Writing for The Mirror, former Lib Dem minister Norman Baker – a firm critic of the royals – has hit out at plans to hand over £100million in the next Sovereign Grant settlement
Why are we about to give the pampered and massively rich royal family yet another bumper inflation-busting handout of public money?
An already bloated Sovereign Grant of £31million in 2011, if raised in line with inflation, would cost us about £45m now. Instead, the government proposes on Tuesday evening to increase this to a whopping £100m.
In total, including unique tax breaks, this monarchy now costs us around HALF A BILLION every year, more than ten times the cost of the next most expensive European monarchy, the Dutch. No wonder Charles has personally amassed a vast fortune.
We have already spent £369m on a gold-plated upgrade of Buckingham Palace, with the royals contributing nothing. Yet Charles has decided that the millions that come in every year from ticket sales to tourists are “private” for him to use as wants.
Why isn’t that money being paid to the Treasury? And to add insult to injury, he has now said he doesn’t even want to live there.
Cynically, the government whips have arranged for the vote on this £100m to take place very late on the first day parliament is back, next Tuesday, no doubt hoping to minimise the number of MPs who turn up.
Andy Burnham has made some good early moves, like cutting bus fares and ending VAT on energy bills. And the planned £100m handout was planned before he came into No10.
But if his good words about fairness and the cost of living are not to be undermined, he needs to stop this royal rip-off now.
He should pull the vote on Monday and block any further increase until there has been a comprehensive examination of all aspects of royal financing. We need to return to annual votes by MPs on what we give the royals – there has been no MP involvement since 2011 – and end the unwarranted royal exemption from the Freedom of Information Act.
The Prime Minister is standing up to the Russians. Has he got the guts to stand up to the greedy royals? Or will he cave in to their outrageous demands as every Prime Minister since 2011 has done?