Why the Queen might not want a privately sponsored yacht
Idea was proposed before – but the Queen didn't want 'Virgin' written on Britannia's funnel
THE GUARDIAN'S political editor Patrick Wintour has dismissed as "pathetic" a claim in The Daily Telegraph that it was Lib Dem energy secretary Chris Huhne who leaked "the royal yacht letter" to the Guardian.
This is the letter in which Michael Gove called for a new yacht to replace Britannia – decommissioned by Labour back in 1997 on grounds of cost – as a fitting gift from the nation to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee this year.
The leak allowed critics of the Tories to jump on the issue, questioning whether Gove and his colleagues can claim to be in touch with the public if they think a new £60m boat for Her Majesty is uppermost in our minds in a time of austerity. Hence the idea that it must have been a senior Lib Dem who fed it to the Guardian.
Not so, insists Wintour, who tweeted: "Idiots at telegraph trying to guess guardian source for yacht story and barking as usual fifteen forests away from right tree. Pathetic."
The Mole fears both newspapers are missing the real story here. David Cameron has made it clear that taxpayers will not be asked to foot the bill. Instead, he is suggesting that a consortium of private and business sponsors might pay for a new yacht.
This, apparently, is fine with Prince Charles and his sister, Princess Anne, both of whom have "made it known" they favour the idea. But Buckingham Palace has resisted pressure so far to make any comment.
Why? The Mole hears the Queen has considerable reservations about the idea of private sponsors paying for the building of the yacht.
She made clear her displeasure when the idea was first mooted in the 1990s when John Major's Tory government was still in power. Michael Heseltine, then deputy prime minister, championed the case for a privately-funded royal yacht to replace the knackered Royal Yacht Britannia, having been convinced of its selling power abroad for GB PLC when he was a trade minister.
The Queen, however, turned her nose up at the idea. Richard Branson's Virgin empire was among the private sector companies that were being lined up to sponsor a sleek new craft, but Her Majesty would not hear of it. "She said she did not want 'Virgin' on the funnel," said one Cabinet source.
Given that it is Prince Charles who is likely to benefit most if a new royal yacht is commissioned, The Queen might now relent. But don't expect to see Virgin – or any other slogan, for that matter – painted on the funnel in her lifetime. ·
