Source: BBC Radio 4, The Royal Activist
URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b047w9kn
Date: 29/06/2014
Event: Michael Meacher on how Prince Charles influenced Blair on climate and GM
Attribution: BBC Radio 4
People:
Elinor Goodman: So strongly did the Prince feel about GM foods that he worked with individual ministers within Tony Blair's government to outmanoeuvre the Prime Minister.
Michael Meacher: We would consort together, quietly, in order to try and ensure that we increased our influence within government.
Elinor Goodman: Michael Meacher was an Environment Minister in Tony Blair's government, from 1997 until 2003.
Michael Meacher There were always tensions within government, and I knew that he largely agreed with me, and he knew that I largely agreed with him.
Elinor Goodman: But where were the instances where you and the Prince were working in alliance to, if you like, stiffen up the Prime Minister's will?
Michael Meacher Climate change is obviously the big one - really, really big one. The other quite big one is GM, genetic modification.
Elinor Goodman: So did the Prince of Wales' support for your position actually change anything, do you think?
Michael Meacher I know he spoke to Tony Blair - well, obviously he would regularly speak to the Prime Minister and, I'm sure, he told him his views. So we were together in trying to persuade Tony Blair to change course.
Elinor Goodman: But wasn't there a constitutional problem, in so far as you had the effective deputy to the Queen taking what was a political opinion?
Michael Meacher: Well, over GM I suppose you could well say that. Maybe he was pushing it a bit. I was delighted, of course, that I had the opportunity. We never discussed Tony Blair as such, we never talked about, you know, how we could derail the Prime Minister. No, nothing like that - this was on a much more innocent level, that we had a view which we believed strongly was right, and how would we pursue it.
[To be continued.]