The emergence of the Rhodes scholarship connection sets the personal relationship between Mr Abbott and his hand-picked judge to lead the trade union royal commission back decades. A screen grab showing Tony Abbott at an Oxford v Cambridge invitational match in 1981. Credit:Seven Network Mr Abbott is under pressure to sack the commissioner after it was revealed he had been lined up to speak at a Liberal fundraiser before abruptly cancelling his appearance last week. The Labor Party claims the royal commission is now fatally compromised and the union movement is considering legal action amid claims of "political bias" towards the government by Mr Heydon. Fairfax Media submitted detailed questions about his involvement on the Rhodes selection committee in 1980 and whether he personally backed Mr Abbott, but a spokesman for the royal commissioner did not answer any of them, saying only that Mr Heydon had "no comment".

Mr Abbott was asked about his scholarship selection on Monday but said he could not recall whether Mr Heydon was on the committee. "That's a long time ago and the idea that I gather is being peddled that somehow he and I cooked up a conspiracy 34 years ago against the Labor Party is absurd," he said. Royal commissioner Dyson Heydon: could rule on recusing himself as early as Friday. Credit:Andrew Meares In his book Battlelines, Mr Abbott wrote: "As much, I'm sure, through my role in student politics as through academic or sporting prowess, I was chosen as a NSW Rhodes Scholar at the end of 1980." It is possible that Mr Abbott had a personal relationship with Mr Heydon who became the youngest ever dean of the university's law school in 1978, at age 34. Mr Abbott studied law. According to a source familiar with the selection process going back decades, there are "multiple interviews" with the committee before a Rhodes scholar is chosen.

Mr Heydon was the Rhodes scholar for NSW in 1964 when he was 21. He was appointed to the High Court by the Howard government in 2003. Another personal connection between the pair emerged on Monday. In 1993, it was reported that Mr Abbott, then the executive director of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy had appointed Mr Heydon to a legal committee to consider the legal implications of a move to a republic. According to Battlelines, Mr Abbott joined the Sydney University Liberal Club in 1977 before becoming president of the Sydney University Representative Council. His Rhodes selection, three years after Malcolm Turnbull had been bestowed the honour in 1977-78, was reported in the Sydney Morning Herald on November 22, 1980.

"A leading Sydney University student politician who wants to see student bodies scrapped has been named Rhodes Scholar for 1981. Mr Abbott, 23, a law student, has taken a strong line against such bodies using money on 'extreme causes'," the paper reported. In his 2012 essay Political Animal, journalist David Marr, recounts how Mr Abbott "impressed a panel of worthies chaired by the governor of NSW, Sir Roden Cutler". "For Anglophiles and rugby players, the Rho­des was died-and-gone-to-heaven time. Winners must be scholars fond of sport who display "moral force of character and instincts to lead". The award to Abbott came as a surprise, particularly to those who had seen him up close on the SRC. One jibe at the time was, 'second-grade footballer, third-rate academic and fourth-class politician.'," Marr wrote. According to the list, the 1980 panel included Michael Birt, a former vice-chancellor of the University of NSW, war veteran Harold "Jack" Dickinson, who was appointed chair the NSW Public Service Board in 1971. Academic Alice Erh-Soon Tay was also a member.