Cabinet
survives IRA hotel blast
• MP among dead
• "Chief Whip injured, wife missing"
• Tebbit rescued after 4 hours
October 13, 1984
An investigation into the security breach which allowed the Provisional IRA to attempt the assassination of the Prime Minister and most of her Cabinet at their Brighton conference hotel began last night.
The bomb brought tons of rubble through seven floors of the Grand Hotel, Brighton, miraculously missing Mrs Thatcher but killing the Conservative MP for Enfield South, Sir Anthony Berry. Also believed to be dead are Mrs Roberta Wakeham, wife of the Government chief whip, Mr John Wakeham, and Mrs Jeanne Shattock, wife of the president of the South-West Conservative Association, Mr Gordon Shattock. Mr Eric Taylor, chairman of the North-West Area Association was missing.
Mrs Thatcher's bathroom was demolished two minutes after she had left it, but two of her senior ministers, the Industry Secretary, Mr Norman Tebbit, and Mr Wakeham were trapped in the rubble. Mr Tebbit was brought out after four hours and Mr Wakeham after six. Both men underwent operations in hospital. Mr Wakeham has serious leg injuries.
The Prime Minister insisted that the conference should continue as normal and went on to deliver her keynote speech. The bombing, she said, was "an attempt to cripple our Government - and that is the scale of the outrage."
She and her colleagues had been surrounded by close personal protection for more than two months because of a tip-off about an IRA assassination squad. Three Special Branch officers guard her personally and other officers were posted on the first, second and third floor landings.
The American FBI had warned that a Provisional "sleeper squad" had been reactivated and was planning a winter terrorist offensive. This underlined British intelligence information already gained.
The tip off was lent extra weight two weeks ago when an FBI tip-off led to the arrest of five alleged IRA gunrunners and the capture of trawler Marita Anne off the Irish coast.
The chief constable of Sussex, Mr Roger Birch, asked for an independent inquiry into the security arrangements to be conducted by the deputy chief constable of Hampshire, Mr John Hoddinott.
Commander Bill Hucklesby, head of the anti-terrorist squad, went to Brighton to help with the investigations being carried out by the Sussex police, led by Detective Chief Superintendent Jack Reece. Also involved are Assistant Chief Constable David Scott and Chief Superintendent Dennis Williams.
Experts estimated the bomb at 10 to 15lb. but - with the dead and critically injured still trapped in the rubble - the Provisional IRA in Dublin issued a statement claiming responsibility and saying the bomb was 1001b.
The statement, addressed to Mrs Thatcher, said in part: "Today we were unlucky, but remember we only have to be lucky once. You will have to be lucky always. Give Ireland peace and there will be no war."
After her speech to the conference in which she again emphasised her refusal to be moved by the bombers, Mrs Thatcher went straight to the Royal Sussex Hospital, where she spent two hours with the injured.
Mr Birch, the Sussex Chief Constable, refused to speculate about the size or nature of the bomb. There were rumours that it was timed to go off when ministers would be in their rooms and had been planted in a front bedroom. The impact of the bomb appeared to have been concentrated on the fifth floor, collapsing lower floors and ripping off the roof.
Debris was scattered over the promenade and the beach. Forensic scientists are expected to take some days to piece together information about the device.
At a press conference, Mr Birch took responsibility for the security arrangements in the town but he insisted that they were adequate.
He said: "I feel a great sense of sadness that it should have happened. I am still of the opinion that the arrangements we made were appropriate to the occasion
"To guarantee 100 per cent security, particularly from an explosive device, would call for the sort of security arrangements which so far have or would prove quite unacceptable to the community, and therefore you would have to have a total split between the ministers in residence and other people sharing the hotel."
The bomb, which went off at about 2.54 a.m., could have caused greater mayhem in the hotel had the main bar on the ground floor not closed promptly at 2 a.m.
The blast also scattered Government papers and Cabinet documents, with their red boxes which were collected quickly by the rescue teams and driven away in a police Land Rover. Sir Geoffrey Howe, the Foreign Secretary, was occupying rooms next door to Mrs Thatcher and Mr Leon Brittan, the Home Secretary, was next to him.
As well as Mrs Thatcher's bathroom, Sir Geoffrey's study was also demolished, Mr John Gummer, who was helping Mrs Thatcher to put the finishing touches to her conference speech, had gone across the corridor to collect some papers when the blast occurred. He was unhurt. Mr Paul Boswell, aged 59, the hotel manager, said that if the blast had gone according to plan "it would have meant that the whole lot would have come down on Mrs Thatcher."
Mr Boswell, who handed in his notice on Thursday ready for retirement, was in his flat on the second floor when the bomb went off.