THE “appalling” cost of the coronation of King Charles III has been revealed by the UK Government.
Official accounts have revealed the coronation cost taxpayers £72 million although anti-monarchy group Republic believes the real cost was in fact much more.
The figures included £50.3m of Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) costs as well as £21.7m for the Home Office for policing the event in May 2023.
Charles (below) was crowned at Westminster Abbey in a ceremony attended by dignitaries from across the world while a concert also took place the following night at Windsor Castle.
Speaking to The Guardian, Republic CEO Graham Smith said: “I would be very surprised if £72m was the whole cost.
“But even that kind of money - £72m – is incredible.”
Smith was part of a group which was arrested at an anti-monarchy protest on the day of the coronation – with the Met Police later saying it “regretted that those six arrested were unable to join the wider group of protesters in Trafalgar Square”.
The campaigner added: “It’s a huge amount of money to spend on one person’s parade when there was no obligation whatsoever in the constitution or in law to have a coronation, and when we were facing cuts to essential services.
“It was a parade that Charles insisted on at huge expense to the taxpayer, and this is on top of the huge inheritance tax bill he didn’t (have to) pay, on top of the £500m-a-year cost of the monarchy.
“It was an extravagance we simply didn’t have to have. It was completely unnecessary and a waste of money in the middle of a cost of living crisis in a country that is facing huge amounts of child poverty.
“When kids are unable to afford lunches at school, to spend over £70m on this parade is obscene.”
DCMS was the lead government department working with the royal household on the coronation, which it described as a “once-in-a-generation moment which provided an occasion for the entire country to come together in celebration”.
It said it “offered a unique opportunity to celebrate and strengthen our national identity and showcase the UK to the world”.
