King Charles was left “squirming” after Boris Johnson confronted him over reported criticisms of the government’s plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, the former prime minister’s aide has claimed.
According to Guto Harri, who was No 10’s director of communications at the time, Johnson “squared up” to the then Prince of Wales at a Commonwealth summit in the east African country in June 2022 after reports that the royal had described the plan to deport people travelling across the Channel to Rwanda as “appalling”.
In an interview on LBC, Harri said the clash centred on reports of the future king’s opinions leaked to the media, which Charles’s press team had not denied.
“The impression I got is that Prince Charles at the time was squirming, trying to deny he’d said this,” Harri said.
“If you are the prince, or you’re the prime minister, you’ve got an army of people who can go out there and ring newspaper editors and say, ‘This is not true, take it down,’ and they will if it’s not true.
“So the fact that the story was allowed to stand and could not be denied meant that he had actually described government policy as appalling.”
Writing in the Daily Mail, Harri said Johnson told him he “went in quite hard” against Charles.
Johnson disputed his longstanding ally’s account as “inaccurate”, with a source saying he “deplores” any commentary on conversations with royals.
Harri added that the former Conservative leader also warned Charles against making a speech expressing regret over slavery amid concerns it could result in demands for financial reparations. Charles went ahead with the speech.
At the time, Johnson described his discussion with the Prince of Wales as a “good old chinwag” that “covered a lot of ground”.
Harri, a former BBC journalist who joined the No 10 press team in February 2022 and left in September, wrote: “What actually happened was less amicable. ‘I went in quite hard,’ he told me at the time, essentially squaring up to the prince and confronting him about what he – as unelected royalty – had said about the actions of a democratically elected government.
“Prince Charles was busted. He had obviously expressed some criticism, and though he tried to play it down, Boris pointed out the obvious, [saying]: ‘If you didn’t say it, we both know your people could ring the newspapers and kill the story. The fact they haven’t done that says it all.’”
Johnson attended the king’s coronation on Saturday with his wife, Carrie, along with other former prime ministers including John Major, David Cameron and Liz Truss.
Harri, who has detailed his time in Downing Street for a new podcast series for Global Player, claimed Charles and Johnson had a fractious relationship that stemmed from the latter being accused of being late for a meeting with the prince while he was mayor of London.
Harri also claimed Johnson referred to Sue Gray, the senior civil servant responsible for conducting an inquiry into Partygate allegations, as “Psycho”.
“There was a sense that she lacked perspective,” he claimed.
Gray is still waiting to hear how long she will have to wait before being allowed to take up a new role as chief of staff to Keir Starmer. The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, the Whitehall body that vets the external appointments of former ministers and officials, is expected to make a decision within weeks on how long her enforced “gardening leave” will be.
A source close to Johnson said: “Boris Johnson does not recognise this account and it is inaccurate. It does not accurately reflect any conversation. We would never comment on these matters and Mr Johnson deplores any attempt to do so.”
