Sir Brian Hayes
Civil servant caught up in the Westland affair that led to the resignation of his boss Leon Brittan
SIR BRIAN HAYES, who has died aged 93, was a capable and much-liked civil servant who had the misfortune to be Permanent Secretary at the Department of Trade & Industry during the Westland affair, which early in 1986 brought the resignation of two Cabinet ministers including his Secretary of State, Leon Brittan.
Discussions had been in train for a while over the future of the struggling Somerset helicopter company. Brittan’s – and the company’s – preferred solution was a takeover by the Americans, Sikorsky, but the Defence Secretary Michael Heseltine launched a frenetic campaign for a “European solution” involving British Aerospace and Italian and French companies.
Hayes was renowned for his ability to work with ministers, but he and Brittan were outmanoeuvred as Heseltine campaigned from the MOD through the media. In desperation, the DTI leaked a minute to Heseltine from the solicitorgeneral, Sir Patrick Mayhew, citing “material inaccuracies” in a letter he had sent warning that Westland would forfeit European orders if it tied up with Sikorski.
Days later, Heseltine resigned in midcabinet when Margaret Thatcher insisted on collective responsibility in settling Westland’s future.
Brittan had authorised the DTI’S head of information, Colette Bowe, to leak the letter in the belief that Downing Street had given its approval; he knew Hayes had spoken with the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Robert Armstrong, but not the thrust of the conversation. As the furore continued, Brittan was found to have misled the Commons over other correspondence he had received, and he resigned.
The ructions continued – with Mrs Thatcher momentarily fearing she too would have to go – as Hayes gained a new Secretary of State, Paul Channon. It did not help that having briefed Channon on Westland, he needed to add: “Secretary of State, there’s something else you should know.” Hayes went on to tell a flabbergasted Channon of moves to sell Land Rover to the Americans – an initiative of equal political
sensitivity which the incoming minister quickly vetoed.
Hayes remained in the eye of the storm as the Trade & Industry Select Committee probed the genesis of the Westland leak. It was widely suspected that No 10 – and maybe Mrs Thatcher herself – had orchestrated it to dish Heseltine, and efforts were made to call Armstrong and Mrs Thatcher’s ultra-loyal press secretary Bernard Ingham, who was suspected of involvement.
The committee also sought to question Colette Bowe and Brittan’s private secretary, John Mogg. Hayes tried to head this off by appearing himself, testifying that Channon had decided it would be “inappropriate” for them to appear when they had co-operated with the Whitehall inquiry into the leak.
Hayes clashed with the panel’s chairman, the former Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Humphrey Atkins, over whose responsibility it was to decide who appeared. When Heseltine gave evidence days later, he accused Hayes of having supplied the inquiry with misleading documents.
This was not Hayes’s only stand-off with the Select Committee. Weeks later he was called to account for having instructed UK representatives on the collapsed International Tin Council to refuse to answer questions. Hayes explained that the chairman of the Council had refused to let any information about its proceedings be divulged.
His stormy but not unsuccessful tenure ended in 1989, just as the DTI’S authorisation of £38 million in “sweeteners” to BAE to take over Rover became public knowledge. The Select Committee summoned Hayes out of retirement; he explained that while he had approved the Rover package, it had also been cleared with lawyers, the Treasury, and the Comptroller and Auditor General.
Hayes had come to the Department of Industry in 1982 after three years as permanent secretary at the Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Maff), where he had spent his entire Whitehall career. He arrived before Industry merged with Trade, and for his first two years at the DTI was joint permanent secretary with Sir Anthony Rawlinson, taking sole charge on Rawlinson’s retirement.
Brian David Hayes was born in Norfolk on May 5 1929, the son of Charles and Flora Hayes, and educated at Norwich School. After National Service with the Royal Army Service Corps he read History at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, then following a spell in market research with Reckitt & Colman he returned to take a PHD, which he was awarded in 1956.
He joined Maff that year, and in 1958 became assistant private secretary to the minister, John Hare. From 1967 he was involved with European issues as Britain moved to join the Common Market. Three years later he took charge of the ministry’s Milk & Poultry Group.
Returning to EC matters in 1973, he led Maff ’s delegations to Brussels once Britain joined and attended EC budgetary summits when ministers feared that France, or another key player, would try to “slip one through” on agriculture.
Even after the 1975 referendum vote to stay in, Labour’s John Silkin took an abrasive line in Europe, and in 1977 Hayes, unusually, spoke out. He told Scottish agriculture students that any EC support for farmers above world prices should be minimal. He said he expected prices paid to British farmers to remain under the control of the British government, and national agriculture to expand through productivity rather than higher prices.
In 1979, at 50, Hayes became Permanent Secretary at Maff. Then, at the end of 1982, he moved to Industry on Sir Peter Carey’s retirement. After the 1983 election the DTI was re-created, Hayes providing valuable continuity as ministers came and went.
Cecil Parkinson resigned within weeks over the Sara Keays affair, being replaced by Norman Tebbit. In September 1985 Brittan succeeded Tebbit – still recovering from his injuries in the Brighton bombing – and four months later Channon replaced him. Lord Young succeeded Channon after the 1987 election, and by Hayes’s retirement Nicholas Ridley was in post.
Hayes postponed his retirement from April to September 1989 at Mrs Thatcher’s request until Sir Peter Gregson, Permanent Secretary at Parkinson’s Department of Energy, was free to take over.
He became a director of Guardian Royal Exchange and Tate & Lyle (for whom he was said to “do wonders in the corridors of power”) and an advisory director of Unilever.
In 1992 he was appointed to chair a committee to create a new self-regulatory body for financial services intermediaries, replacing Fimbra and Lautro. A Personal Investment Authority was proposed with Hayes in charge, but bickering over its formation delayed matters while Hayes tried to mediate between warring City factions. The PIA was established in 1994, but under different leadership. Hayes instead became members’ ombudsman at Lloyd’s.
He was appointed CB in 1976, KCB in 1980 and GCB in 1988.
Brian Hayes married Audrey Jenkins in 1958; they had a son and a daughter.
Brian Hayes, born May 5 1929, died May 31 2022