Prince William has been accused of “poor judgement” for meeting former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond has urged the Duke of Cambridge and the rest of the royal family to follow Queen Elizabeth’s “very wise” example of keeping out politics, and the Scottish independence debate in particular. It follows the the 38-year-old heir meeting the former Labour prime minister, who is an anti-independence campaigner, on his tour of Scotland last week.
Speaking in a video message, Alex said: “Whatever Prince William thought he was doing by agreeing to a confab with Gordon Brown just as he set up his latest campaign for the union, we should have no hesitation in seeing from that meeting, unionist preparation for attempting to persuade a constitutional monarchy to intervene in a constitutional debate which should be left to the people.”
Before stating that the royals should “keep the monarchy over and above politics”, after William met Gordon, who has just relaunched think tank ‘Our Scottish Future’, which is a pro union campaign movement.
Alex added: “It would be very wise for the royal family to follow what has been the Queen’s example over her long reign, to keep the monarchy over and above politics, and it would be foolish to have a situation in which it can be said that the monarchy is involved in the Scottish Constitutional debate.”
A spokesperson for Kensington Palace however denied that their was any agenda to the meeting, saying that during his time in the country William met with a wide-range of people with a number of differing views.
They said: “During his time in Scotland Prince William has spoken to a broad range of people from different communities, including politicians from across the political spectrum.”
On his trip north of the border, for which he was accompanied by wife the Duchess of Cambridge, William also met First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Alistair Carmichael, Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland.