The Prince of Wales relishes the opportunity to go beyond his constitutional remit and act as a "dissident" challenging the prevailing political consensus, a former aide has said.

That was one of a series of revelations from a High Court witness statement that the Prince had originally wanted to keep secret during his bid to prevent further publication of his private diaries.

Mark Bolland, the Prince’s assistant private secretary from 1996 to 1997 and deputy private secretary until 2002, is giving evidence for The Mail on Sunday, which is fighting his former boss’s confidentiality action.

Hugh Tomlinson, QC, representing the Prince at a High Court application for summary judgment in his claim for breaches of confidentiality and copyright, told Mr Justice Blackburne earlier today that his client had decided not to pursue orders banning publication of Mr Bolland’s witness statement.

Lawyers for The Times, The Guardian, The Sunday Times, The Independent, the BBC and ITN had all challenged the attempt to have Mr Bolland's testimony discussed behind closed doors.

Clarence House was infuriated by The Mail on Sunday's publication of excerpts from a 3,000-word report written by him after the handover of Hong Kong in which he described Chinese diplomats as "appalling old waxworks". The Prince regularly writes such reports about matters of national interest and circulates them to a select group of friends and acquaintances.

In his witness statement, Mr Bolland also backed reports that the Prince did not attend a return state banquet thrown by the then Chinese President Jiang Zemin "as a deliberate snub to the Chinese because he did not approve of the Chinese regime".

Mr Bolland said that the Prince described his own role as heir apparent as having three aims: representing the Queen; raising money for charity; and promoting and protecting national traditions, virtues and excellence.

"This was very much how the Prince saw his role during my time working with him, with one exception. Despite our best efforts, he did not always avoid politically contentious issues if he felt strongly about particular issues or government policies," Mr Bolland said.

"In fact, he would readily embrace the political aspects of any contentious issue he was interested in and this is an aspect of his role which the Prince saw as particularly important."

Mr Bolland said that the Prince’s letters and speeches about politically contentious or sensitive issues were often circulated around the office for all his staff to read. "I was always surprised that these letters were not treated as more private or sensitive and, indeed, was always surprised that they were written at all," he said.

Mr Bolland went on: "The Prince’s very definite aim in all this activity, as he explained to me, was to influence opinion. He saw that as part of the job of the heir apparent. He carried it out in a very considered, thoughtful and researched way. He often referred to himself as a ‘dissident’ working against the prevailing political consensus."

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