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Royal family claim £100MILLION from taxpayers as nation battles Cost of Living crisis
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A series of costs incurred by senior royals such as the Queen, Prince Charles and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have continued to rise in recent years despite ordinary Brits forced to cut their spending
The Royal Family cost taxpayers £102.4million last year, a report reveals today.
As the nation struggled in the cost of living crisis, spending on the royals rose £15million – 17% – to top £100m for the first time.
Royal finances expert Norman Baker said: “It’s not right.”
The multi-million-pound renovation of Buckingham Palace helped to drive up the bill for the royal family.
Spending on the project rose to £63.9million, up £14.4million on the previous year, as work intensified to prepare the palace for the Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
The Queen was in another of her official residences yesterday, receiving Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon at Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh.
The Sovereign Grant Report shows that last year, as in-person royal visits resumed following the pandemic, their travel costs rocketed from £1.3m to £4.5m.
Royal finances expert Norman Baker said: “The Government should have a complete rethink of how taxpayers’ money is allocated to the Royal Family.
“We have no say in how the royals choose to use private jets or helicopters, which are all paid for out of the public purse, and while ordinary people are struggling it isn’t right.” The 10-year Buckingham Palace renovation project appears to be on target to cost £369million.
Delivering the Sovereign Grant Report, Keeper of the Privy Purse, Sir Michael Stevens, said: “There was a significant increase in work against a hard deadline to enable Buckingham Palace to be at the centre of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations. We were pleased to deliver against our plans.”
Prince William and Kate Middleton during their royal tour in Jamaica ( Image: Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)
The report shows spending on the royals rose by almost £15million in 2021/22, up more than 17% on the previous year.
Sir Michael said: “The year was not without operational and financial challenges. Covid meant we had another year in which access to the Royal Palaces was restricted for The Royal Collection Trust, which again affected our ability to help self-finance our work on behalf of the nation.”
Costs incurred by senior royals continued to rise as their subjects tightened their belts.
Prince William and Kate’s ill-fated trip to the Caribbean, where the future king admitted he had not been alive to anti-monarchy sentiment in Belize, Jamaica and The Bahamas, cost £226,000 in flights and accommodation.
Despite campaigning on environmental issues, Prince Charles still flies between his royal residences at an average cost of £15,000 a time.
The Queen’s royal train cost £100,000 for just three outings last year, but is now exclusively powered by “hydro treated vegetable oil”, royal sources revealed.
As a non-working royal, like Prince Harry and his wife Megan, Prince Andrew no longer qualifies for public funding and gets nothing from the Sovereign Grant. He is now thought to be exclusively funded privately by his mother, the Queen.
Caribbean tour
William and Kate’s controversial visit to Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas cost roughly £226,000.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge came in for heavy criticism during the tour in March, with critics labelling it a “throwback to Britain’s colonial past”.
The royal pair raised eyebrows for travelling in an open top Land Rover driven by a Jamaican soldier during a military parade, with some people suggesting it “looked like a scene from The Crown”.
In an unprecedented statement, William said after the Caribbean visit: “Tours are an opportunity to reflect. You learn so much.
“This tour has brought into even sharper focus questions about the past and the future. In Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas, that future is for the people to decide upon.”
Royal train
The Queen will not give up using the royal train despite just three outings for her and Prince Charles costing £100,000
steps off the Royal train ( Image: @leeeeannex/TikTok)
The Queen will hold on to her favourite mode of transport, which she can travel and sleep on when on engagements – despite it being used so little each year.
Her Majesty used the royal train last July on a return journey from Windsor to Manchester to celebrate 60 years of Coronation Street and the 600th Anniversary of Manchester Cathedral, costing a staggering £42,452.
Prince Charles used the train twice, with a journey over several days between Stonehaven, Newcastle and Durham and back to Windsor coming in at a whopping £42,450.
A royal aide said: “The Queen has no plans to stop using the royal train which provides excellent value for money.”
Green fuel
Environmentalist Charles committed to using “green fuel” for plane journeys where he can, despite it costing the public purse far more than normal fuel A source close to the prince said the future king called him a “pioneer”and likened the situation to “buying a video recorder in the 1980s”.
The source added: “The prince is aware of the extra cost but the destructive cost to the environment during a climate emergency is far greater”.
Meghan & Harry
Harry and Meghan are now paying for themselves – the Prince of Wales no longer funds them after they ditched their royal roles seeking “financial independence”.
After they shed their life as working royals in 2020 they signed £100m worth of deals with streaming giants Netflix and Spotify.
During the couple’s interview with Oprah Winfrey in March last year, Harry said “my family literally cut me off financially” in “the first quarter of 2020”.
