Prince Charles asked: ‘are you worried about these letters?’

The Prince of Wales was arriving at Marks and Spencer’s Marble Arch shop for an event to mark the Make a Mark youth employability scheme, which is run by the Prince’s Trust.

On the way in he declines to answer questions from Channel 4 News political correspondent Michael Crick ahead of the publication of private letters he wrote to ministers a decade ago.

The letters, known as “black spider memos” in reference to the Prince’s distinctive handwriting, were written to government departments between September 2004 and March 2005.

They are to be made public, with some redactions, at 3pm on Wednesday after a lengthy legal battleby Guardian newspaper journalist Rob Evans.

Despite a 2012 court decision to allow publication, the former attorney general Dominic Grieve vetoed this, saying the letters reflect Prince Charles’ “most deeply held personal views and beliefs.”

That decision was later ruled invalid.

Clarence House has previously said it is “disappointed the principle of privacy had not been upheld.”