Archives: How the Iron Lady handbagged Robert Maxwell's pleas

DESPERATE attempts by newspaper baron Robert Maxwell to convince Margaret Thatcher to bail out the debt-ridden Edinburgh Commonwealth Games have been revealed for the first time.

A series of letters made public yesterday have shown how Mr Maxwell tried to use his legendary charm on the then Prime Minister in a bid to persuade her to put government money into the event.

Mr Maxwell rode to the rescue of the 1986 Games after a boycott by African nations, lack of sponsorship and extra security costs left the organisers with a 4 million cash deficit.

He became chairman of the Games and vowed to make up the shortfall that threatened to scupper the event and leave thousands of creditors unpaid. But in newly released files, among thousands unveiled yesterday by the National Archives of Scotland, he tells how he was "foolish" to take on the task of saving the Games as the deficit was too large.

In one gushing letter from Mr Maxwell to Mrs Thatcher, written as the Games company faced liquidation three months after the event, the late press baron writes: "I wish to offer my simple and sincere thanks for your graciousness in seeing me about the Commonwealth Games, despite the unique pressures on your time."

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He also details how there are several obstacles in the way of him managing to balance the books of the Games, telling Mrs Thatcher: "There are matters outstanding between us and the final winding down of the XIII Commonwealth Games with the dignity and decorum which you encouraged me to achieve."

After the charm, however, came an attempt by Maxwell to secure government cash to balance the books of the event.

He told how a Japanese businessman, Ryoichi Sasakawa, was willing to put 1.3m into the Games, along with 700,000 from Mr Maxwell, but only if the UK government put another 1m in.

In her return letter to Mr Maxwell, however, Mrs Thatcher tells him that her government will not be putting money into the Games. She starts with praise for Mr Maxwell, telling him: "I have never doubted your ability to wind up the affairs of the Games company in good order".

She then adds that she won't be putting money forward as her government had taken a firm stand that it would not back private companies.

In a letter to Mr Sasakawa she repeats her refusal, saying: "I listened sympathetically to all you had to say but I can not do so (bail out the Games]."

Showing her credentials as the Iron Lady, she told of "the need to stand firm on matters of principle", adding: "If I were to relinquish this principle our credibility and authority would be greatly undermined."

In a briefing note to then Scottish Secretary Malcolm Rifkind, also made public yesterday, civil servants warn that the "Scottish Nationalists may wish to exploit the collapse of the Commonwealth Games company".

It adds that demands for money from Mr Maxwell are "sheer presumption" and warns that the businessman would steal all the credit for saving the games despite putting in just 700,000. Later briefings claim he put in as little as 250,000.

Mr Maxwell warned the Tory government in October, three months after the Games ended, he would simply put the organising company into liquidation.

He tells Mrs Thatcher in a strongly worded missive: "Without 1m from the government I will liquidate the Games. The consequences for businesses, some of them small traders, and jobs in Scotland would be woeful, as would the impact on our country's reputation."

Mr Rifkind then reveals to Mrs Thatcher that Mr Maxwell had tried to get support from Jeffrey Archer for the cash injection.

Mr Rifkind, long considered a "wet" left-wing Tory by the Thatcherites in the Cabinet of the time, then departs from the Prime Minister's line by offering to put money in.

He wrote: "Robert Maxwell rang Jeffrey Archer to ask for funding from the government or he would liquidate the company. In these circumstances I would be prepared to fund 1m from within my existing resources."

Mrs Thatcher, as she often did, won out and no UK government money was provided. The debt from the Games was eventually reduced to 500,000 and transferred to Edinburgh City Council, who only paid it off in 1989.

Mr Maxwell himself died in mysterious circumstances in 1991 when he fell of a yacht in the Atlantic. His reputation was left in tatters when it emerged he had stolen millions of pounds from the pension fund at Mirror Group Newspapers, which he owned.