§ 43. Mr. Dalyellasked the Prime Minister (1) on what grounds a non-attributable disclosure to the Press Association was chosen as the means of bringing the Solicitor-General's letter of 6 January to the then Secretary of State for Defence into the public domain; and if she will make a statement;
(2) when she first learned of the letter sent by the Solicitor General to the former Secretary of State for defence in relation to Westlands;
(3) what the secretary to the Cabinet understood to be the possible consequences of a failure to establish an official inquiry into the leak of the Solicitor General's letter on the Westland affair, following his discussions with the Attorney-General in January 1986; and if she will make a statement;
50W(4) what discussions she had with the former Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, the right hon. Member for Richmond, Yorks (Mr. Brittan) about the substance and details of her speech to the House on 27 January in relation to the Westland affair; and if she will make a statement;
(5) by what means and in what form she originally intended the letter of 6 January from the Solicitor General about the Westland affair to be brought into the public domain, prior to the leak of the letter on 6 January; and if she will make a statement.
§ The Prime MinisterAs was stated in paragraph 28 of the Government's response to the third and fourth reports of the Defence Committee, full accounts of the matters with which the fourth report was concerned have already been given by myself and other Ministers in statements in Parliament, speeches in debates and answers to parliamentary questions, and by the head of the home Civil Service in his evidence to the Committee. The Government stand by those accounts, and see no reason to qualify or add to them.