A historian has claimed a battle over royal diaries and letters might be trying to cover up an affair of Prince Philip’s. Author Andrew Lownie says he estimates the Government has paid out around £2m trying to prevent him seeing the complete archive left by Philip’s uncle Lord Mountbatten and his wife.
Mr Lownie has told The Mirror he has already spent £460,000 in legal fees since trying to access secrets concealed in the 30,000 pages. The papers were bought by Southampton University from the Mountbatten family in 2011.
It paid £2.8million, most of which came from lottery funding. Dr Lownie, 60, has used freedom of information laws to try to get access to them for a book on the Mountbattens, backed by the information commissioner.
