Revealed: How Thatcher's government pulled the plug on a 'new Hampden'

Files that go back to 1980 reveal how the Conservative Government had “inherited” the commitment from the previous Labour Government to reconstruct Hampden into the national stadium. Design work had already begun.

Hampden was described as a “run-down sporting slum,” which was set to “fade away”unless urgent action was taken.

But this was an era of extremely restricted public spending. Inflation peaked in 1980 at 22 per cent. Money was tight and opinion was divided on the need for Hampden to be revamped.

Rae Simpson, the Chairman of Rangers, told ministers that the £11 million reconstruction cost was a vast sum to be spending on a stadium where only a handful of matches would be played in any one year. One argument was that internationals and cup finals could be played at other venues across Scotland.

But the Government’s mind appeared made up.

In June 1980, Godfrey Robson, the Private Secretary to George Younger, the Scottish Secretary, wrote to Mike Pattison, Mrs Thatcher’s Private Secretary, saying how the Secretary of State intended to approve a grant for the redevelopment of Hampden Park; “in effect the national ground”.

He noted: “Its facilities and general standards are quite inadequate and if it is to remain in use, complete reconstruction is necessary.”

The Government pledged to pay half of the £11 million with Strathclyde and Glasgow Councils each chipping in 10 per cent ie £1.1m each.

But Glasgow later withdrew its commitment “because of the effect of Government spending cuts on essential services”.

The responsibility of finding the shortfall fell to the Scottish football bodies themselves through Hampden Park Limited, the body set up to oversee the reconstruction.

Having considered the other projects needing money and the “general financial constraints under which we are working”, the Scottish Secretary nonetheless decided Government support should not be withdrawn. The £5.5m grant would go ahead.

At a meeting in the Treasury John Biffen, the Chief Secretary, made clear the Government’s commitment should be “fixed in cash terms” given raging inflation yet upped its offer to £8.5m.

Then something happened. The papers do not reveal what precisely caused the dramatic U-turn but within a few days of recommitting itself to the project, the Government pulled the plug – on the very day reconstruction was due to begin.

Desmond White, the Chairman of Celtic, declared: “This is a disaster for Scottish football and a let-down for hundreds of thousands of fans.”

Speculation was rife that Mrs Thatcher had baulked at the numbers and intervened personally.

Questions were asked in the Press about “who holds the purse-strings in Scotland” – Younger or Thatcher?

Press reports suggested Mr Younger and his colleague at the Scottish Office Alex Fletcher, dubbed the “pusillanimous pair,” had been “rapped over the knuckles” by the Prime Minister for seeking to spend so much taxpayers’ cash at a time of austerity.

Iain Sproat, the Tory MP for South Aberdeen, was branded the “executioner” after being fingered as the driving force to stop the Hampden Project.

He said he had approached Mrs Thatcher, explaining: “I went direct to her and said: ‘It’s a bad show to be telling nurses and teachers they can have no more money[and] at the same time as doling out £10m for a football ground.”

He suggested international matches and Cup finals could be spread across Scotland, arguing: “Stopping this grotesque waste of public money on Hampden is good for the economy and good for football.”

But the Scottish Office was not happy.

Mr Robson in a letter to No 10 said he gathered the opportunity had not arisen during PMQs for Mrs Thatcher to “rebut the allegations that, in resiling on the Hampden commitment, the Secretary of State was acting under her instructions”.

He went on: “I said I would let you see some newspaper cuttings to show the extent to which this explanation had gained currency in Scotland; at the cost of great damage to the Secretary of State’s image.”

He added: “No doubt you will continue to brief the PM to take any further opportunity that arises to confirm that the Secretary of State is his own man and responsible for his own decisions.”

In a written note on the letter, one aide said: “Prime Minister you should be aware of the tone of the Scottish Press coverage of the Hampden decision.”

In response, Mrs Thatcher scribbled: “Can Bernard[Ingham, her Press Secretary] brief the Scottish Press?”

Some 12 years later, Ian Lang, the new Scottish Secretary, made a new Government offer to reconstruct Hampden as an all-seater national stadium in the wake of the Taylor Report on the Hillsborough tragedy.

He stressed he was “not minded to support anything other than the most basic work at Hampden to satisfy the Taylor Report requirements” and offered £5m of taxpayers’ money as a “cash-limited contribution”.

In a note to David Mellor, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Mr Lang explained how the question of Government support had become a “highly charged national issue in recent months and at present there is intense media and public interest in the football authorities’ latest request for Government assistance…I am not prepared to risk further criticism about delays on this sensitive issue”.

Mr Mellor said the Government was prepared to stump up £3.5m, phased over three years, which would come from within the Scottish block grant, so that the Scotland Office would not seek further funds from the Treasury.

The Government offer, he explained, was conditional on a full funding package being in place with the hope that the private sector would match the Government contribution as well as Glasgow District Council “whose residents will benefit both from the initial safety improvements and the subsequent commercial development”.