Hi °C | Lo °C Japanese politicians had planned to provide Margaret Thatcher with 20 “karate ladies” as personal security for the new Prime Minister at an economic summit in Tokyo in June 1979.
A letter from the Lord Privy Seal to the Foreign Office detailed Cabinet Secretary Sir John Hunt's concerns.
It said: “If other delegation leaders, for example, are each being assigned 20 karate gen tlemen, the Prime Minister would have no objection to this; but she does not wish to be singled out.
“She has not had in the past and does not have now any female Special Branch officers.”
