On 12 August 1980, the British Government issued a statement in response to the interview stating that Antony Duff, at that time the Deputy Governor of Salisbury, had replied to Walls in March 1980, notifying him that it would not interfere with the election. Walls also later revealed that he had raised the same concerns during the election and transfer of power in March 1980 with the British Government's Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials who were overseeing the election, led by Lord Soames as the last Governor of Southern Rhodesia (who were more concerned that the Rhodesian military were about to stage a coup d'état to prevent the handover of power to the native African electorate), but had been told that they were not willing to annul the election process as Mugabe had, in their assessment, the overwhelming support of the native African population anyway, and the US government would be against it.