Margaret Thatcher in Westland ‘payback’
MARGARET Thatcher allowed the bail-out of Westland helicopters by a US rival as a “payback” for help during the Falklands War.
This explosive claim is made in the autobiography of helicopter pioneer Alan Bristow, completed just before he died in April, aged 85.
Michael Heseltine resigned in 1986 as the Tory government split over rival bids for Westland Helicopters from a European consortium and from US giant Sikorsky.
Bristow says former US Secretary of State Al Haig told him Mrs Thatcher backed the American buyer as a thank-you for the secret loan of US surveillance planes in 1982.
He says Haig said to him over lunch: “I called in my marker. She owed me a debt of honour.”