National Archives: Mikhail Gorbachev surprised Downing Street with unannounced visit in Thatcher's absence Mr Gorbachev visited Britain for the first time in December 1984 and held talks with Mrs Thatcher at Chequers, after which she famously declared that he was a man she could "do business with." A few days later, the Soviet leader-in-waiting was passing down Whitehall after meeting David Steel, the Liberal leader, at the House of Commons when told his driver to stop so he could see Number 10. However, at the time Mrs Thatcher was on a trip to Asia, during which she signed the historic agreement to return Hong Kong to China. A telegram sent to the prime minister's traveling party from the Foreign Office noted: "The accompanying Special Branch officer negotiated access to the street direct with the policeman at the barrier (without informing us) and Gorbachev and party walked up. They were admitted by the policeman on the door to the front hall (only). They had gone before any private secretary reached the spot - reportedly in good humour. So far as we know there were no photographers and no press. Mr Gorbachev impressed everyone he met on his visit to the UK, including Tony Bishop, the British interpreter who accompanied him throughout the six-day visit. "His unscheduled and unannounced visit to a 10 Downing Street empty of its principal resident was probably less a caprice and more an example of his confidence and decisiveness (of which there were several other instances) and his apparent conviction that problems exist to be solved," the interpreter wrote. Mrs Thatcher summed up her own impressions of Mr Gorbachev in a confidential letter to Ronald Reagan, the American president: "I actually rather liked him - there is no doubt that he is completely loyal to the Soviet system, but he is prepared to listen and have a genuine dialogue and make up his own mind."