Buckingham Palace sought to keep King Charles out of Starmer's political crisis

LONDON — Buckingham Palace privately asked whether King Charles III should proceed with the ceremonial state opening of parliament on Wednesday, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces a mounting leadership crisis that threatens to force him out of office, according to people familiar with the matter.

The king's team made clear in conversation with Starmer's officials the importance of protecting the monarch from any impression that he is being used for political ends. “The Palace view is ‘we do not want to be any part of this conversation — do not bring us into it,’” said one of the people familiar with the matter, granted anonymity to speak freely.

Starmer and his allies have pointed to Wednesday’s scheduled parliamentary ceremony as a key reason to let him keep his job despite crushing losses in local elections last week — and have dangled the promise of ambitious reforms, including the full nationalization of British Steel, in the coming address. Parliament is currently between sessions and must be formally opened to consider state business. The centerpiece of the opening ceremony is the king’s speech, which the monarch delivers to lawmakers from the gilded throne in the House of Lords. In this address, largely written by the prime minister’s team, the king sets out the government’s legislative plans for months ahead. But there is no certainty that those plans will survive amid a growing revolt against Starmer’s leadership from furious Labour MPs who blame him for their party’s dismal polling and disastrous election results last week.

According to the people familiar with the matter, in one recent discussion Charles’s senior aide asked top government officials including Cabinet Secretary Antonia Romeo whether the king should go ahead with Wednesday’s ceremony. The Palace was told that it was constitutionally correct for the king to open parliament on Wednesday as planned, the people said. Unless parliament is formally convened again, MPs and members of the House of Lords cannot meet there to debate priorities, question ministers or pass new laws.

But in the discussions with the Palace, which also included Starmer’s office, there was a general acknowledgement that this year’s ceremony would be an awkward moment for the king. “It is very embarrassing for the king that his government is such a shambles that he has to read out something that may or may not still be the government’s program by the end of the week,” according to the same person quoted above. The Palace made clear that the king would fulfill his constitutional duties as required but that it should be for the politicians to handle the political crisis and the monarch should not be involved.

The state opening marks the formal start to the new parliamentary session. It is full of pageantry, including soldiers on horseback, trumpet fanfares, and a horse-drawn carriage taking the king from Buckingham Palace to the Palace of Westminster. One option mooted before the 2015 election — when a hung parliament was widely expected — was to scale back the state opening and keep Queen Elizabeth II away from parliament at a time of political uncertainty. Instead, the speech would have been read out by the leader of the House of Lords, a cabinet minister, and the queen would not have been involved until it was clear that either Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron or Ed Miliband — then Labour leader — could command a majority in the Commons. Such contingency plans were ultimately never needed because Cameron won an unexpected majority.

No. 10 did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Cabinet Office and Buckingham Palace declined to comment.