Westland Affair 1986: Yeovil’s very own political crisis

In the mid-1980s, a Yeovil-based company precipitated a huge political crisis that nearly brought down the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.

Westland Helicopters’ problems had long worried Ministers, and, by 1985, it came to a choice between partnership with its American or its European rivals. Ministers were split, with an American-leaning majority being resisted by the flamboyant Defence Secretary, Michael Heseltine. Throughout 1985, this had largely been fought behind the scenes in Whitehall, but, by January 1986, the row had spectacularly blown up in public when Heseltine, without warning, walked out of a No. 10 cabinet meeting, announcing that he had resigned from the Government.

Whether this walkout was pre-meditated or not (he was able to hold a press conference, giving a very long ‘resignation speech’, mere hours later!), his action threw the Government into panic. This was made worse when the leaking by both sides of letters designed to bolster their respective cases, was revealed.

One of these was of a letter from the Solicitor General to Heseltine, and this ‘politicising’ of a Law Officer’s communication (which were always kept confidential) could have been the ‘smoking gun’ that toppled the PM herself or the whole Government. Her various statements in the House of Commons about this appeared unconvincing.

The Trade and Industry Secretary, Leon Brittan, who arranged the key leak, was forced to resign. The Opposition, scenting blood, moved in for the kill, forcing an emergency debate on 27 January, and, as Margaret Thatcher later admitted in her memoirs, she told her officials that she might not return from it as Prime Minister. Fortunately for her, the Labour Leader, Neil Kinnock, opened the debate with a poor speech, which let her off the hook.

We must not forget the more direct impact of the political row on the company itself. Its workers must have hated it becoming such a prominent political football. No one realised this more than the then MP for Yeovil, Paddy Ashdown, as he recalled in his memoirs, A fortunate life: “For the rest of Britain, the Westland affair was a scandal about the actions of ministers and the propriety of the Government. For me it was about the survival of by far the most important employer and source of economic wealth in my constituency.”

In July 1985 he had initiated a Commons adjournment debate on Westland’s future. He noted that “nearly 40 of the Westland work force travelled up especially from Yeovil and elsewhere after work today to attend this half hour debate and to show their support for their company and their belief and pride in the work that they do.”

He described Westland’s importance locally as well as nationally: “Westland is not only the pride of my community, and of others in the west of England; it is also the source of much of our prosperity….In short, Westland is not just vital to Yeovil. It is vital to Britain.”

Westland was eventually taken over by the British company, GKN, and later merged with the Italian company, Agusta. But we should not forget the time, exactly three decades ago, when Yeovil briefly became the centre of the political universe.