Royal scroungers grab £50 million ‘pay’ rise

A Republic protest against the ‘trooping of the colour’ last year (Picture: Guy Smallman)

We all fund the monarchy’s lavish lifestyles—and next year we will be spending nearly £100 million.

The Treasury announced on Wednesday that the “Sovereign Grant”, the core funding that the king receives from the taxpayer, will rise to £99.9 million for the year 2027-28.

As ordinary people struggle to make ends meet, the treasury showers the monarchy with more cash each year. It was £72.1 million in 2025-26 and £51.8 million in 2024-25.

Next year’s Sovereign Grant is actually down compared to the current level of £137.9 million. But that was only because of the extraordinary cost of renovating Buckingham Palace this year.

Graham Smith from campaign group Republic, said, “When ministers are struggling to manage prisons, fund schools or fix the NHS, it is outrageous that they are planning to throw another £50 million a year at the royals.”

“The true cost of the monarchy is well in excess of half a billion pounds when everything is accounted for. That figure will continue to rise if the Sovereign Grant remains in place.”

It has enabled the king to amass a net worth of about £680 million.

The royals also profit from the Crown Estate, the vast portfolio of land and property that belongs to the monarch.

It is currently worth £15.6 billion. It includes not just huge palaces such as Buckingham Palace but an array of shopping centres and retail parks and lucrative plots of land including most of London’s Regent Street.

As Prince of Wales, Charles Mountbatten-Windsor was able to profit from his ownership of the Duchy of Cornwall. It’s a £1.1 billion estate with almost 130,000 acres of land, 260 farms and the Oval cricket ground in south London.

Now this has been passed on to his eldest son William, who rakes in about £23 million a year from the estate.

But as king he is now the sole beneficiary of the Duchy of Lancaster, worth a mere £650 million. He inherited it from the queen without the need to pay inheritance tax like the rest of us.

These estates syphon off money from the cash-strapped public sector.

In 2024 it was revealed that the Duchy of Lancaster was receiving £829,348 annually from the NHS to park ambulances on some of its land in south London.

William Mountbatten-Windsor only stopped charging rent to community groups and services such as village halls and lifeboat stations after a Sunday Times newspaper investigation.

King Charles also inherited jewellery worth £533 million, racehorses worth £27 million, about £150 million in shares and bonds and two private residences. Balmoral and Sandringham castles are worth £80 million and £250 million. 

Sandringham alone is thought to have over 100 rooms including some 29 bedrooms.

The current monarch may prefer a mostly plant-based diet to a roast swan. But he still enjoys the finer things in life.

It has been widely reported that pheasant pie is one of his favourite dishes, which he washes down with a daily martini.

You would think he would be grateful for his wealth. But Charles Mountbatten-Windsor is said to have a nasty temper. According to a former butler, he once grabbed a valet by the throat.

The butler said, “He was trying to put his own collar stud in, which he doesn’t normally do, for his formal shirt. And he dropped one of the studs and it went into the plughole. Charles was in a fury, just ripped the sink from the wall, threw it to the floor, it shattered.”

The monarchy has never been less popular. And it is easy to see why after the scandal of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s links to deceased billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Some 55 percent of people in Britain still prefer a monarchy to a republic. But this is the lowest level since Ipsos started polling.

And rates of support are much lower among the young—only 33 percent of under 35 year olds support a monarchy.

It’s never been a better time to demand we get rid of the lot of royal scroungers.

Royal Parks workers ask ‘where is our share?’

While the king lives a life of luxury, workers in the Royal Parks are earning poverty wages.

GMB union members, who are gardeners at eight Royal Parks in London, are striking this week after being offered just 70p an hour as a pay rise.

They currently earn only 55p an hour above the £14.80 London Living Wage. At that rate it would take over 740 years of solid work to earn what Charles gets in one year of Sovereign Grant.

The parks are all owned by the crown and historically used by the royals for deer hunting and the like. It is only the “grace and favour” of the royal family that means the rest of us get to use them.