MINISTERS agonised over whether to order a replacement for the Royal Yacht Britannia, newly released official files show.

By 1993 it was apparent that, after 39 years, Britannia was reaching the end of its operational life.

But John Major’s Conservative government had yet to decide whether to invest in a replacement at an estimated cost of £50 million.

It was widely thought Queen Elizabeth II strongly favoured the commissioning of a new yacht but the royal family could not afford to be seen to be trying to influence political decision-making.

However, files released to the National Archives at Kew, west London, show that senior courtiers privately approached No 10 to see if the prime minister would make a Commons statement stressing Britannia’s “inestimable value” to the nation.

But the plan was scotched by the Cabinet Office, which warned that any such comments would be highly “prejudicial.”

One senior official noted caustically that a claim by the Palace that the Queen was “indifferent” as to the outcome of a review of the yacht’s future “hardly rings true.”

The issue of a new yacht came at an extremely difficult time for the government and for the Palace, with support for the royals at a low ebb.

There had been an angry public backlash the previous year when ministers announced the taxpayer would pick up the bill — which eventually ran to £36 million — for the restoration of Windsor Castle following a catastrophic fire.

Labour swept to power in a landslide in 1997 and promptly reversed a decision by the Major government to build a replacement yacht.

When Britannia was finally decommissioned, the queen, who rarely displayed any emotion in public, was seen to shed a tear.