Parliament Backs Thatcher in Scandal Vote

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher won a vote of support Monday in connection with a defense industry scandal, but the damage caused by the incident could weaken her politically.

After three hours of tense, often raucous debate punctuated by opposition calls for Thatcher’s resignation, Conservative Party legislators rallied to her, defeating a Labor Party motion calling for full disclosure of details concerning a leak of confidential information.

The vote in Parliament was 379 to 219, and although it came on a procedural issue, it was tantamount to a vote of confidence in Thatcher.

Neil Kinnock, leader of the opposition Labor Party, said in opening the debate that “today the prime minister is on trial.”

“Dishonesty runs right through this episode,” he said.

The crisis began with a seemingly minor Cabinet disagreement over how Westland PLC, a financially ailing firm that builds helicopters, should be rescued. Since then, two Cabinet ministers have resigned, the prime minister’s staff has been implicated in the leak of an official document and questions have been raised about Thatcher’s leadership ability.

Coincidentally on Monday, Westland’s board cleared the way for a U.S.-led rescue package. Chairman John Cuckney made public details of a new offer from United Technologies Corp., owner of U.S. helicopter-maker Sikorsky, and Fiat of Italy and said the board wholeheartedly recommended that shareholders accept it.

Before Parliament voted, Thatcher said in a 30-minute statement that she neither authorized nor was consulted about the leak, earlier this month, of a sensitive government document that discredited Defense Secretary Michael Heseltine, who has since resigned.

The leak of the document, a letter from Patrick Mayhew, who as solicitor general is the country’s second-ranking legal officer, was traced to two of Thatcher’s closest aides and to senior officials in the Department of Trade and Industry. Leon Brittan, the secretary for trade and industry, who authorized the leak, has also resigned.

Two Consortiums

Heseltine had favored the bid of a European consortium to provide Westland with needed capital. Other members of the Thatcher Cabinet, including Brittan, preferred the consortium headed by United Technologies.

The unauthorized disclosure of government documents by civil servants is viewed here as an extremely serious act, punishable by imprisonment. Disclosure of the existence, let alone the contents, of a letter between such a senior law officer and a Cabinet minister is a major breach of government procedure.

Thatcher, speaking doggedly through a din of insults and derisive laughter from the opposition, was visibly and uncharacteristically on the defensive as she insisted that she was unaware that her aides had been involved in the leak, either when it occurred or eight days later when she ordered an investigation of the incident.

She also insisted that she was unaware, before or during the weeklong investigation, that Brittan, one of her closest Cabinet allies in the affair, had authorized the leak. This was greeted with shouts of disbelief by the opposition.

Brittan was forced to resign Friday, under pressure from within Thatcher’s Conservative Party, after it become known that he had in fact authorized the disclosure.

Brittan helped Thatcher’s cause Monday by formally accepting responsibility for the leak.

Regrets Expressed

“The civil servants acted on my authority,” he said. “I profoundly regret that it happened.”

Opposition leaders were not satisfied with the statements of either Thatcher or Brittan. After the debate, David Owen, leader of the Social Democratic Party, described the incident as “a rather shabby, sordid affair,” and added: “The prime minister hasn’t come out of this with her integrity intact.”

Denis Healey, a leading figure in the Labor Party, said the prime minister’s “own explanation of events has shown her as feckless and incompetent; the explanation of others has shown her as shifty and deceitful.”

To bring down the Thatcher government, however, would require a revolt within her Conservative Party, and there were strong indications Monday that party officials had managed to control the discontent over her handling of the affair.

Her statement in Parliament appeared to have helped in this respect. She admitted that mistakes were made in the way that the incident was handled and expressed regret at the leak of the Mayhew letter.

One Conservative member of Parliament said, “There were some terrible things done, but she apologized, and that’s what I wanted to hear.”

Although the Conservatives have closed ranks behind her, the extent to which her answers will satisfy the voters is not clear. Several political commentators joined with opposition leaders Monday night in saying that some parts of her statement were not believable.