- The former federal minister made a shocking claim this week
- John Brown served in Bob Hawke's government in the 1980s
- Released his autobiography in Sydney this week
A former Australian government minister has claimed that the late Prime Minister Bob Hawke verbally abused his British counterpart Margaret Thatcher over the British Lions' plans to tour South Africa while the country was still in the grip of apartheid.
John Brown, who served as Minister for Sport, Recreation and Tourism in the Hawke government from 1984 to 1987, made the stunning claim as he launched his autobiography in Sydney this week.
The British rugby team planned to play in South Africa in 1986, but the tour was canceled at a time when the country was a sporting outcast due to its brutally racist regime.
Brown told the audience at his book launch that he had arranged for Hawke to speak to Thatcher about the tour before it was axed.
Former Minister for Sport, Recreation and Tourism John Brown (pictured right with Bob Hawke in 1990) made a startling claim about the late Prime Minister's relationship with his British counterpart, Margaret Thatcher
Brown told attendees at his book launch that the Australian leader (pictured with Thatcher in 1986) launched an unprintable tirade against the British prime minister during a much-publicized rugby tour of South Africa while the country was still in the grip of apartheid.
The British Lions toured the racially divided country in 1980 (pictured) and planned to do so again in 1986, leaving Hawke furious
The late Prime Minister raised concerns about the tour's potential to disrupt the 1986 Commonwealth Games if it went ahead, with many African countries boycotting the event due to British sporting bodies' refusal to cut ties with South Africa.
Brown claimed the Australian leader lost his cool during the phone call and told Thatcher: 'Listen, you f***ing b***h, make sure that f***ing team pulls out of South Africa or the Commonwealth Games will. implode and possibly the Commonwealth of Nations.
“You're the goddamn Prime Minister of England and the future of both of them is in your hands.”
According to Brown's report, which was relayed by the Sydney Morning HeraldThatcher then agreed to cancel the tour.
However, it was reported at the time that the South African Rugby Board had called off the matches, partly because the country was in a state of emergency for much of that year.
Hawke was a strong opponent of apartheid and credited himself with inventing the 'dagger' that helped topple the racist system.
“Trade sanctions weren't working, so I felt that if we could boycott foreign investment in South Africa, we could put a stop to that,” he said in 2016, three years before his death.
The prickly relationship between Hawke and Thatcher was exposed in British cabinet papers released in 2014
“My fellow Commonwealth leaders supported my concept and within a very short time it worked.
'The investment boycott was the dagger that finally made apartheid impossible.'
Unlike Britain, Australian rugby teams refused to play against apartheid South Africa after hosting the Springboks in 1971, when the tour resulted in protests across the country.
While the British tour of South Africa was canceled in 1985, the Lions played an international side featuring Springboks stars in Wales in April 1986 to celebrate the centenary of the International Rugby Football Board.
Hawke (pictured with Brown in 1986) was a staunch opponent of apartheid – and said the issue was his 'biggest point of difference' with Thatcher
The prickly relationship between Hawke and Thatcher was exposed in British cabinet papers that came to light in 2014.
It revealed that the British Foreign Office described Hawke to Thatcher as 'often deliberately abrasive and even arrogant' and warned that he had 'a well-known weakness for drink and women'.
Hawke described their differences over South Africa shortly after the papers' publication.
“We agreed on many things, but our big point of difference was the apartheid regime in South Africa,” Hawke explained.
“I led the fight against it in the Commonwealth, trying to crush it, which we eventually succeeded in doing, but Margaret never wanted to join that fight and so I had some famous stoushes with her.”