King Charles wants Anne and Edward to replace dukes of hazard
King Charles has asked parliament to allow the Princess Royal and the Earl of Wessex to stand in for him, in order to avoid calling on the Duke of York and Duke of Sussex.
The King has asked parliament to allow the Princess Royal and the Earl of Wessex to stand in for him, in order to avoid calling on the Duke of York and Duke of Sussex.
In a message read out in the Lords on Charles’s behalf, he asked for the counsellors of state to be extended to include Princess Anne and Prince Edward.
The next step will be a change in the law to allow their names to be added to the list.
Charles’s request was read out by the lord chamberlain, Lord Parker of Minsmere, the most senior official in the royal household. The King suggested the aim of the increase was to “ensure continued efficiency of public business when I am unavailable”.
Buckingham Palace has been keen to change the system because the law limits the counsellors of state who can deputise for the King when he is overseas or ill to Queen Camilla and the four most senior adults in the line of succession.
That includes the Duke of Sussex, who lives in California after stepping down as a working royal, and the disgraced Duke of York. The others on the list are the Prince of Wales and Princess Beatrice.
Parker said he had the honour to present a message from the King “signed by his own hand”, telling peers: “The message is as follows. ‘To ensure continued efficiency of public business when I am unavailable, such as while I am undertaking official duties overseas, I confirm that I would be most content, should parliament see fit, for the number of people who may be called upon to act as counsellors of state under the terms of the Regency Acts 1937 to 1953 to be increased to include my sister and brother, the Princess Royal and the Earl of Wessex and Forfar, both of whom have previously undertaken this role.’”
Dr Craig Prescott, a constitutional expert at Bangor University, said: “This is the start of the legislative process. I would imagine the government would introduce legislation very soon.”
Prescott said that Queen Elizabeth had made a request in 1953 to have the Queen Mother added to the counsellors of state.
The Times
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