Campaign group Republic has called for an investigation into the huge increase in royal funding over the past decade.

The Sovereign Grant, which makes up a large part of the estimated half billion pound annual cost of the royals, has tripled in size since 2012.

Taking into account inflation the growth of the grant from £31m in 2012 to £132m this year is a threefold increase according to data from the House of Commons library.

The palace is claiming the latest £45m increase is to fund repairs to Buckingham Palace, which raises questions about why those costs have risen so much.

The grant was doubled in 2016 for the same reason.

Speaking for Republic Graham Smith said today:

"The royals wanted more money ten years ago so they could fix Buckingham Palace, which they had allowed to fall into disrepair for decades. Now they're claiming they need another £45m a year for the same reason."

"Are they admitting the cost of fixing the palace has rocketed out of control?"

"MPs need to launch a wide-ranging investigation into royal funding. It's time to cut it right back to less than £10m, in line with comparable elected heads of state in Europe."

"The Sovereign Grant needs to be scrapped. It's a nonsense way to work out funding for anything. It just guarantees the cost of the monarchy will go up and up every year."

"How can we justify half a billion pounds, or even £132m, being spent on one family when hospitals and schools are facing cuts?"

"Royal spending is nothing more than a scandalous abuse of public money."

The story was reported on the BBC website at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crld11w9538o

Republic's Half Billion Pound Royals report is at https://www.republic.org.uk/halfbillionroyals