Campaigners have called on the government to scrap the "absurd, indefensible and dishonest" Sovereign Grant, as the palace prepares to release its latest annual accounts.

Republic, which has seen a copy of the latest accounts prior to publication, says the figures once more demonstrate why the grant needs to be scrapped.

The campaign has also called for the full cost of the monarchy to be reported in the accounts, which is estimated to be at least £345m a year.

Speaking ahead of publication, Graham Smith said today:

"As always, while the rest of us face a cost-of-living crisis and continued squeezes on public services, the royals walk off with hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers' money."

"The Grant is deeply dishonest, ignoring at least £258m of public money spent on the royal family every year, and falsely giving the appearance that the royals are funded from the Crown Estate."

"The palace also wrongly claims that the grant is an exchange for the surrender of the Crown Estate profits. That exchanged happened almost 300 years ago, and was between two parts of the state. The country is entitled to scrap the grant and still keep the Crown Estate profits."

"Instead of resorting to spin, to try and make the monarchy look cheap, they need to answer a few serious questions."

"Can this expenditure be justified? Can we get a head of state that costs less than this, so we can spend that money elsewhere? Why is the monarchy not facing significant cuts, while essential public services have been cut time and again over the past decade? Is this an ethical use of public money? What else could we afford for that amount?"

"The Irish presidency - which costs around €4.8m - demonstrates quite clearly that we can get an effective head of state for a fraction of the cost. Meanwhile, the £345m cost of the monarchy could pay for as many as 13,000 new nurses or teachers."

"No other public body has its funding pegged to the profits of another, entirely separate organisation. Linking royal funding to Crown Estate profits makes as much sense as linking it to the price of petrol."

"Providing a golden-ratchet clause, which means the grant can never go down, is the most appalling feature of the grant system. If Crown Estate revenue drops to zero we would still be paying them at least £86m a year."

"We need to put the monarchy on a proper budgetary footing, just like any other public body. We need to slash that budget down to below £10m, and only fund what's required for the functions of the head of state."

For more details of the full cost of the monarchy see Republic's royal finance report at https://www.republic.org.uk/the_true_cost_of_the_royals