The widespread belief that the monarchy is good for tourism is the 'original fake news' and 'complete fiction' according to campaigners. The comments follow Meghan Markle's claim her wedding generated £1bn for UK tourism, a claim that has already been challenged by leading experts.

A new video released this week has debunked the wild claims about the royals' impact on British tourism, pointing out the lack of evidence and the low visitor numbers for royal palaces.

The video can be seen on Republic's YouTube channel.

Graham Smith, speaking for Republic, said today:

"No-one has ever been able to provide any evidence that the royals are good for tourism. It's a convenient lie used to deflect criticism of the royals' abuse of public money."

"A few years ago it was suggested the royals bring £500m into the country through tourism. That represents less than half a percent of the UK's £127bn tourism industry, yet even that £500m figure is complete fiction."

"With Buckingham Palace as low as 68th on any list of UK tourist attractions it's hard to see how the royals make any difference to the industry."

"Our new video sets out very clearly why the tourism claim is the original fake news. It's time the media stopped repeating this nonsense as if it were true. It's time we started talking about what's really wrong with the monarchy."