A source close to Prince Charles said the Duke and Duchess “should be congratulated on achieving their goal” in raking in millions from the private sector – despite using their new found roles to routinely slam the royal family on global television interviews.
Charles’s bill for his sons and their families no longer lists the Sussexes in the accounts.
Charity cash
Changes to the way the royal charities accept donations have been implemented after Prince Charles accepted £2.6million in cash from a former prime minister of Qatar.
The Prince of Wales will never again handle large sums in notes to be passed to his charities, a royal source has stated.
Charles faced criticism over being presented with one million euros stuffed in a briefcase while two other cash gifts of more than £1.6million were given in Fortnum & Mason carrier bags between 2011 and 2015.
A report claimed the heir to the throne personally accepted the donations for his charity The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund from Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim, above .
A royal source said Charles acts on advice and such incidents have not happened in the past five years and will not happen again.
Bullying probe
Buckingham Palace has been accused of a whitewash after refusing to reveal the findings of an independent law firm instructed to investigate allegations that Meghan Markle bullied junior staff during her time as a royal.
The probe was launched in March last year after the Duchess of Sussex was accused of bullying at least two palace aides – occasionally reducing staffers to tears and “humiliating” another.
At the time, Buckingham Palace said it would “not tolerate bullying and harassment” and was “very concerned by the allegations” that the Duchess – who has denied the claims – forced out two personal assistants and undermined the confidence of a third.
A senior palace source cited the confidentiality of those who took part in the review as to why details were not released.
Source: www.mirror.co.uk
African leaders have been urged to strengthen political commitment and domestic investment to end preventable maternal deaths and AIDS by 2030.
The call comes as African health ministers and policymakers meet in Accra to deliberate on health financing, health security and universal health coverage across the continent.
Mr Edouard Bizimana, Burundi’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and Development Cooperation, made the call on Tuesday at the opening of the African Union’s (AU) 25th Extraordinary Summit on Health in Accra.
He said Africa needed increased domestic investment to build resilient health systems as it continued to grapple with infectious diseases and the growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
Mr Bizimana, who is also Chairperson of the AU Executive Council, said although Africa accounted for nearly 17 per cent of the world’s population, it bore 24 per cent of the global disease burden while having less than three per cent of the global health workforce and only one per cent of global health expenditure.
“Despite maternal mortality declining by nearly 40 per cent since 2000, Africa still accounts for about 70 per cent of maternal deaths globally, while almost two-thirds of people living with HIV reside on the continent,” he said.
Mr Bizimana said the growing burden of NCDs was placing additional pressure on already stretched health systems.
“These figures are not merely statistics. They represent painful human realities, preventable losses and unacceptable inequalities, they remind us that health is not an expense it is a strategic investment and a prerequisite for our sovereignty and development. “he said.
Mr Bizimana said recent global health emergencies had exposed Africa’s vulnerability and underscored the need to expand local production of medicines and vaccines, strengthen the health workforce and improve emergency preparedness.
“Our citizens expect resilient health systems where every mother can give birth safely, every child has access to essential healthcare and every African enjoys quality health services regardless of where they live,” he said.
The two-day summit, being held ahead of the 20th Extraordinary Session of the AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government, has brought together health ministers, policymakers and health stakeholders to identify solutions to Africa’s health financing and security challenges.
Madam Florence Samizi, Tanzania’s Deputy Health Minister, called for stronger collaboration among AU Member States to accelerate progress towards universal health coverage.
The summit is being held on the theme: “Advancing Justice, Equality and Universal Health Coverage: Ending AIDS, Tuberculosis, Improving Maternal Health, Addressing Endemic Non-Communicable and Neglected Tropical Diseases in Africa.”
The meeting is expected to adopt the Accra Declaration, a roadmap to strengthen Africa’s health systems and advance health sovereignty by 2030. -GNA
Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana’s Department of Political Science, Dr. Joshua Jebuntie Zaato says the imprisonment of the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, will have little meaning unless it leads to a broader crackdown on illegal mining.
In a post on his Facebook page on the July 21, 2026, Dr. Zaato said the judgment should mark the beginning of efforts to completely eradicate galamsey and hold all those involved accountable, regardless of their political affiliation.
He said the country must work towards restoring polluted rivers, protecting forests and ensuring that people implicated in illegal mining activities are prosecuted.
According to him, those the President has publicly acknowledged to be involved in galamsey should face prosecution.
He called for the prosecution of district chief executives (DCEs), members of Parliament (MPs) and senior political party officials who have been accused of engaging in or supporting illegal mining.
Dr. Zaato further urged the government to take decisive action to end the destruction of the country’s forests caused by galamsey.
He maintained that the imprisonment of Chairman Wontumi would only have a lasting impact if it results in a comprehensive and impartial fight against illegal mining across the country.
By: Jacob Aggrey
