Sophie Wessex – heroine of Britain's closet republicans

When the first president of Britain is sworn in, the Windsors will be the ones to thank. As Buckingham Palace braced itself for further revelations about the Countess of Wessex yesterday, republicans kept their counsel, preferring to let the royal family continue sowing the seeds of its own destruction.

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The tapes

Revelations spell crisis for Palace

Paying for the Royals

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When the first president of Britain is sworn in, the Windsors will be the ones to thank. As Buckingham Palace braced itself for further revelations about the Countess of Wessex yesterday, republicans kept their counsel, preferring to let the royal family continue sowing the seeds of its own destruction.

None of the usual loyalists chose to speak up for the Countess or her husband Prince Edward. The Prime Minister, who stands alone in his Cabinet as a royalist, would only say that his support for the monarchy was well known "and that remains the case".

Republican ministers such as Gordon Brown and Jack Straw, who want to replace the Queen with a president, dared not breathe a word this close to an election.

First there was the constitutional crisis when Charles and Diana divorced, and the future head of the Church of England became public about his Catholic mistress. Then the death of Diana revealed the Queen to be out of touch with her public. Meanwhile, the antics of the minor royals caused alarm. Marriage to Sophie Rhys Jones was supposed to be the making of Prince Edward, who had lacked a role and come under pressure for using his royal connections to prop up a failing television career.

The gossip became hard allegations when a reporter from the News of the World posed as a sheikh and recorded his conversations with the Countess and her business partner. The newspaper chose not to publish last weekend, in return for an exclusive and astonishingly frank interview with the Countess. However, rival publications obtained some of the unpublished remarks, and the NoW is expected to print the rest today.

Yesterday, only one gallant voice was heard in defence of the Countess. Gerald Howarth, the right-wing Tory MP for Aldershot, called on all right minds to stand by this "young and vulnerable" woman. "Ministers should be supportive of the Countess as she seeks to pay her way and undertake royal duties," he said. "Their attacks on her, and the Prime Minister's silence, could be seen as the latest round in New Labour's republican agenda."

Mr Blair still goes to see the Queen once a week and has nothing to gain by calling for her head. He coined the phrase "People's Princess" to describe Diana and his office made sure the flags at Buckingham Palace flew at half-mast, against tradition. Nevertheless, last week's events have made it clear that Mr Blair stands alone within his own Cabinet. Kim Howells, the consumer affairs minister, described the royals as "all a bit bonkers" yesterday but the comment appears not to have ended his career as it might have done in the past.

Gordon Brown and Jack Straw are among the most convinced in an overwhelmingly republican Cabinet. However, no member of the Blair team is prepared to say so publicly this close to an election.

They know that despite the widespread and growing disenchantment with the Windsors, the general public is still a long way from accepting that Britain should do without the monarchy completely. Labour's abolition of the hereditary principle in the Lords would appear to question the Queen's right to reign – but the focus groups still insist the majority of subjects support Her Majesty, and her son's right to inherit the throne.

Martin Bell, the independent MP for Tatton – and a monarchist – joined the calls for reform yesterday. "There should be two categories of royals: those who are funded from the public purse and are essentially committed full-time on business connected with their being royal, and those who are not – and they should be allowed to get on with their lives just like everybody else."

Meanwhile, the Countess was understood to be determined not to withdraw from her life in public relations, no matter what is published in the Sunday papers. If that turns out to be true, the constitutional crisis she provokes will be about the status of the minor royals rather than the throne itself.

Even previously loyal Tories have taken to describing the princes and their partners as "hangers on". David Davis, MP for Haltemprice and Howden, said it was right for people like the Countess to earn a living, but she must do so in a way that did not undermine the monarchy. "If they can't do that they should shut up."

The irony is that Sophie Rhys Jones once appeared to be the perfect example of a modern royal. She was young, attractive, and had her own successful business.

The new Countess of Wessex was instantly caught on the horns of the royal family's dilemma: while trying to be modern and combine a career with public duties she only succeeded in fuelling the gossip. Foreign trips on behalf of the country appeared to be used as an opportunity to promote Edward's film company, Ardent.

Spending £2m of taxpayers' money on the redevelopment of their new home, Bagshot Park in Surrey, did not help. Modern, egalitarian royals such as those in Sweden and Denmark tend not to build such palatial surroundings, and those Blairite role models would certainly think twice about blurring the lines between duty and business by building their company headquarters in the grounds.

Unlike Princess Diana, the Countess does not have an army of supporters eager to spring to her defence. In contrast, Sophie the public relations expert has done the opposite of everything a good PR would, said the publicist Max Clifford. She has broken the golden rule by allowing herself to become a far more interesting story than any of her clients.

The Queen is said to be furious that the newest recruit to the family should cause such trouble at a time when it is trying so hard to move with the times. The Way Forward Group, which includes senior royals and civil servants, was formed to review the activities of the Windsors. The first step was for the Queen to pay her taxes. Then came the cutting down of the Civil List – but even though the public no longer subsidises the minor royals directly they continue to contribute to the family's image problem.

"Life for a modern royal is like living in a monastery with glass walls," said Paul Flynn, the Labour MP for Newport West. "The real world and the make-believe royal world are irreconcilable. They cannot stay aloof from politics or business and simultaneously be political and entrepreneurial. It's a cruelty to condemn another generation to spend their lives in the goldfish bowl, exposed to the merciless mockery of the media."

SAT 24 MARCH: Sophie's PR company, R-JH, serves a High Court injunction on newspapers preventing the publication of details of its business practices.

SAT 24–FRI 30 MARCH: Sophie makes ill-judged comments to an "Arab sheikh", the News of the World's investigations editor, Mazher Mahmood. On learning she has been duped, she alerts Buckingham Palace, lawyers and the Press Complaints Commission (PCC).

FRI 30 MARCH: The NoW editor, Rebekah Wade, agrees to hand over the tapes in exchange for an official interview with Sophie.

SUN 1 APRIL: The NoW publishes the interview, in which the Countess volunteers that her husband "is not gay". The Sunday Mirror and The Mail on Sunday print extracts from the tapes, where Sophie allegedly describes Tony Blair as "too presidential", his wife as "horrid, horrid, horrid", William Hague as "deformed" and either the Queen or the Queen Mother as "the old lady".

MON 2 APRIL: Palace complains to the PCC. It emerges that Sophie has written letters of apology to No 10 and Mr Hague's office.

TUES 3 APRIL: Sophie's business partner, Murray Harkin, is summoned to the Palace for meetings amid rumours he, too, was stung by the "sheikh".

WED 4 APRIL: The Palace accuses the PCC of colluding with the News of the World over Sophie's interview, a suggestion it denies. New allegation emerges concerning Prince Edward, who is accused of using a royal visit in 1999 to court funding for his beleaguered TV company.

THURS 5 APRIL: PR Week magazine accuses Sophie of "naivety" for speaking so openly to the "sheikh". Its view is backed by the Trade Secretary, Stephen Byers. Harkinfaces calls for his resignation from R-JH.

FRI 6 APRIL: Sophie and her husband are confronted by a barrage of reporters as they arrive for a routine royal engagement in Camberley, Surrey, within miles of their country home, Bagshot Park.

SAT 7 APRIL: The Consumer Affairs minister Kim Howells describes the Royal Family as "a bit bonkers" in The Daily Telegraph.

James Morrison