A right royal row blew up this year over which of the great and the good were eligible to attend the Accession Council to confirm Prince Charles as King. According to the Mail on Sunday, in April Richard Tilbrook – clerk to the body of the Monarch’s advisers – ‘sparked fury’ by revealing that only 200 Privy Counsellors would attend this meeting that ended up happening just five months later.
A priority list was drawn up, with only a select group – including current Cabinet Ministers, former Prime Ministers and senior judges, as well as the Archbishops of Canterbury and York – being automatically qualify for an invitation. Such criteria prompted some murmurings of discontent in the Upper House, with Lord Jopling – Margaret Thatcher’s onetime Chief Whip – even being moved to table a parliamentary question, asking for the basis on which the criteria was decided.
Some 158 Privy Counsellors ended up being eligible on an ex-officio basis to be summonsed to attend the Accession Council on 10 September.
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