Buckingham Palace has issued a statement insisting that Queen Elizabeth II is neutral on whether the UK should leave the European Union, after a British newspaper reported she had strong views on the subject.
British tabloid newspaper The Sun published a front page story Wednesday headlined “Queen backs Brexit,” a term used to describe a potential “British exit” from the European Union.
The UK will have a national referendum on June 23 in which the public will vote on whether to leave or stay in the 28-member bloc.
Palace: Queen ‘remains politically neutral’
Citing an unnamed “senior political source,” The Sun said that at a lunch at Windsor Castle in 2011, the Queen told Britain’s then-Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg that the EU was heading in the wrong direction.
The newspaper quoted the source as saying that those present “were left in no doubt about her views on Europe.”
However, Buckingham Palace released a statement Wednesday insisting the Queen was neutral on the Brexit.
“The Queen remains politically neutral as she has for 63 years,” read the statement.
“We will not comment on spurious, anonymously sourced claims. The referendum is a matter for the British people to decide.”
Clegg, the former deputy prime minister and current member of Parliament who was supposedly party to the conversation, denied that it took place.
“As I told the journalist this is nonsense,” he tweeted. “I’ve no recollection of this happening (and it’s) not the sort of thing I would forget.”
Britain is a constitutional monarchy in which the royal family is seen as above the political fray.
Last month, sections of the British media interpreted remarks made in a speech by the Queen’s grandson, Prince William, as suggesting Britain would be better off in Europe.
But a spokesman for the prince categorically denied the speech had anything to do with the European question.
Stay or go?
British Prime Minister David Cameron has been campaigning for the UK to remain in the European Union, arguing that a deal struck with European leaders to give Britain “special status” within the bloc meant it would have “the best of both worlds.”
He argues that the British economy — the second-largest in the bloc — will suffer if the country opts out, and that the country will be stronger and safer against global threats such as Islamic terrorism and Russian aggression if it remains part of the EU.
But high-ranking members of Cameron’s own Cabinet, and London’s charismatic mayor Boris Johnson — one of the UK’s most popular and influential politicians — have all come out in support of the “Leave” campaign.
They argue that membership in the EU is a costly burden that brings unnecessary regulations and excessive migration, and diminishes Britain’s sovereignty.
Britain in the EU
The European Union has its origins in a free-trade zone established in the 1950s.
European nations sought closer ties in the hope that economic integration, and the free movement of goods and people, would prevent a recurrence of the catastrophic war that ravaged the continent a decade earlier.
But Britain has always remained slightly aloof from the union, remaining outside the Schengen Agreement, which allows passport-free travel among most European countries, and opting to retain the pound rather than adopt the euro.
Among the concessions Cameron wrung from European leaders ahead of the Brexit referendum was a recognition that Britain would never commit to “ever closer union” — the central goal of the EU and its predecessor organizations for decades.
Opinion polls have shown the British public sharply divided on the Brexit issue. A recent poll on the referendum question, conducted earlier this month by YouGov, found 40% support for remaining in the EU and 37% support for leaving.
The remainder responded that they didn’t know or wouldn’t vote.