Scuttled! Queen sinks plans for new Royal Yacht
ACAMPAIGN for a new Royal Yacht to be commissioned to help Britain secure post-Brexit trade deals has growing support from politicians and captains of industry.
There is, however, one crucial flaw: I hear that it does not have the backing of the Queen.
During a conversation with a close friend who had observed that the idea of a new Britannia was gaining momentum, the Monarch’s response was described as ‘lukewarm’.
I’m told: ‘Her Majesty said the last thing she wanted was for the Royal Family to be seen as “angling” for something that detractors could claim was just another royal bauble. She was effectively saying she did not want the hassle.’
And although Prince Philip had been initially keen on the idea of a ‘floating embassy’, he now holds the view that the subject has just become the ‘inevitable political football’.
Reports last weekend said Philip would welcome a go-ahead for a new Britannia as the ‘ideal present’ for his 100th birthday next year, but a royal source tells me: ‘HRH does not believe the concept of a state yacht is feasible at this time.’ John Major’s Government announced in 1994 that it would be decommissioned. Watching it being taken out of service in 1997 was one of the few times the Queen was seen to shed a tear in public. The yacht is now a tourist attraction, berthed in Leith.
A new yacht, which would cost at least £100 million, was backed by Boris Johnson when Foreign Secretary. He said it would ‘add greatly to the soft power of this country’.
Car parks tycoon Sir Donald Gosling, who was close to the Queen, had pledged £50 million. But shortly before his death last year he said: ‘It would have to be paid for by industry. It could only be deemed a “Royal Yacht” if it had the support of the Queen and the Navy.’
A Buckingham Palace spokesman declines to comment.