Campaigners have written to all MPs asking them to break their 'deafening silence' over royal scandals.
The email asks "when are you going to say something?" and lists a number of royal scandals that have received scant attention from members of parliament.
The email, sent from Republic's Graham Smith, said:
"While I am, of course, pushing an anti-monarchy agenda, today I am raising a very serious problem with parliament's relationship with the Royal Household, a problem that should concern everyone."
"Specifically, I am contacting all MPs to question parliament's deafening silence regarding a growing number of royal scandals."
The email listed some of the most serious accusations leveled at the royals over the past eighteen months, saying:
"You will be familiar with the scandals I'm referring to, whether it's Prince Andrew, accusations of racism, Prince Charles accused of cash-for-access, Prince Charles accused of cash-for-honours, Prince Charles handling bags of foreign currency totalling more than £2m, received from a dubious source, Prince Charles putting direct pressure on government to tailor laws to his financial advantage, the growing financial scandal of the cost of the household, including the wilful abuse of public money on private travel and so on and so on."
The email pointed out that many of these hit Prince Charles, a man "who could suddenly find himself Britain's head of state at any time."
Republic is calling on MPs to engage in robust and honest debate about the way in which the royals conduct themselves, to ensure the public has all the facts and can make their own judgements on the fitness of the monarchy.
Speaking for Republic today, Graham Smith said:
"The biggest scandal in all of this is the silence of parliament. It has to stop, every MP owes it to the UK to speak up and do something about the rot at the palace."
"There is no excuse for this abject failure to hold the Royal Household to account. We cannot claim to be a democracy if our elected representatives are too timid to speak up and challenge scandal at the heart of our constitution."
"Any other institution hit by this level of scandal would be put into special measures and a root and branch reform would be carried out. But MPs know that can't happen, because the monarchy is a family business. So instead of calling them out for corruption they run a mile."
"I hope that at some point all MPs will begin to speak up on these issues."
"If they believe that the monarchy is a strong, robust institution, one that should survive, then they should have confidence in it weathering such attention."
"If they believe the monarchy is fundamentally wrong, then there really is no reason not to speak up on this growing list of royal scandals."
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