Law chief to challenge appeal court ruling’s on Prince Charles letters veto

Lord Dyson, the Master of the Rolls, and two other appeal judges opened up the possibility that the royal correspondence could soon be revealed to the public gaze.

They unanimously ruled that the Government’s principal legal adviser has “no good reason” for using his ministerial veto and overriding the decision of an independent tribunal, chaired by a High Court judge, in favour of disclosure.

A spokesman for Attorney General Dominic Grieve said he will now take his case to the Supreme Court, the highest in the land, “in order to protect the important principles which are at stake in this case”.

Charles is known for his strong opinions on a range of topics from the environment and farming to complementary medicine and architecture.

He has faced accusations in the past of “meddling” in day-to-day politics and criticism over his “black spider memos” – the name given to the hand-written letters he pens to government ministers expressing his views.

Guardian journalist Rob Evans applied to see a number of written communications between Charles and various government ministers between September 2004 and April 2005.

Mr Evans sought disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, and under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

The Upper Tribunal declared in September 2012 that he was entitled to see “advocacy correspondence”, described as letters Charles had written seeking to advance the work of charities or to promote views.

But Mr Grieve vetoed the ruling, saying the public could interpret the letters sent to ministers in the last Labour government as showing Charles to be “disagreeing with government policy”.