thatcher and Defense Secretary Michael Heseltine over the planned rescue of a financially ailing British defense contractor, Westland PLC, exploded in controversy last week. Heseltine dramatically resigned in the middle of a Cabinet meeting, then charged Thatcher with muzzling him and running her government in an arbitrary, unconstitutional fashion.

Rescue Package

The flash-point came when Thatcher and Brittan appeared to back a rescue package for Westland, Britain’s only helicopter manufacturer, that was offered by Sikorsky Aircraft, a subsidiary of the American firm, United Technologies. Heseltine wanted the company to be saved by a European consortium.

Since Heseltine’s resignation, the question of Westland’s rescue has been eclipsed by the spectacle of Thatcher’s government in disarray over the affair. Wednesday’s debate centered on Brittan’s role.

The letter whose existence Brittan had denied was published Wednesday. It appeared to contradict his earlier assertion to Parliament that he had never tried to pressure British Aerospace to withdraw from the European consortium.

Thatcher apparently chose to release the letter, a description by British Aerospace Chairman Austin Pearce of a meeting between one of his executives and Brittan, to defuse opposition accusations of a cover-up. But its contents have further eroded Brittan’s already tenuous credibility.

The letter supported Heseltine’s claim that Brittan had tried to strong-arm the company into withdrawing from the European consortium.

Minutes Published

However, Thatcher defended her beleaguered minister Wednesday, taking the unusual step of publishing official minutes of the meeting at which Brittan allegedly made his remarks to the British Aerospace official. The minutes make no mention of the remarks in question.

In the debate, she clearly outmaneuvered opposition leader Neil Kinnock, first by providing the detailed chronology of the whole affair that he had demanded, then by carrying all but a handful of her party with her in rejecting opposition calls for a parliamentary investigation. Kinnock, leader of the Labor Party, had demanded that a special parliamentary committee be established to investigate Heseltine’s allegations against her.

“The government conducted itself properly and responsibly throughout,” she told Parliament. “There is no cause for an inquiry.”

In the debate, Heseltine added new accusations to support his argument that Thatcher and Brittan had quietly tried to short-circuit the European bid while attempting to silence his support for it by invoking the need for government impartiality.

The Foreign Office on Wednesday evening confirmed his charge that last month it had asked the Italian government to stop its open support for Heseltine’s efforts.

It was also confirmed that the government tried to stop a British Broadcasting Corp. interview with Heseltine on the subject earlier this month. The interview was aired.

The latest disclosures have heightened calls for Brittan’s resignation, even from some Conservative colleagues. In the words of one respected political analyst, Brittan has become “damaged ministerial goods.”

Privately, even aides close to Thatcher admit that Brittan has acted ineptly.