Writing for The Mirror, author and former Lib Dem MP Norman Baker has criticised the government for approving a £100million-a-year Sovereign Grant for the Royal Family
Times are tight. Your bills for heating, for food and for fuel may be soaring, but that won’t worry the royals who have just been given yet another bumper pay rise by the government and will – kerching – now get a handout of £100 million a year.
And that’s after we have spent £359 million on a no-expense-spared upgrade of Buckingham Palace, only for Charles to say he has decided not to live there.
The last year of the Civil List, the predecessor to the current Sovereign Grant, was held in check by Gordon Brown and gave the royals £7.9 million in 2011. Overall our bloated royals are now costing us about HALF A BILLION a year.
Successive governments have tried to stop MPs debating royal matters. And MPs are restricted by the rules of parliamentary procedure from criticising the royals.
Just to make sure, each MP when elected has to swear an oath of true allegiance to the monarch, and their heirs and successors, before they can take their seat. These heirs and successors, by the way, include in the top ten the disgraced Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, and the opted-out Prince Harry.
But earlier this month, for the first time in 15 years, MPs were given a chance to scrutinise royal finances. By law the government had to introduce an amendment to push through this big increase, but did their best to smother it as much as possible.
They scheduled the debate at short notice for the first day back after the recess, and as late towards midnight as possible. They needn’t have worried. Very few MPs showed up and almost no questions were asked. With the chancellor scrabbling round to find any spare cash to help deliver the promised “breathing space” for people, you might think MPs would have tried to put a brake on this royal gravy train, even if the chancellor was prepared to wave it on.
You might have thought the Tories, who are so keen to cut benefits for the poorest amongst us, would have had something to say about the huge benefit bill for the royals, but no. Sadly, our MPs have backbones like chocolate eclairs when it comes to the monarchy.
Maybe the culture of institutional deference intimidates them. Or perhaps the lure of rubbing shoulders with our unelected royals at garden parties is just too much of a pull.
And so we look to the Lords, who tend to show rather more independence and who will have their chance to have a say on the matter next week. But wait. The government has decided that the amendment to the law is a “money Bill,” meaning the Lords are unable to vote to reduce the massive increase.
They can only express their views, which the government will then ignore. Meanwhile don’t be surprised if the royals are quietly raising a glass or two of expensive wine to toast out craven MPs.