THE Prince of Wales is trying to prevent confidential discussions between his office and government ministers being made public in a potentially explosive court case.
Legal action is being taken by the Prince against The Mail on Sunday for breach of confidentiality and copyright after it published extracts from his private journals, containing his acerbic views on the handover of Hong Kong to the Chinese and his deep distrust of the Beijing regime.
A witness statement by Mark Bolland, 39, the Prince’s former deputy private secretary, who has agreed to give evidence for the newspaper, is said to contain details of conversations between his royal private secretaries and ministers. The statement also details the organisation of the Prince’s private office and discussions about book projects.
Lawyers acting for the Prince are seeking an order to have Mr Bolland’s witness statement discussed behind closed doors.
In the High Court yesterday, lawyers acting for The Times joined forces with legal representatives of The Guardian, The Sunday Times, The Independent, the BBC and ITN to try to prevent evidence being heard in camera on the ground of public interest.
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Desmond Browne, QC, for the media organisations opposing the secrecy attempt, said: “This is not much ado about nothing. It is an attempt to have Hamlet without the Prince.”
Hugh Tomlinson, QC, for the Prince, said that they were not trying to stop publication of “exciting secrets” or “explosive material”. He said that the Prince just wanted to protect confidential material in which there was no public interest at all.
The Prince writes regularly to government ministers on a range of topics such as the environment and urban planning. His advisers are aghast at the prospect of any conversations with ministers, or criticisms of government policy, being made public in the High Court.
In his witness statement Mr Bolland, who left the Royal Household in 2003 after seven years, is also understood to have included passages revealing that in 1999 he was instructed by the Prince to leak to the media his decision to boycott the Chinese state banquet in honour of the Queen.
The extracts also revealed that he regarded Chinese government officials as “appalling old waxworks”. He moved to stop further private remarks being made public. Mr Bolland has claimed that the Prince routinely sent his private thoughts to between 30 and 50 friends and associates. A spokesman for Clarence House said: “We decided to take legal action to protect the Prince of Wales’s copyright and confidence.”