Queen Mother's death paves way for release of abdication papers

The official papers about the abdication of King Edward VIII will be released next month after the Queen Mother's death removed the last barrier to their publication.

Under normal rules, papers relating to Edward's decision to abdicate in 1936 so he could marry the American divorcée Wallis Simpson after reigning for 10 months would have been made public after 30 years.

But they were withheld under Whitehall rules that allow documents to be held back if they are thought likely to cause "distress" to someone living or to endanger national security. Historians suspect the papers were held back because they could embarrass the Queen Mother by showing her views on Mrs Simpson.

Since her death, the Government has been conducting a review of the papers and yesterday the Lord Chancellor's Department announced they would be released in January.

The announcement followed a campaign by Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs, who called for the release of all the British papers. They signed a Commons motion in July after US documents suggested that President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the FBI to spy on the Duke and Duchess of Windsor because of their Nazi sympathies.

Kevin Brennan, Labour MP for Cardiff West, who tabled the motion, said the Government should make clear if all papers were being released of if some were remaining secret.

* A photograph of the Duke of Windsor taken at his meeting with Adolf Hitler in 1937 failed to sell yesterday at an auction of private papers that belonged to the Duke's equerry, Sir Dudley Forwood. The papers were expected to fetch up to £8,000.