On the 30th anniversary of the Nolan Principles, introduced to uphold ethical standards in public life, campaigners have called on the royals to be subject to the same guidelines.
 
Republic has accused the monarchy of corruption, abuse of power and access, misuse of public funds and avoidance of tax.
 
Graham Smith, CEO of Republic and author who has written extensively on this issue, said today:
 
"The Nolan Principles put an onus on public officials to behave in an ethical and dignified manner, to conduct themselves in accordance with the highest standards."
 
"Yet the royals fall well short of those standards time and again without consequence, censure or scrutiny. They fail to uphold the principles of selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership."
 
"If Charles lived up to the Nolan Principles he would accept his moral obligation to pay taxes at the same rate as everyone else. He would have the integrity to refuse such huge financial benefits."
 
"An ethical head of state would assess royal financial arrangements as unfair and inappropriate. That they are an exploitation of public office for huge personal gain."
 
"If Charles lived up to those standards he would accept the need for transparency and openness, be open about his taxes, insist they are not exempted from freedom of information laws."
 
"An ethical monarch would also understand the need for accountability, make himself available for challenging interviews, tolerate dissenting voices and engage with critics."
 
"A head of state living up to these standards would not stand accused of being more secretive than MI5 or the CIA."
 
"Not only are the Nolan Principles not applied to the royals in any meaningful way, there is plenty of reason to believe that the monarchy fails - and fails badly - on every single one of them."
 
 
The Nolan Principles were established in 1995 by the Major government. Details are available on the government's website: https://cspl.blog.gov.uk/category/nolan-principles/
 
The principles are Selflessness, Integrity, Objectivity, Accountability, Openness, Honesty and Leadership.