Letter to Peter Shore MP (Mark Thatcher and Cementation contract in Oman

Dear Mr. Shore,

Thank you for your letter of 11 April.

The words which you quote from my Panorama interview were in answer to a specific question about publication and were a statement of the normal rule about disclosure of public records. My answer to your Parliamentary Questions on 29 February was correct. No reasonable person would expect the public records to cover the matters in those Questions.

As I said in the Panorama interview I answer for what I do, and I have done so. During my visit to Oman, I raised the general interests of Britain in relation to all aspects of the university contract and I did not raise those of Cementation or any other company which could have been interested in the project. In the light of that fact, any question about my knowledge of my Mark Thatcherson's or anyone else's business affairs is irrelevant.

Yours sincerely

Margaret Thatcher