With the monarchy set to receive a boost of more than £45 million amid the cost-of-living crisis, former MP for Lewes in East Sussex Norman Baker blasted the use of public funds
The Royal Family “don’t care how much public money they spend,” a former MP has blasted – amid revelations the monarchy is to receive a boost of more than £45million.
The sovereignty will see a 53% jump in its official annual income to more than £130million, Buckingham Palace’s annual accounts for the first full financial year of the King’s reign show.
Prince William received an annual private income of more than £23million last year, while £4.2million was spent on official royal travel, a rise of £300,000 from £3.9million the previous year.
And Norman Baker, who was an MP for 18 years, has slammed the figures, particularly those around use of transport. More than £1 million was spent on 170 helicopter journeys made by members of the Royal Family – each costing nearly £17,000.
Mr Baker, who represented the Liberal Democrats in Lewes in East Sussex from 1997 to 2015, told the Mirror: “This is staggering, but just shows how out of touch our royals are. They, A – don’t care how much public money they spend and B – are totally hypocritical when it comes to climate change, which they say they care about. This figure will not be made up of £2 bus fares, that’s for sure. It will comprise carbon-busting private jets and helicopters.”
The most expensive journey was £166,557, and saw King Charles and Queen Camilla visit Kenya on charter flights, along with a separate staff planning visit by scheduled flights. Charles and Camilla’s charter flight to Paris and Bordeaux for three-day state visit to France cost more than £117,000.
And some £52,000 was splurged on a two-day trip on the Royal Train. The huge cost was incurred in June last year when the King attended the Centenary of the Flying Scotsman. Mr Baker, 66, continued: “The Royal Train should be decommissioned. It is an expensive toy that the country cannot afford. If Charles wants to keep it, let him pay for it.”
The increase in costs came despite a decrease in overall engagements. Meanwhile, the number of staff in the Prince and Princess of Wales’s household rose from 50 to 66, but William’s private income from the Duchy of Cornwall estate stands at a whopping £23.6million.
Mr Baker, who in 2015 narrowly lost his Lewes seat to the Tories and since penned a book critically examined the Royal Family’s privileged status in public life, said: “The Duchy of Cornwall should be part of the Crown Estate with the money going to the Treasury rather than acting as some sort of royal slush fund for the Prince of Wales. The royals argue it is a ‘private este’ – they are wrong.
“But if it is private, how come uniquely they pay no capital gains tax or any other taxes that every other private estate in the country pays?… I am calling on the Public Accounts Committee to begin an immediate and urgent review into royal finances.”
The rundown of royal finances – from April 1 2023 to March 31 2024 – covers the months following the King and the Princess of Wales’s double cancer diagnosis, with both away from public facing duties from January onwards.
But the accounts also span a time of celebration, with coronation and festivities celebrating the crowning of the King and Queen in May last year. The Mirror has approached Buckingham Palace regarding Mr Baker’s criticism of the use of public money.
