
Palace lobbied Downing Street for £50m Royal yacht replacement
Cabinet Office papers released by the National Archives reveal apparent backhanded manoeuvring by palace officials as ministers agonised over whether to order a replacement for the vessel.
The files show how courtiers invited civil servants to a 'splendid lunch' on the yacht and tried to influence a speech by Sir John, then prime minister, as part of a thinly veiled campaign to replace the ship.
By 1993 it was apparent that, after 39 years, Britannia was reaching the end of its life, but Sir John's Conservative government had yet to decide whether to invest in a new one.
It was widely thought Queen Elizabeth II strongly favoured the commissioning of a new yacht but the Royal family could not afford to be seen to be trying to influence political decision-making.
However, files released by the Archives at Kew, west London, show that senior courtiers privately approached No 10 to see if the prime minister would make a Commons statement stressing Britannia's ' inestimable value ' to the nation.
The plan, which appears to be a show of support for a new yacht, was rejected by the Cabinet Office, which warned that any such comments would be highly 'prejudicial'.
One senior official noted caustically that a claim by the Palace that the Queen was 'indifferent' as to the outcome of a review of the yacht's future 'hardly rings true'.
The issue of a new yacht came at an extremely difficult time for both the government and 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 £36m, 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.
'Of inestimable value to the UK'
With Sir John due to announce the historic move in a statement to parliament, Sir Robert Fellows, the Queen's private secretary, saw an opportunity to secure what would amount to a show of support for a new yacht.
He asked Alex Allan, the prime minister's principal private secretary, whether Sir John 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 Robert's proposed addition to Sir John'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,' Mr Bevan 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.'
'No kind of rearguard action on the yacht'
Despite the palace's protestations of neutrality, the files suggest courtiers were involved in what amounted to some none-too-subtle lobbying in favour of a new yacht.
On May 13 1993, senior government officials, led by Sir Robin Butler, the cabinet secretary, were invited to a 'splendid lunch' on board Britannia where they were regaled by Sir High Bidwell, the former lord mayor of London, and the Earl of Limerick, a senior banker, on the value of the yacht to UK business.
Expressing his thanks afterwards to Major General Sir Simon Cooper, the master of the Queen's household, 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 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 Chris Patten, the last governor of Hong Kong, following the handover to China, the Queen was seen to shed a tear.
In its 43 years of service, the yacht sailed over one million nautical miles on 968 state visits with the Royal family where they entertained prime ministers and presidents.
The yacht is now retired and is berthed in Leith, Edinburgh, where it is open to visitors.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


BBC News
9 minutes ago
- BBC News
Kent County Council pledges to keep all council tips open
There will be no closures of rubbish tips in Kent under the new Reform UK-led administration, the council has formerly Conservative-led Kent County Council (KCC) had proposed closing four of six household waste recycling centres in 2023, but cancelled the plans after a public backlash and a Tory backbench now Reform UK-led authority has indicated that all the facilities will remain David Wimble, cabinet member for the portfolio said that "subject to some act of God", there were no plans to shut the centres. He had been questioned by Liberal Democrat councillor Tim Prater if the centres were safe during a meeting of the Environment and Transport Cabinet Wimble said: "Will there still be the same number in five years time? To the best of my ability to answer that, subject to an act of God, I'm of the opinion that, yes, we are keeping them all open."The household waste recycling centres are in Faversham, Tovil, Deal, Richborough, Dartford and council previously said it hoped it could save £1.5m through the closures, according to the Local Democracy Reporting announcement that there were no planned closures was welcomed by opposition issue was raised as councillors agreed to extend contracts to two companies which run the sites and dispose of household waste until 2030, costing £14m a year.


