Writing in the Daily Mail, Mr Harri, a former BBC journalist, claimed the meeting between the then PM and future King at last year’s Commonwealth Heads of Government summit was “less amicable” than it was painted at the time.
“Boris briefed that the two had ‘a good old chinwag’ and had ‘covered a lot of ground’,” he said. What actually happened was less amicable.
“‘I went in quite hard’, he told me at the time, essentially squaring up to the Prince and confronting him about what he – as unelected royalty – had said about the actions of a democratically-elected government.”
Mr Harri added: “Prince Charles was busted. He had obviously expressed some criticism, and though he tried to play it down, Boris pointed out the obvious, [saying]: ‘If you didn’t say it we both know your people could ring the newspapers and kill the story. The fact they haven’t done that says it all.’”
The former aide suggested the two men had struggled to get on for years, with the Prince of Wales never forgiving Mr Johnson for being late for a meeting when he was London mayor.
He said the bust-up in Rwanda was the final straw, adding: “Relations never fully recovered and Charles will be relieved that Boris had left No 10 before he ascended to the throne.”