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Prime Minister may bring his cabinet to Inverness to mark historic summit


By Val Sweeney

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Boris Johnson could bring his cabinet to Inverness next year.
Boris Johnson could bring his cabinet to Inverness next year.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson could bring his Cabinet to Inverness next year to mark the centenary of a historic summit in the Highland capital.

An emergency meeting of British Cabinet Ministers was convened at Inverness Town House on September 7 1921 as British-Irish relations reached crisis point.

The then Prime Minister David Lloyd George was on holiday at Gairloch when he learned that Ireland had rejected the King and Empire.

Eamon de Valera, the leader of Sinn Fein, had announced an "irrevocable rejection" of the UK Government's peace offer, implying that only full independence for Ireland would satisfy Sinn Fein's demands.

Rather than travel back to London, as his deputy was at Beaufort and King George V was on a grouse shooting holiday at Moy, the Prime Minister decided to call a meeting in Inverness – the first time one had ever been held outside Downing Street or Chequers.

It was attended by Winston Churchill, Stanley Baldwin and their ministerial colleagues

The present Prime Minister has said he will consider bringing his Cabinet to Inverness next year to mark the 100th anniversary.

Related story: First cabinet meeting of British government outside London held in Inverness in 1921


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