Dear Mr Kinnock, Thank you for your letter following our exchanges during Prime Minister's Questions yesterday about the sale of Rover to British Aerospace.
As I said in answer to a question from your colleague, Mr Allen, on 14 December 1989, and repeated yesterday afternoon:
“I was aware throughout the progress of the negotiations with British Aerospace and was of course aware of the basic terms and conditions of the agreements reached with British Aerospace” .
I also reject the assertion in your letter about ‘concealment of subsidies’. As Nicholas Ridley reminded the House during his Statement yesterday:
“The deferment of the consideration and the payment of the £1.5 million to Rover Group were reported in a revised summer supplementary estimate laid before Parliament on 14 July 1988, the day of the announcement. The payment of £9.5 million to BAe was reported in the 1989 Industry Act report. All the facts were made available to the National Audit Office at the outset of its investigations” .
The Government's objective throughout was to safeguard the interests of Rover, its employees and the taxpayer. The agreement with British Aerospace brought to an end thirteen years of state aid to Rover which had cost the taxpayer nearly £3,500 million. It freed the taxpayer from the contingent liability for a further £1,600 million of Rover's accumulated debt. It has provided a sound future in the private sector for the company and the 190,000 people who depend on it for their jobs. Rover is now profitable and successful. The Government has secured its objectives and is happy to be judged on that achievement.
Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher