Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher secretly discussed issuing firearms to the police amid fears riots could disrupt the wedding of the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer, according to the official papers from the British National Archieve.
They show the Metropolitan Police Commissioner was so concerned about the security situation he even raised it with the Queen.
In 1981, Mrs Thatcher’s Conservative government was rocked by the worst outbreak of civil unrest since Victorian times as rampaging youths battled the police in cities across England.
During the spring and summer, an explosive cocktail of inner city deprivation, rising unemployment, racial tensions and resentment at police tactics reached boiling point.
After riots erupted in Brixton, south London, in April, a fresh wave of disturbances broke out at the beginning of July – the month of the royal wedding – centred on Toxteth in Liverpool.
In nine days of rioting, one person died after being struck by a police vehicle, 468 police officers were injured, 500 people were arrested and 70 buildings were damaged so severely by fire they had to be demolished.
As police used CS gas for the first time on the British mainland to try to quell trouble, further riots broke out in other cities, prompting fears of widespread breakdown of law and order.
After visiting the scene of the disturbances in Toxteth and Moss Side in Manchester, Home Secretary William Whitelaw warned Mrs Thatcher that emergency legislation could not be ruled out.
The Prime Minister quickly agreed the police should have all the additional equipment they needed – including water cannon and rubber bullets or baton rounds – with army camps being set aside to hold offenders if the prisons could not cope.
The only thing she would not contemplate was deploying troops on the streets of the mainland. “If necessary the police should be properly equipped, and even armed, before such a step was taken,” the official minute of their discussion noted.
Meanwhile, senior police officers, including Merseyside Chief Constable Kenneth Oxford, were pressing for a return of the 1715 Riot Act, giving them sweeping powers to clear the streets.
Mrs Thatcher acknowledged that quick legislation could be necessary, noting there was a strong case for action before the royal wedding.
She received a similar message when she visited the Met Police Commissioner Sir David McNee at Scotland Yard before going on in the early hours of the morning to see the control room at Brixton police station.
Sir David took the opportunity to raise his concerns about security for the wedding of Charles and Diana at St Paul’s Cathedral on July 29 – now less than three weeks away.
“The commissioner expressed his concern about security arrangements for the royal wedding, and especially for the firework display to be held in Hyde Park,” the minutes noted. “The arrangements by which foreign dignitaries would be watching from a stand without any cover were especially worrying. He had raised this with HM The Queen, but felt that there was a case for reviewing the situation in the light of recent events.”
Mrs Thatcher emerged with a shopping list of equipment including riot shields, protected vehicles, CS gas, longer truncheons, rubber bullets, water cannon, fire resistant clothing, protective head gear and helicopters with surveillance cameras (dubbed heli-telly) – all at that time unfamiliar on the British mainland.
The following day, July 13, Mrs Thatcher visited Merseyside – the epicentre of the disturbances – meeting community leaders at Liverpool Town Hall. The Prime Minister, an instinctive upholder of law and order, was taken aback by the wave of hostility she encountered towards the police.
The community leaders vehemently denounced Kenneth Oxford’s style of policing, complaining he believed in “slapping people down and keeping them down” and that the Liverpool police “regarded anyone who was black as a criminal and acted accordingly”.