"[5][6] In 1990 the Council argued that the term "working class" was now meaningless and that the stipulation should be overturned, allowing them to sell the leaseholds of the flats to anyone, against the Duke's wishes.

[12] Following this and fearing her fellow members would lose control unless there was a radical change in the social composition of the borough, council leader Shirley Porter instituted a secret policy known as 'Building Stable Communities' (BSC), focusing on eight marginal wards where the Conservatives wished to gain votes at the 1990 local council elections.

[12] An important part of this policy was the slow renovation and designation of much of Westminster's council housing for open market sale, rather than re-letting whenever a short term tenancy became vacant.

Since 1988 this had enabled anyone working in the City of Westminster to purchase such council homes, generally leasehold, when vacant, at 30% of their true market value.

"[23][24] Challenged at the time by Labour councillors, who were just beginning to unravel the conspiracy behind BSC, the council flatly denied that the designated sales were intended "to change the balance of the electorate in marginal wards, or indeed that purchasers were anything other than 'working class'.

"[25][26] Part of the council's case rested on a precedent set in Guinness Trust (London Fund) Founded 1890, Registered 1902 v Green [1955][27] in which the Court of Appeal had "unanimously ruled that the working class in Britain had been abolished.

John Colyer, QC, for the council, told the court: "As of today, the phrase 'dwellings for the working classes', whatever it meant in 1925 or 1937, has fallen out of the legislation.

[29][30] Mr Justice Harman ruled that the clause was "as valid today as when it was made" and that there was no evidence that the term "working class" was now obsolete.

Westminster City Council were, he said, under a continuing obligation to house the working class in Pimlico and could not sell the flats to anyone other than sitting tenants.

"[5] Ex-barrister John Mortimer, playwright and screenwriter of Rumpole of the Bailey quipped that Margaret Thatcher "had already abolished the working class and that these days, people [are] either 'middle-class or sleeping in a cardboard box.

The ex-Council leader said: "In a week when the son of a trapeze artist [John Major] has been battling to become [Conservative] Prime Minister... the courts have ruled that we must remain wedded to an outdated class system.