A former Australian prime minister called Margaret Thatcher a “f------ b----” during an angry phone call about the British and Irish Lions tour in 1986, a new memoir claims.
Bob Hawke, the Labour prime minister from 1983 to 1991, contacted his British counterpart to persuade her to call off the rugby tour in South Africa in protest against apartheid.
John Brown, the former Australian sports minister, has said in his new memoir that the conversation proceeded on diplomatic lines for about 10 minutes when “suddenly the mood changed”.
“Thatcher had popularised the expression ‘the lady is not for turning’ and she was obviously determined to maintain her stance supporting South Africa,” he recalled.
“I could see Bob, as I had seen him many times before, becoming agitated and angry. Eventually he reached the limit of his patience,” Mr Brown wrote. » | Roger Maynard | Friday, December 8, 2023
