Car Deals

St James’s Palace feared the Prince of Wales would be attacked by the public unless his sons accompanied him, say extracts

St James’s Palace feared that the Prince of Wales would be attacked by members of the public on the way to Diana’s funeral in September 1997 unless his sons accompanied him as he walked behind her coffin, Alastair Campbell writes in his diaries serialised in the Guardian.

In one of the most detailed accounts of events following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, Campbell says a senior official was despatched from St James’s Palace to Balmoral to warn Prince William.

The fears about Prince Charles’s safety appear in today’s final extracts from Power and the People – which also disclose that:

– William had a “total hatred” of the media after the relentless press harassment of his mother.

– Tony Blair believed Charles briefed against Downing Street on other matters in the years after the funeral. Campbell writes: “TB felt his relationship with the Queen was good, but he felt Charles had people spreading stuff against us a fair bit of the time.”

– Amid a public backlash against the royal family, who were criticised for an unfeeling response to the death of Diana, Blair advised the Queen to show her vulnerable side.

– Buckingham Palace thought that William Hague, then leader of the Conservative party, was “pathetic” after he accused Blair of hijacking Diana’s legacy.

– Margaret Thatcher warned Blair soon after his election landslide in 1997 that Gordon Brown was “arrogant and insensitive” in his treatment of the late Bank of England governor, Eddie George.

– Campbell admits he was the inspiration for the explosive claim in January 1998 that Gordon Brown had “psychological flaws”. Blair complained to Campbell that the problem with the description, reported by Observer columnist Andrew Rawnsley, was that it amounted to the brutal truth.

– Peter Mandelson’s memoirs, published last year, were an “insufferably self-indulgent account”.

Fresh details about the turbulent week after the death of Diana dominate the final extracts of Campbell’s diaries. Blair’s former communications director writes that fears for the Prince of Wales’s safety became clear during a conference call on 4 September 1997 with courtiers who were with the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh at Balmoral. These included Sandy Henney, then press secretary to the Prince of Wales, who was sent to Balmoral to advise Prince William that his mother would have wanted him to follow her coffin.

Campbell writes: “Sandy Henney had been sent up to try to explain why he might do it. She [Henney] was obviously saying it was what his mother would have wanted whilst there was also the fact it would avoid the risk of Charles being publicly attacked.”

The conference call involved Sir Robin Janvrin, then the Queen’s deputy private secretary, who was with the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at Balmoral. Campbell was at Buckingham Palace with Sir Robert Fellowes, the Queen’s private secretary.

Campbell writes that the courtiers were divided as to whether the Prince of Wales should walk behind the coffin with his two sons. “Robin said if William did not do it then Charles couldn’t ‘for obvious and understandable reasons’. So he was back to proposing cars for the princes but Charles S[pencer] was against that.

“They realised that if William doesn’t go behind the coffin, they have a real problem because Charles would have to go behind the coffin with Charles Spencer. There is no way he can do this without the boys, he said. When I said to Fellowes it was possible to sell the idea of the boys going behind by car if they left from Kensington Palace, he said they were just against cars full stop. He said they had to keep pushing for it.”

William believed the plan was designed to appeal to the media. Campbell writes: “William was refusing to speak to anyone and he was consumed by a total hatred of the media … I sensed the boys were holding firm, and they seemed to feel it was being done for the media and the public, not for their mother.”

Campbell, who listened to Blair’s call with the Queen after the death of Diana, wrote: “It was the first time I’d heard him [TB] one on one with the Queen and he really did the ma’am stuff pretty well, but was also clear and firm too. He said he felt she had to show that she was vulnerable and they really were feeling it. He said: ‘I really do feel for you. There can be nothing more miserable than feeling as you do and having your motives questioned’.”

The diaries also include new details of the tensions between Blair and Brown. Campbell writes that Blair was given an early warning about his chancellor by Margaret Thatcher at their first meeting in Downing Street a few weeks after Labour’s landslide victory. Thatcher was angered by Brown’s behaviour towards Eddie George, the late governor of the Bank of England. The bank had been granted independence but stripped of its powers of regulation over the City.

Campbell writes: “Thatcher had said to TB she thought GB was arrogant and insensitive, that you could not treat a Bank Governor with anything but respect and that was not coming over.”

The former Downing Street communications director also owns up to being the inspiration behind the claim in 1998 that Brown had “psychological flaws”. Campbell writes that Sue Nye, a senior member of the Brown circle, regarded the comments as a declaration of war.

“Sue said as far as GB was concerned, this was a deliberate AC/Peter M[andelson] operation, authorised by TB and it was therefore ‘war’,” Campbell writes. “Sue said the ‘psychological flaw’ headline was like a bullet.”

Blair complained because Campbell had delivered a home truth. “TB said the problem with ‘psychological flaws’ was its brutal truth, which is why it hurt him so much. Then he said ‘But I’m worried, Ali.’ He was the one person who called me Ali when he was being serious.” Alastair Campbell Prince Charles Prince William Prince Harry Diana, Princess of Wales Tony Blair Margaret Thatcher Nicholas Watt guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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