Margaret Thatcher ‘grabbed her handbag’ and ‘stormed out’ of a meeting with Belgian’s PM

Margaret Thatcher ‘grabbed her handbag’ and ‘stormed out’ of a meeting with the Belgian prime minister in a row over an alleged IRA agent, newly-declassified files reveal.

The former prime minister met Wilfried Martens on the fringes of a European Council summit in Greece in December 1988 for the testy exchange.

The pair ‘hardly shared a common subject’ and parted on bitter terms when Mrs Thatcher ‘terminated’ the meeting abruptly, files released to the National Archives of Ireland in Dublin show.

The incident was revealed in a note marked confidential and stamped ‘Seen by Taoiseach [the Irish premier]’.

Anthony Teasdale, political adviser to the then-foreign secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe, told Richard Ryan, a diplomat in the Irish Embassy in London, about the meeting over lunch in January 1989.

The report reveals that Mrs Thatcher and Mr Martens discussed the delayed extradition of Irish priest Father Patrick Ryan, who was wanted in London for alleged connections to the IRA.

Belgian police had arrested him in June 1988 and found large quantities of cash and bomb-making equipment in his home.

But relations became strained between the countries after Fr Ryan was flown to Ireland because the Belgian government refused to extradite him to Britain.

The pair (pictured) ‘hardly shared a common subject’ and parted on bitter terms when Mrs Thatcher ‘terminated’ the meeting abruptly, files released to the National Archives of Ireland in Dublin show

‘Martens was totally ineffectual in his replies and just tried weakly to repeat arguments which she had already chewed up,’ Mr Teasdale told the diplomat.

Mrs Thatcher then ‘terminated’ the meeting by saying: ‘We have nothing further to talk about, you and I.’

According to Mr Teasdale, she then ‘grabbed her handbag and stormed out’ leaving the Belgian prime minister ‘sitting there’.

The Tory aide told the story to contrast the strained relationship to Mrs Thatcher’s ‘quite natural’ way with the then-Irish Taoiseach Charlie Haughey.

He said there was ‘a lot to be played for between them’ after she appeared to apologise for her outspoken criticism of Ireland over the affair.

The report reveals that Mrs Thatcher (pictured) and Mr Martens discussed the delayed extradition of Irish priest Father Patrick Ryan, who was wanted in London for alleged connections to the IRA 

Mr Teasdale told Mr Ryan that Mrs Thatcher ‘felt she regretted as having gone over the top’ in her comments.

‘She saw the Irish to a real extent as victims of the Belgians and she wanted this to get across to the Taoiseach,’ he added. ‘She was going as far toward an apology as she could ever do.’

He also told him ‘unprompted’ that he was ‘very struck’ by a report of the meeting in Rhodes, Greece, written up by Charles Powell, Mrs Thatcher’s private secretary and adviser.

‘They were clearly both talking seriously, frankly and constructively about the same thing,’ Mr Teasdale said.

The Tory adviser said the British valued ongoing correspondence between the leaders and told the diplomat that he was ‘very struck’ by their rapport.

‘The last letter – from her – showed him, he said, how ‘businesslike’ and ‘normal’ their relationship can be,’ he said.

Mr Teasdale said he wanted to see this leading to a ‘real meeting’ – one other than on the margins of a summit – between the two leaders.

A handwritten note on the file reads: ‘This is a particularly interesting and useful report.’