Brexit: Jeremy Heywood denies ‘politicising’ royals

Britain's top civil servant has denied "politicising" the royal family by encouraging Queen Elizabeth and Prince William to get involved in the referendums on Scottish independence and EU membership.

Labour MP Paul Flynn accused cabinet secretary Jeremy Heywood of encouraging the queen to issue a coded warning against independence before the Scottish referendum. And he said a recent speech by Prince William describing Britain's ability to work with other nations as the "bedrock of our security and prosperity" suggested that civil servants were again trying to involve the royal family in a referendum.

"I'm accusing you of collaborating and politicising the royal family. These matters were regarded as being so important, the break-up of the United Kingdom, that something had to be done about it," Mr Flynn said.

Mr Heywood, who was appearing before a Commons select committee, said he would not comment on “royal matters” but he denied that he had sought to politicise the queen.

“I would never dream of trying to politicise Her Majesty the Queen,” he said.

Mr Flynn quoted from the book Cameron at 10 by Anthony Seldon and Peter Snowdon, which described how Mr Heywood and Christopher Geidt, the queen's private secretary, discussed how the queen might make known her opposition to Scottish independence while apparently remaining impartial.

A few days before the referendum, the queen told a well-wisher outside the chapel near Balmoral, “I hope people will think very carefully about the future”, a remark that was immediately reported in the media.

Prince William’s remarks to diplomats last month were reported as a coded endorsement of Britain’s continued membership of the EU, although Kensington Palace said that was not his intention.

Briefings

Mr Heywood was answering questions from MPs about a letter he sent to civil servants outlining rules that limit the government briefings pro-

Brexit

ministers can receive during the referendum campaign.

Some pro-Brexit ministers have accused Mr Heywood of acting unconstitutionally but he insisted on Monday that all ministers would have access to the same facts about Britain and the EU as the prime minister had.

But he said that civil servants could not provide briefings for the purpose of criticising government policy, which is to remain in the EU.

Former Labour cabinet minister and EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson accused the pro-Brexit ministers of "whinging", adding that they were lucky they had not been sacked.

“Frankly, I think, these complaining ministers are lucky. Usually when members of a government go against ministerial collective responsibility and the will of the cabinet, they receive one paper – and that’s their P45.

“So I think they have got off rather lightly and they should stop whinging,” he said.

Mr Mandelson was giving a speech about the impact on Britain’s trade relationships of leaving the EU, describing as a fantasy the idea that the country could find better trading conditions outside. Leave campaigners have argued that, as the world’s fifth-biggest economy, Britain would have no difficulty negotiating new trade deals and that it could do so more quickly without having to find an agreed position with other EU countries.

‘Genuinely serious’

“If we are genuinely serious about continuing to build the UK as a trading base for Europe’s single market, there is no rational or realistic way that Brexit offers a better set of global trade arrangements than those we have already.

“Brexiters are trying to sell people a fantasy of what life outside of the EU would look like, without any evidence to back up their assertions,” Mr Mandelson said.

Describing the European Single Market as “Free Trade Extra Plus”, Mr Mandelson said the EU’s common rules and regulations were as important to trade as the absence of tariffs and that Britain benefited from having a voice in making those rules.

He also warned that if Britain leaves the EU, it will lose the preferential trading benefits from European trade agreements with more than 50 other countries.