Coptergate

The chinks in the Iron Lady's political armor were growing wider each day. What began last fall as a relatively minor issue, the fate of an ailing British helicopter manufacturer, had ballooned into one of the severest tests for Margaret Thatcher in her nearly seven years as Prime Minister. The controversy has already prompted the angry resignation of Defense Minister Michael Heseltine and threatened to force the ouster of Trade and Industry Minister Leon Brittan. In the House of Commons last week, amid charges of high-level deceit and manipulation, Thatcher's critics turned the debate into a full-scale assault on her whole style of governing. Neil Kinnock, the leader of the opposition Labor Party, demanded an investigation.

"I know a stink when I smell one," he declared. Responded Thatcher: "The government has conducted itself properly and responsibly. There is no cause for an inquiry."

At issue was the rescue of Westland, Britain's only helicopter manufacturer, which lost almost $140 million last year. The company's board of directors favored a bailout bid by Sikorsky, a division of United Technologies Corp. of Hartford, Conn., in conjunction with Italy's Fiat. Heseltine, fearing an erosion of Britain's industrial competitiveness, had promoted a rival rescue plan through an all-European consortium that included British Aerospace (1985 sales: $3.6 billion). The Thatcher government professed to be neutral, but Heseltine and others charged the Prime Minister with favoring the U.S. bid.

Heseltine embarrassed Thatcher two weeks ago by becoming the first British Minister since 1887 to resign by storming out of a Cabinet meeting. He followed that flamboyant gesture by charging Brittan with trying to pressure British Aerospace into pulling out of the European consortium. Brittan denied the claim, but conceded that he had warned British Aerospace that a decision against Sikorsky might be considered anti-American and could hurt the firm's U.S. sales, which account for about 12% of revenues.

When the House of Commons met on Monday afternoon, Heseltine asked Brittan if he was aware of a letter from British Aerospace to the government, said to contain the company's account of a Jan. 8 meeting in which Brittan allegedly urged it to withdraw from the European group. In his reply, Brittan denied four times that such a letter had come in. Within an hour, however, the Prime Minister's office admitted that Thatcher had indeed received the letter and had mentioned it to Brittan. The Minister then executed a sharp about-face, explaining that he had not felt free earlier to reveal the letter's existence because it was marked PRIVATE AND STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL. Said Brittan: "I had no intention of deceiving the House. If it is thought in any way that I misled the House, I apologize unreservedly." His confession brought opposition choruses of "Resign!" and "Withdraw!"

Released two days later, the letter stated that Brittan had told British Aerospace's chief executive officer, Sir Raymond Lygo, that his company's involvement in the Euro-consortium "was not in the national interest" and that he "should withdraw." The account seemed to belie Thatcher's claim of neutrality. The government simultaneously released its own description of the Jan. 8 meeting. According to notes taken by Brittan's secretary, the Minister had said only that "it was not in the national interest that the present uncertainty involving Westland should drag on."

A motion for a parliamentary inquiry into the government's handling of the Westland affair was subsequently defeated by a vote of 370 to 217. Later in the week, Westland's board failed to muster the 75% shareholder approval needed to accept the Sikorsky bid. The biggest loser in the whole affair was clearly Thatcher: a Gallup poll published last week gave her Conservative Party only a 29.5% approval rating, its poorest standing since 1980.