Ministers waging a bitter battle over royal diaries and letters could also be making an attempt to cowl up an affair of Prince Philip’s, a historian claims. Creator Andrew Lownie estimates the Authorities has spent round £2 million making an attempt to cease him seeing all of the archive left by Philip’s uncle Lord Mountbatten and his spouse.
Mr Lownie says he has already spent £460,000 in authorized charges since making an attempt to prise secrets and techniques hid within the 30,000 pages. The Mountbatten household offered the papers to Southampton College in 2011 for £2.8million, most of which got here from lottery funding.
Dr Lownie, 60, used freedom of knowledge legal guidelines to attempt to get entry to them for a ebook on the Mountbattens, backed by the knowledge commissioner. The Cupboard Workplace and Southampton College appealed and he estimates the invoice to attempt to cease him has now reached greater than 4 occasions the cash he has spent.
Dr Lownie is livid that, throughout his three-year authorized battle, greater than 99% of the papers have been dumped on the web with out warning. However there have been 100 redactions in letters between Mountbatten and his spouse Edwina, who had an open marriage.
Her many lovers famously included India’s first prime minister Pandit Nehru. Their letters stay locked as a result of the college has mysteriously by no means triggered its £100 proper to purchase them from the Mountbatten property.
Dr Lownie stated: “The one cause I can consider is that there's a reference to a lover of Prince Philip. The connection between Girl Mountbatten and Nehru is well-known.” The Authorities argued that any new revelation may harm relations with India and Pakistan as a result of Lord Mountbatten, as Viceroy of India, oversaw its independence in 1947.
The division of the nation – as soon as a part of the British Empire – into Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan is seen by many as a catastrophe that led to over one million killed in massacres. However Dr Lownie stated: “It's laborious to imagine that references in a non-public diary 75 years in the past would harm relations with different nations.
“What I do know is that members of the royal family have been in on conferences and copied in on correspondence in regards to the case.” He has been backed by MPs and ex-Labour International Secretary Lord Owen, who has written to demand Dr Lownie is repaid his prices.
However the Cupboard Workplace replied: “As a former International Secretary you'll respect that some issues of worldwide relations can stay delicate for very lengthy intervals of time.” Maurice Frankel of the Marketing campaign for Freedom of Info, stated: “Andrew Lownie ‘s prices are unbelievable whereas the general public is paying the payments for the college and the Cupboard Workplace.”
Mountbatten was killed by an IRA bomb aged 79 in 1979. Prince Philip died in April final yr aged 99. The Cupboard Workplace stated its prices will probably be revealed sooner or later, including: “The small quantity of knowledge not launched contains private information regarding dwelling people.”
Southampton College stated: “We've at all times aimed to make public as a lot of the archive as doable and we're very pleased with the tribunal’s resolution which considerably discovered that the college made the appropriate choices in balancing its authorized obligations.
“Greater than 99.8% of the archive, which consists of some 4,500 packing containers, is publicly out there and accessed frequently by researchers globally as a useful historic useful resource.” The college says its authorized invoice bumped into 5 figures, with the remainder paid by the Cupboard Workplace.
A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman stated: “This can be a matter for the Cupboard Workplace.”
A Cupboard Workplace spokesperson stated: “The Cupboard Workplace reviewed the diaries and letters through the pandemic and greater than 99% of the fabric was launched earlier than the tribunal listening to in November 2021.The small quantity of knowledge which has not been launched contains private information regarding dwelling people.
‘‘The Tribunal accepted that the College of Southampton acted lawfully in withholding the fabric and Dr Lownie’s enchantment for prices was dismissed.”
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