Prince Charles's meetings with Cabinet ministers increase dramatically under Coalition Significantly, the Prince has met David Cameron seven times since the Coalition came to power in 2010, but in the equivalent period of Labour's last spell in power he only had three meetings with prime ministers - one with Tony Blair and two with Gordon Brown. The Prince, who will be 65 this year, has also held two meetings with the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, in the past three years, but did not privately meet a Labour foreign secretary once between 2005 and 2008. Most of the meetings are instigated by the Prince himself, but aides have said that a "significant number" are requested by the ministers. A spokesman for the Prince said: "The Prince of Wales has a right, indeed it is his duty, to communicate privately with the Government on any matter he chooses, to bring his unique perspective and reflect the many issues people raise with him personally on his extensive engagements around the country. Official meetings are important to the Prince as heir to the throne and minsters from successive governments have found that he brings important insights...built over 40 years of experience in a range of areas aimed at transforming lives and building sustainable communities. However Graham Smith, of the anti-monarchy pressure group Republic, described the notion that the Prince needs to meet ministers to prepare for sovereignty as "deeply dishonest spin." He said: "If that was true he would be spreading out his meetings across all departments, but in fact he has no meetings at all with ministers from some of the biggest departments." He suggested the reason for the increase in the Prince's meetings under the Coalition was because: "He has a more sympathetic ear among Conservative ministers than he did under Labour and he is exploiting that to full effect and ramping up his lobbying." Although the fact of the Prince's meetings is a matter of public record, the nature of the discussions he has in them remain secret, as no minutes are published and the Prince is exempt from Freedom of Information laws.