A “financial memorandum” formalizing the relationship between the sovereign and ministers also sets out tough terms on how the queen can spend the £38.2 million handed over by Parliament each year to pay for her staff and occupied palaces.
The document, disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act, grants ministers the constitutional right to take over the direct management of the Queen’s public wealth in the event of a disagreement over how the subsidy is awarded or spent.
It places the Palace in a weak position in its current negotiations with government for an increase in royal funding. On Wednesday constitutional law experts said the memorandum could be used by ministers to force the queen to cut back on her spending or even make her fall back on her considerable private wealth.
The deal follows disputes between the Palace and the government over the growing costs and management of public money given to the royal family.
Paul Flynn MP, a member of the House of Commons Public Administration Committee, said: “Someone appears to have gone to extraordinary lengths to protect the royal family from public scrutiny. The more information we have about the public subsidy paid to the Queen the more confidence will we have in the institution. The royal family is part of the dependency culture of Britain in the same way that Cameron spoke about people living in a council house accommodation for life.”
Graham Smith, campaign manager of the anti-monarchy group Republic, said that, given the growing disagreements between the palace and ministers over royal funding, he was surprised that the secretary of State hadn’t already activated the clause.
“It’s good to know that the government can use this power. But there are already ‘irreconcilable differences’ between the government and the royal household over how much of taxpayers’ money the Queen requires, and between MPs and the royal household about public access to the palaces.”
The memorandum lists 70 clauses dictating the financial relationship between the queen and the government.
