Cabinet Office accused of covering up for royal family after blocking release of Andrew documents | National Archives
The Cabinet Office has been accused of a royal family cover-up over the last-minute retention of the UK trade envoy after the publication of some documents relating to the former Duke of York’s travel expenses.
Files published National Archives These include documents relating to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and a humble apology from John Major’s office after an official birthday telegram to the Queen Mother was handled “inappropriately”.
However, the documents previously submitted to the media under embargo included minutes number 10 regarding royal visits from 2004 and 2005. These were later withdrawn, with the Cabinet Office blaming an “administrative error” as they were never intended to be released.
The minutes, seen by journalists before they were taken, appear unremarkable and include a note that a change to the rules could mean that the then-Prince Andrew as UK trade envoy would be funded by the Royal Travel Office rather than the former Department of Trade and Industry, adding an additional cost of £90,000 to his budget. The visits discussed were to China, Russia, Southeast Asia and Spain.
The withholding of the minutes underlines that files relating to the royal family are routinely prevented from being published under the Public Records Act.
Graham Smith, chief executive of anti-monarchy campaign group Republic, said there should be no royal exemption at all. “The most likely reason for this attempt to stop the release is pressure from the palace. The royal family has tried to keep everything secret when it comes to Andrew, not to protect him but to protect themselves.”
A transcript of Diana’s death and funeral arrangements was released by the Cabinet Office under the Freedom of Information Act in 2005 and included a vivid description of the events by the UK Ambassador to France, Michael Jay.
However, it has emerged that Downing Street refused to disclose details of a conversation between Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac in 2005 after the Paris crash, on the grounds that such conversations were “confidential” and “not fundamentally in the public interest”.
It took several hours for aides to contact Chirac to brief him on what was happening, leading to intense speculation about his whereabouts. His driver later claimed that he was with a mistress.
Meanwhile, Number 10 was forced to apologize after the Queen Mother’s private secretary, Captain Sir Alastair Aird, called Number 10 to complain that John Major’s birthday celebration in 1994 had been “misaddressed”. Roderic Lyne of No 10 private office wrote back to apologize but insisted Downing Street staff were not to blame.
“The message itself, as received by us, was entirely correct. However, in delivering the message it appears that British Telecom unfortunately handled the telegram inappropriately in the way you describe,” he wrote.
“I’m very sorry that this has happened. As you can imagine, our own staff are very particular about correct format. Perhaps the solution would be for us to abandon telegrams, which seem to be outdated anyway.”
It was not clear what the error was about that was causing the disturbance, but the Queen Mother appeared calm, telegraphing the Major and his wife Norma to send “warm thanks” for their “kind messages of good wishes”.