BBC News
9 minutes ago
- BBC News
Gang leaders among first to be hit by small boat sanctions
Gang leaders and small boat suppliers are among the first 25 targets to have their UK assets frozen in an effort to combat migrants crossing the suspected criminals are also banned from travelling to the UK, after they were the first to be hit by a wave of new sanctions targeting list includes Albanian Bledar Lala, linked to smuggling migrants from Belgium, and Alen Basil, a former police translator now said to be running a people-trafficking network from Secretary David Lammy described the move as a "landmark moment" but experts said the impact was likely to be limited given the scale of smuggling networks. UK investigators can now seize the British assets of sanctioned individuals and groups, while firms in Britain must cut any financial ties with the targets is a Chinese company, Weihai Yamar Outdoors Product Co, accused of manufacturing inflatable boats being advertised for a statement, Lammy said: "From Europe to Asia we are taking the fight to the people-smugglers who enable irregular migration, targeting them wherever they are in the world and making them pay for their actions."My message to the gangs who callously risk vulnerable lives for profit is this: we know who you are, and we will work with our partners around the world to hold you to account."But Oxford University's Migration Observatory said the impact could be director Dr Madeleine Sumption said she would be "surprised" if the sanctions were the "game changer" to end small boat crossings."There are so many people involved in the industry that targeting people individually is probably only going to have an impact around the margins," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on added: "The impact is dependent to an extent on the co-operation of other countries where smugglers are operating." Since coming to power in July last year, Labour has announced a series of measures to tackle people-smuggling, including a new criminal offence of endangering the lives of others at sea. Legislation going through Parliament sets out plans to use counter-terror powers against people-smugglers - with suspects facing travel bans, social-media blackouts and phone the latest figures show 2025 has already set a new record for small boat than 21,000 people have made the dangerous crossing so far this year - a 56% increase on the same period in 2024. Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to keep up with the inner workings of Westminster and beyond.


The Independent
38 minutes ago
- The Independent
Why the resident doctors are wrong to go on a five-day strike
The imminent strikes by the BMA resident doctors pose a moment of sadness. It is sad for patients and sad for the NHS. We are in the economic equivalent of a Covid crisis in the NHS; if the proposed reforms aren't delivered, it will be an existential crisis for our health system. I do not say that at all lightly, but I do say it from decades of knowledge and experience. It is a relief that reforms are already starting to see things moving in the right direction, but this action will choke off that recovery and put the NHS in a perilous place. I was a GP for 29 years. It is a privilege to be a clinician and share people's lives at difficult moments. It is our professional duty to put the people we care for before ourselves. Last year's (and this year's) pay award amounts to a 28.9 per cent increase for resident doctors compared with three years ago. It is what many other people dream of, not to mention the almost unique index-linked NHS pensions. It cannot have been easy to persuade the Treasury to pay out in such resource-constrained times. Having pocketed that, the resident doctors now need to accept that there is no more money for pay – reform has to have priority. That said, there are valid issues to be sorted out in training, allocation to jobs, and working conditions. It isn't right that resident doctors can be randomly allocated to posts, disrupting lives, or find the catering arrangements totally inadequate when on call. However, the NHS 10-year plan contains within it a pledge to deal with such matters with speed. So, I just don't understand the call for a strike. It is disproportionate when there is such an open door. Without getting too Monty Python, as a junior doctor, I did one in two or one in three 'on calls', which meant working the days and also working through every other night (or third night) with time beyond 40 hours paid at a third of our normal rate. It was brutal, but our representatives worked to make things better – and from this, the current generation benefits. We wouldn't ever have considered taking action against our patients. And this action is against patients. The resident doctors may be worried about their futures, but so is every patient who now might not be treated. Polls suggest patients do not agree with the resident doctors. I hope the public supports the NHS and opposes the resident doctors this time. I hope resident doctors support the NHS – and not their leaders. The proposed action will further erode trust by people in the NHS. It is already at an all-time low, and the consent of the nation to use 40 per cent of departmental spend on a poorly performing healthcare system is unlikely to continue without improvement. This resident doctors' action almost guarantees the end of the NHS if they continue, playing into the hands of those who want to have a different healthcare system. This action is the industrial relations equivalent of the charge of the Light Brigade. The resident doctors should remember the spirit of the Hippocratic oath; first, do no harm.