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Prince Charles tried to persuade Blair government to increase the number of grammar schools Prince Charles tried to persuade government ‘to change course’
(about 3 hours later)
The Prince of Wales tried to persuade Tony Blair's government to expand grammar schools, former education secretary David Blunkett has said. The Prince of Wales tried to influence Tony Blair’s government on issues such as grammar schools, alternative medicine and GM food.
Charles "didn't like" it when his request was refused, according to a BBC Radio 4 documentary. Former education secretary David Blunkett has spoken about Prince Charles’ attempts to expand grammar schools, and how he “didn’t like” it when his suggestion was refused.
Mr Blunkett is one of three former cabinet ministers interviewed for the documentary, The Royal Activist, the BBC reported. Mr Blunkett, along with ex-ministers Peter Hain and Michael Meacher, have all spoken about their interactions with Prince Charles during their time in Mr Blair’s government, while former Prime Minister Sir John Major has revealed the influence the Queen had on his own government policies, in a BBC Radio 4 documentary called The Royal Activist.
The former education secretary said: "I would explain that our policy was not to expand grammar schools, and he didn't like that. “I would explain that our policy was not to expand grammar schools, and he didn’t like that,” Mr Blunkett, who was education secretary from 1997 to 2001, told the programme.
"He was very keen that we should go back to a different era where youngsters had what he would have seen as the opportunity to escape from their background, whereas I wanted to change their background." Mr Blunkett added: “He was very keen that we should go back to a different era where youngsters had what he would have seen as the opportunity to escape from their background, whereas I wanted to change their background.”
Mr Blunkett added: "I can see constitutionally that there's an argument that the heir to the throne should not get involved in controversy; the honest truth is I didn't mind. Despite not agreeing with the Prince’s views on education, Mr Blunkett said that he “didn’t mind” the interference.
"If you are waiting to be the king of the United Kingdom, and you've waited a very long time, you genuinely have to engage with something or you'd go spare." “I can see constitutionally that there’s an argument that the heir to the throne should not get involved with controversy; the honest truth is I didn’t mind. If you are waiting to be the king of the United Kingdom, and you’ve waited a very long time, you genuinely have to engage with something or you’d go spare.”
Former environment minister Michael Meacher said he and the Prince "would consort together quietly" to affect policy on climate change and genetically modified crops. The programme airs at a time when the Guardian is locked in a legal battle with the government over its blocking of the release of Prince Charles’s “black spider memos”, which are his personal letters sent to government ministers, and which have gained their name due to the character of the Princes scrawled handwriting.
"I knew that he largely agreed with me and he knew that I largely agreed with him," said Mr Meacher. The release of the letters has been continually blocked for nine years, while ministers have claimed that revealing their contents to the public would be damaging for the Prince as it could undermine his “position of political neutrality as heir to the throne”.
"We were together in trying to persuade Tony Blair to change course." Michael Meacher, the former environment minister who admitted he shared similar views with the Prince on subjects such as climate change and genetically modified crops, has told the BBC programme that he and the Prince “would consort together quietly” on policies and that they worked together “to try and ensure we increased our influence with the government”.
Another former Labour cabinet minister, Peter Hain, said they shared an interest in complementary medicine. Mr Meacher said: “I knew that he largely agreed with me and he knew that I largely agreed with him.
"He had been constantly frustrated at his inability to persuade any health ministers anywhere that that was a good idea, and so he, as he once described it to me, found me unique from this point of view, in being somebody that actually agreed with him on this, and might want to deliver it." “We were together in trying to persuade Tony Blair to change course,” he said.
Mr Hain added: "When I was Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in 2005-7, he was delighted when I told him that since I was running the place I could more or less do what I wanted to do. The former environment minister said that he could see the argument for there being a constitutional problem with the Prince demonstrating political stances, but that even though the Prince may have been “pushing it a bit,” Meacher himself was “delighted, of course”.
"I was able to introduce a trial for complementary medicine on the NHS, and it had spectacularly good results, that people's well-being and health was vastly improved. But republicans have hit out at the revelations, claiming that the royal family should “stay out of politics completely”.
"And when he learnt about this he was really enthusiastic and tried to persuade the Welsh government to do the same thing and the government in Whitehall to do the same thing for England, but not successfully." Campaign group Republic, which fights for the abolition of the monarchy, called any royal influence on public policy “unacceptable”.
The Prince's policy interventions were supported by former prime minister Sir John Major, who said: "I think it is encouraging that the Prince of Wales is entirely free from his unique perspective to write to ministers or the prime minister in a way that is invariably intended to be helpful, and I think to cut that off, or to make sure those letters are much more bland than they otherwise might be, would be a loss." Graham Smith, chief executive of the campaign group, told the BBC: “The deal with the monarchy is that the royals stay out of politics completely and these revelations just prove what we’ve been saying all along, which is that they are involving themselves, influencing public policy, and that is completely unacceptable in a democratic society.”
Sir John also revealed that he occasionally changed policy as a result of discussions with the Queen - although he would not be drawn on the specific times this took place. Prince Charles’s penchant for alternative medicine was also one of the areas of policy that felt his influence, which the former Labour cabinet minister Peter Hain has described as an area that they both agreed on.
Asked if he remembered being influenced by the Queen, Sir John said: "I think every prime minister can think that, and can think of occasions where that happened... Mr Hain said: “He had been constantly frustrated at his inability to persuade any health ministers anywhere that that was a good idea, and so he, as he once described to me, found me unique from this point of view, in being somebody who actually agreed with him on this, and might want to deliver it.”
"But the answer is yes of course. It would be very foolish indeed not to be influenced." He added: “When I was secretary of state for Northern Ireland in 2005-7, he was delighted when I told him that since I was running the place I could more or less do what I wanted to do. I was able to introduce a trial for complementary medicine on the NHS, and it had spectacularly good results, that people’s well-being and health was vastly improved.”
The Royal Activist is on BBC Radio 4 at 1.30pm today. Sir John Major has defended the Prince’s tendency to write to ministers “in a way that is invariably intended to be helpful,” and that “to cut that off, or to make sure those letters are much more bland than they otherwise might be, would be a loss”.
PA He spoke of his own experiences of being influenced by the Queen, and said that while he expected every prime minister could think of a time when they had been impressed upon by the Queen, he said that “it would be very foolish indeed not to be influenced”.