Newly released official files have shared discreet manoeuvring by Buckingham Palace officials to influence the government’s decision on replacing the Royal Yacht Britannia.
By 1993, the 39-year-old royal vessel was nearing the end of its operational life, prompting John Major’s Conservative government to consider a significant £50 million investment in a new yacht.
It was widely believed that Queen Elizabeth II strongly favoured the commissioning of a new yacht, but the Royal Family was keen to avoid any public appearance of political interference.
However, documents from the National Archives at Kew reveal how senior courtiers privately approached Downing Street.
Their aim was to persuade the then Prime Minister to issue a Commons statement highlighting Britannia’s “inestimable value” to the nation.
This thinly veiled attempt to garner support for a new vessel was swiftly rejected by the Cabinet Office, with officials warning that any such comments would be “highly prejudicial”.
One senior official caustically remarked that the Palace’s assertion of the Queen’s “indifference” regarding the yacht’s future “hardly rings true”.
The issue of a new yacht came at an extremely difficult time for the government and for the Palace, with support for the royals at a low ebb.
There had been an angry public backlash the previous year when ministers announced the taxpayer would pick up the bill – which eventually ran to £36 million – for the restoration of Windsor Castle following a catastrophic fire.
In the aftermath of her “annus horribilis” – which also saw the separation of Charles and Diana – the Queen agreed that she would for the first time pay taxes.
With Mr Major due to announce the historic move in a statement to parliament, the Queen’s private secretary Sir Robert Fellowes saw an opportunity to secure what would amount to a show of support for a new yacht.
He asked the prime minister’s principal private secretary Alex Allan if Mr Major would insert a passage referring to the importance of Britannia as well as the Queen’s flight and the royal train.
He suggested the prime minister should tell MPs that it was not just a question of cost “but also the style in which we wish our head of state and members of the royal family to represent us” in their public duties.
“It is always difficult to put a price on prestige but I have no doubt that over the years these items have been of inestimable value to this country.”
Sir Robin’s proposed addition to Mr Major’s statement went on: “I would also like to make clear that there is not, and never has been, any pressure from the Queen to build a replacement for HMY Britannia.
“Should the government decide it is in the national interest for the yacht to be replaced that would be of course another matter.”
However, Nicolas Bevan, the official heading the working group set up to consider the future of the yacht, warned that the proposed remarks could be “prejudicial” to any future decisions.
“For example to say that the royal yacht has been of inestimable value to this country will not be a helpful remark if ministers in due course decide not to replace Britannia,” he said.
“Equally it hardly rings true to suggest that it is a matter of complete indifference to the Queen as to whether Britannia is replaced or not.”
Despite the palace’s protestations of neutrality, the files suggest courtiers were involved in what amounted to some not-so-subtle lobbying on behalf of a new yacht.
On 13 May, 1993, senior government officials, led by the cabinet secretary Sir Robin Butler, were invited to a “splendid lunch” on board Britannia where they were regaled by the former lord mayor of London, Sir Hugh Bidwell, and the Earl of Limerick, a senior banker, on the value of the yacht to UK business.
Expressing his thanks afterwards to the master of the Queen’s household, Major General Sir Simon Cooper, Sir Robin noted that the setting had “brought home the issues to those involved in a unique way”.
However, when news of the meeting leaked out, government press officers were instructed to impress upon journalists – unattributably – that the Queen and royal family were “not fighting any kind of rearguard action on the yacht”.
Despite misgivings over the costs, the Major government finally announced in January 1997 that they would build a replacement yacht if they were returned to power in the general election later that year.
The move was however widely interpreted as a desperate attempt to shore up support among wavering Tory voters, and when Labour was swept to power in a landslide they promptly reversed the decision.
When Britannia was finally decommissioned – after returning the last governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, following the handover to China – the Queen, who rarely displayed any emotion in public, was seen to shed a tear.
