Queen Elizabeth II was a Remainer opposed to Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, a new book has sensationally claimed.
In one of the few major insights into the late monarch’s political leanings, it is alleged the Queen told a senior minister three months before the 2016 Brexit referendum: ‘We shouldn’t leave the EU.’
She is later said to have added: ‘It’s better to stick with the devil you know.’
The bombshell revelation has emerged in an upcoming book by veteran former royal correspondent Valentine Low, entitled Power and the Palace: The Inside Story of the Monarchy and 10 Downing Street.
In an extract serialised in The Times this evening, one Buckingham Palace insider said that, while the Queen could be frustrated by Brussels bureaucracy, she saw the EU as part of the post-war settlement, ‘marking an era of cooperation after two world wars’.
Former Prime Minister David Cameron added: ‘She was so careful never to express a political view, but you always sensed that, like most of her subjects, she thought that European co-operation was necessary and important, but the institutions of the EU sometimes can be infuriating.’
The claims fly in the face of a controversial headline in The Sun newspaper in the run-up to the 2016 Brexit referendum which claimed ‘Queen Backs Brexit’.
Queen Elizabeth II supported Britain staying a part of the European Union during the controversial 2016 referendum, a book has claimed
It is alleged the Queen told a senior minister three months before the 2016 Brexit referendum: ‘We shouldn’t leave the EU.’
David Cameron at Buckingham Palace with Queen Elizabeth II in 2010
Buckingham Palace complained about the story, insisting the monarch was ‘politically neutral’, and The Sun was forced to publish a ruling from the press watchdog stating the headline was ‘significantly misleading’.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the new claims, in line with its policy that it does not get drawn into public statements about biographies or books on the Royal Family.
Former Chancellor George Osborne said that, despite so little being known publicly about the late Queen’s political ideology, she could be surprisingly upfront in private.
‘I was constantly astonished by how candid she was and that none of this ever came out,’ he told Mr Low.
‘She’d be very forthright in telling you what she thought of individuals, including members of her own family, and what she thought about things going on in the country.’
However, a well-placed royal source insisted to the Mail that ‘no-one, not even her closest advisors, ever knew what the Queen thought on a huge range of political issues over the years, least of all Brexit’.
They added: ‘Sometimes people impose their own political ideology when interpreting remarks Her Majesty may or may not have said. Often with claims such as these it’s more holding a mirror up to the opinion of the person who is reporting them.’
Following its ‘Queen Backs Brexit’ headline in 2016, The Sun stood by its reporting and said the headline was ‘backed up by the story’.
Former Chancellor George Osborne said that, despite so little being known publicly about the late Queen’s political ideology, she could be surprisingly upfront in private
Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the new claims, in line with its policy that it does not get drawn into public statements about biographies or books on the Royal Family
The story was based on alleged critical comments the Queen made about Brussels during a lunch at Windsor Castle in 2011.
It claimed the Queen had made disparaging comments about the EU during an exchange with Nick Clegg, then the Deputy Prime Minister.
It alleged she had made further critical comments about the EU at a reception for MPs at Buckingham Palace – citing two unnamed sources.
Former justice secretary Michael Gove was later named as the source of the leak. Mr Clegg said the report was nonsense while, at the time, Buckingham Palace said: ‘The Queen remains politically neutral, as she has for 63 years.
‘We will not comment on spurious, anonymously sourced claims. The referendum is a matter for the British people to decide.’
The Independent Press Standards Organisation’s (Ipso) ruling said the content of The Sun’s article did not breach its code, but the headline did as it was ‘a factual assertion that the Queen had expressed a position in the referendum debate, and there was nothing in the headline, or the manner in which it was presented on the newspaper’s front page, to suggest that this was conjecture, hyperbole, or was not to be read literally’.
A royal source insisted to the Mail that ‘no-one, not even her closest advisors, ever knew what the Queen thought on a huge range of political issues over the years, least of all Brexit’
The Queen was again dragged into controversy surrounding Brexit in 2019 when then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson advised the monarch to prorogue parliament as part of an attempt to force through the government’s plans for leaving the EU.
The Supreme Court later ruled that the suspension was unlawful and the prorogation was quashed.
Buckingham Palace officials are said to have been concerned over whether the Queen was aware of what she was getting into and of the potential legal challenges, according to the book Out, by journalist Tim Shipman, released last year.
