Margaret Thatcher dashed to Riyadh in order to “smoke out the Saudis” and persuade the country’s ruler, King Fahd, to spend billions on British Hawk and Tornado fighter jets, newly declassified Foreign Office papers show.



A series of secret memos show the lengths to which Downing Street went to hide the real reason for Mrs Thatcher’s hastily arranged evening stop-off in Saudi Arabia, made in April 1985 on her way back from a tour of Asia.

Britain had been negotiating with the Saudis over the purchase from British Aerospace of dozens of Hawk and Tornado fighter aircraft. The eventual al-Yamamah agreement – worth £48bn over two decades – was the biggest and most controversial deal in UK history.

It nearly unravelled after the French began courting the Saudis in 1983 with a rival bid for Mirage aircraft. After frantic government lobbying, Prince Bandar – an anglophile and the influential Saudi ambassador to Washington – invited Mrs Thatcher to drop in to Riyadh.



An excerpt from a document released by the National Archives. Photograph: Dominic Harris/PA

Bandar had privately assured Downing Street the king preferred the British offer, but the Foreign Office was sceptical. One secret briefing note said that “on strictly foreign policy grounds” there was no reason for the prime minister to break her journey and to “call on the king”.

It went on: “All the arguments therefore turn to the prospects for Tornado. British Aerospace and the Ministry of Defence are naturally anxious to take every possible step to sell the aircraft to the Saudis and we fully support their efforts.



“To date, we only have Prince Bandar’s word for it that the king has decided to buy Tornado. We need to get this more precise and explicit. Tackling the king in person is probably the only way of smoking the Saudis out.”

The Foreign Office believed that demanding a firm commitment from the Saudis before Thatcher’s arrival would look like “bazaar tactics and could gravely offend them”.

It drew up a further memo setting out objectives and “tactical arguments”. Meanwhile, Charles Powell, Thatcher’s private secretary, discussed how Downing Street could keep the real purpose of the prime minister’s Riyadh dash under wraps – and away from nosy journalists.



Powell wrote to the then foreign secretary, Geoffrey Howe: “My preliminary conclusion is that we should not add anyone to the PM’s party for the visit to Riyadh. To include someone from MoD sales would only serve to draw attention to the Tornado aspect (given that there will be 25 journalists on the aircraft).”

Diplomats were also worried about how the sultan of Oman, Sultan Qaboos, might react to the Saudi stopover. Qaboos was a close British ally who resented what he perceived as “Saudi arrogance” and needed “sensitive handling”. In the end, Mrs Thatcher wrote him a friendly note.

The meeting at the Nasiriyah Palace in Riyadh was a success. It went on for several hours. Over dinner, King Fahd told Thatcher: “Prime minister, the deal is yours.” Afterwards, the Saudi press was “warm”, the FCO noted. Thatcher sent the king a positive letter, thanking him that “were were able to discuss a further matter privately”.

A letter from Margaret Thatcher to the Saudi king. Photograph: Dominic Harris/PA

Thatcher used similarly euphemistic language in another note to to Sir Patrick Wright, the UK’s then ambassador to Riyadh. Wright was one of a handful of British officials, including Powell and the cabinet secretary, Robin Butler, who took part in the sensitive talks. Thatcher wrote to Wright: “I was able to have a private word with him [the King] over lunch on the particular matter about which you know.”

An agreement was signed in September 1985, with the Saudis keen to buy the jets to deter possible Iranian attack. The first Tornados were delivered in 1986.

The files detail further steps strengthening Saudi-British defence cooperation. They were taken by Michael Heseltine, then defence minister, who months later stormed out of cabinet over the Westland affair. Heseltine told King Fahd he had appointed a special defence envoy to Riyadh, Lt Gen Sir John Akehurst.

The al-Yamamah deal was subsequently overshadowed by long-running corruption claims. The Serious Fraud Office investigated whether BAE had paid bribes to secure the contract. BAE denied this. In 2006 Tony Blair controversially shelved the SFO’s inquiry, on the grounds that it wasn’t in the national interest to pursue it, and that it was doubtful anybody would be prosecuted.