The Eurosceptic Queen

There has been much inconclusive speculation on the Queen’s views on Brexit. In 2016, the Sun asserted that she was in favour (later overruled by Ipso as ‘significantly misleading’). Last year, pro-EU commentators claimed that the blue hat with yellow stars she wore to open Parliament showed coded support for Remain. For now, we are none the wiser. What we do know, however, is that the monarch must be finding things a good deal easier on the way out than on the way in.

Rewind to 1972 and a damp May evening at the Palace of Versailles. The Queen and president Georges Pompidou of France, dressed in their finest, worked their way through a banquet of foie gras, lobster pie, St-Florentin lamb and iced gâteau before rising, on live television, to salute the United Kingdom’s entry to the Common Market. It was the crowning moment of Britain’s accession to the European Economic Community.