Campaign Updates

Republic has welcomed reports that an influential Commons committee is considering a wide ranging review of royal finances.

Republic has been pushing for greater scrutiny of royal costs – estimated by the group to be over £200m a year – and has recently written to the Public Accounts Committee chair Margaret Hodge calling for an investigation into Prince Charles’s tax avoidance.

According to a report in today’s Independent, the Committee is now expected to launch an inquiry into royal finances later this year.

Republic’s chief executive Graham Smith said today:

“The way the royal household spends public money is nothing short of a disgrace, a thorough and detailed review is long overdue.”

“When Prince Charles spends tens of thousands of pounds of public money on personal holidays without a whisper of outrage from our politicians there is clearly something wrong.”

“It is crucial that any such investigation abandons all sense of deference for the royals and has a good hard look at how the palace is wasting taxpayers’ money.”

“The issue of tax must also be thoroughly investigated – it is not acceptable that the Queen and her eldest son are exempt from the same tax regimes as the rest of us.”