BRITAIN'S most senior civil servant and the Queen's private secretary intervened to ensure the monarch would appeal to the people of Scotland in the final days of the referendum campaign, it has been reported.
Sir Jeremy Heywood, the cabinet secretary, and Sir Christopher Geidt, for the palace, were said to have been involved in the negotiations which led to the Queen remarking that voters should "think very carefully" before making their decision on September 18.
The Guardian newspaper said senior Whitehall figures suggested to the palace that the Queen should intervene on the matter, just as polls had shown an increase in support for the Yes campaign.
However, it was said that Sir Jeremy and Sir Christopher were aware of the need for any comment by the Queen, who normally remains impartial, not to be too strongly worded but to reflect her support for the union.
She eventually spoke spoke out, to a wellwisher after the Sunday service at Crathie Kirk near Balmoral on September 14, saying: "I hope people will think very carefully about the future."
A Whitehall source told the newspaper: "Without her taking a side, it cast just the right element of doubt over the nature of the decision."
Buckingham Palace and the Cabinet Office declined to comment on the allegations.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article