HC Deb 05 November 1986 vol 103 c435W
Mr. Dalyell

asked the Prime Minister (1) 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;

(2) what discussions she had with the former Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, the right hon. Member for Richmond, Yorks 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;

(3) by what means and in what form she originally intended the letter of 6 January fom 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 Minister

As 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.