Maggie was urged to sack Heseltine the day before he resigned over Westland affair

MARGARET Thatcher was urged to sack Michael Heseltine the day before he resigned over the Westland affair in 1986, previously secret files reveal.

The then prime minister was sent a memo by a close aide advising her to warn her defence secretary that he could no longer be a minister if he continued to defy her authority.

But she refused, striking the suggestion through in red pen, according to the files released yesterday by the National Archives at Kew, West london. The next day, Mr Heseltine stormed out of the Cabinet meeting for which the briefing notes were prepared and resigned.

The row – over the future of Westland, Britain’s last helicopter manufacturer – was one of the most damaging of Mrs Thatcher’s premiership and undermined her authority. It revolved around whether Westland should be bailed out by a european consortium or the American company Sikorsky. Although the Government was not supposed to be involved in the decision, Mr Heseltine angered Mrs Thatcher by making it known that he favoured the european solution. The dispute led to the prime minister being accused of leaking documents and lying.

In the memo, Charles Powell, Mrs Thatcher’s foreign policy adviser, told her in bold terms to dismiss her defence secretary over the row. He wrote: ‘Because of the risks of misrepresentation, even questions of fact should not be answered without being cleared through the Cabinet Office. Anyone who does not feel able to accept this conclusion... and who continues to campaign on behalf of one or other proposal, cannot do so as a Minister.’

But Mrs Thatcher crossed the words through and wrote on the document: ‘This applies to each and every one of us.’

In the memo, Mr Powell went on to discuss the damaging Cabinet battle over the affair and the rising panic behind the scenes. He referred to newspaper headlines describing the affair as a ‘Great Cabinet Shambles’ and noted that even loyal supporters were breaking rank.

‘The result of all this is that the Government has been made to appear completely at odds within itself,’ he added. ‘If this situation continues, we shall have no credibility left... We cannot go on like this.’

The memo was Mrs Thatcher’s preparation for the Cabinet meeting of January 9, 1986. even though she toned down her comments, Mr Heseltine stormed out and told a waiting Tv cameraman that he had resigned.