Mark Latham’s famous overly physical hand shake with John Howard revisited

IT was the moment Mark Latham lost the respect of the Australian people. Now the former Labor leader claims John Howard started it.

FORMER Prime Minister John Howard has spoken at length about that infamous hand shake with Mark Latham on the eve of the 2004 Federal Election.

The overly physical and dominating greeting by Latham painted him in an aggressive and menacing light, and Howard went on to win the election.

Now the former PM has revealed he saw the overzealous interaction coming and that the same thing had happened a few weeks prior but wasn’t caught on camera.

Angry greeting ... Mark Latham’s bizarre aggressive handshake was a signal moment of the 2004 election campaign. Picture: John Feder

“When I saw him coming out of that studio I thought ‘he’s going to do the handshake thing again’,” Howard said in an interview with Sunday Night to air this week.

“He was bigger than I am and he wanted to create the impression that he was dominating me. Well, it didn’t work.”

Latham was pressed on the issue this morning while a guest on Sunrise, after being shown a clip of the interview.

“There’s a bit more history to that,” Latham claimed. “Little Mr Howard crushed my wife’s hand. Don’t worry about me — it was my wife’s hand that he crushed.”

“It didn’t work” ... John Howard has spoken about THAT handshake, saying Mark Latham’s attempt to dominate him failed. Picture: John Feder

He claims the interaction took place at an NRL grand final function and that his own assertive grip was a form of payback.

“Naturally, the next time I saw him I let him know what I (thought) about that. If John Howard wants to go around crushing people’s wives’ hands, he’s got to expect that perhaps the next handshake will be a little bit firmer.”

Former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett, who was also a Sunrise panellist during the same segment, chimed in.

“Now you’re saying it was a deliberate assault, is that what you’re saying? It was a deliberate act?”

Political foes ... John Howard and Mark Latham pictured during a televised debate in the course of the 2004 election campaign.

A hot-headed Latham shot back declaring that Kennett is “a bloody know-all” before the discussion moved on.

While the polls in the lead-up to the 2004 election were in Howard’s favour, many political commentators have described the Latham handshake as a damaging blow to Labor’s campaign.