Minister of State For Defence Procurement
Aitken became Minister of State for Defence Procurement under PM John Major in 1992. He was later accused of violating ministerial rules by allowing an Arab businessman to pay for his stay in the Paris Ritz, perjured himself and was jailed (see below).
Aitken had previously been a director of BMARC, an arms exporter, from 1988 to 1990. In 1995 a Commons motion showed that while a Cabinet minister he had signed a controversial Public Interest Immunity Certificate (PIIC) in September 1992 relating to the Matrix Churchill trial, and that the 'gagged' documents included ones relating to the supply of arms to Iraq by BMARC for a period when he was a director of the company.
Read more about this topic: Jonathan Aitken
Famous quotes containing the words minister, state and/or defence:
“Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain,
And with some sweet oblivious antidote
Cleanse the fraught bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“My generation, dear Ron, swore on the Altar of God that whoever proclaims the intent of destroying the Jewish state or the Jewish people, or both, seals his fate.”
—Menachem Begin (1913–1992)
“There can be no defence like elaborate courtesy.”
—E.V. (Edward Verrall)