Police time was wasted, says MP

A SENIOR Labour backbencher demanded police action after the collapse of the Paul Burrell trial yesterday.

John McWilliam, MP for Blaydon, said: “If all charges have been dropped, somebody should be charged with wasting police time.”

Meanwhile Labour MP Paul Flynn (Newport West) said the reason given for the collapse of the trial was “unconvincing” and “not plausible”.

Mr Flynn said: “The collapse of the trial leaves us with more questions than answers. The explanation offered is not plausible.

“The most likely reason is that when Paul Burrell came to give evidence he was going to provide extremely damaging new information which would be damaging to the Royal Family.

“This was the reason the trial was halted prematurely on this entirely unconvincing pretext.

“If the explanation given was really the case, why was not the trial halted three weeks ago? It must have been clear to the Queen because she is known to have been an enthusiastic reader of newspapers and the trial should therefore have been halted on Day One.”

Mr Flynn went on: There are some intriguing loose ends left from the trial and the real story has yet to be told.

“I have never understood how they could possibly prove that Diana did not give Burrell permission to take these things.

“It did always seem to be operation impossible. In any event, people with a much greater knowledge of the law than me told me that this was an unwinnable case,” Mr Flynn added.

According to one expert, a constitutional crises had been avoided.

If the trial had resulted in the Queen or the Prince of Wales taking to the witness box to give evidence in court one at the Old Bailey, it could have had serious implications for the monarchy, according to Harold Brooks-Baker, publishing director of Burke’s Peerage, the high society handbook.

Mr Brooks-Baker said, “The fact that the Queen made a statement and the prosecution was dropped indicates a constitutional crisis had to be averted.”