Queen asks guests at VIP dinner for their views on EU ahead of Brexit vote
Royal biographer reveals monarch asked close friends and family whether we should remain or leave
THE Queen asked VIP guests at a private dinner: “Give me three good reasons why Britain should be part of Europe.”
Royal biographer Robert Lacey revealed she asked close friends and family their views on whether we should be in or out of the EU.
He said yesterday: “The Queen has no vote but I think she may feel we should be Out.
“That’s only my guess as to her thoughts — but she does like robust debate.
“She likes a debate around the table like all of us round the country and she’s been debating Brexit with close friends and family.
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“But from what I’ve heard, she’s been very careful to be scrupulously neutral.”
Mr Lacey said the Queen was questioning dinner guests, thought to include Prince Andrew and Princess Anne, at a private dinner a few weeks ago.
In a blog for the Daily Beast he wrote that history would show The Queen was “impeccably non-political in public.”
He added “But in private it is a different story.
“Her Majesty can be refreshingly outspoken among friends, as we discovered from her comments last month on the ‘very rude’ Chinese delegation in London.
“The same is true when it comes to Europe.
“’Give me THREE good reasons’ she has, apparently, been asking her dinner companions recently, ‘why Britain should be part of Europe?’
“I think, as is clear with the Abu Hamza case, she shares the same frustrations that everyone feels.”
Mr Lacey was referring to The Queen’s conversation with a BBC reporter in 2012 in which she expressed concern about why fanatical Islamic preacher Abu Hamza could not be arrested and extradited.
In his blog, Mr Lacey outlined the reasons why the Queen should support Remain.
But speaking to the Sun yesterday, he said: “My original piece finished by querying if she did have a vote, she may not agree with me.
“She has no vote. Everyone else in the Royal Family does but the close members of the family won’t be voting either.
“She’s playing it with a straight bat. She’s a very thoughtful Eurosceptic but whether that means she would vote in or out, if she could, does not necessarily follow.”
The Sun told in March how Her Majesty demonstrated her strong feelings on Europe during a bust-up with Nick Clegg at a Windsor Castle lunch,
Brexit campaigners were delighted Her Majesty is asking if we should be in the EU.
Tory MP Jacob Rees Mogg said: “For Queen and country we should all BeLeave in Brexit.”
Bernard Jenkin MP added: “I don’t comment about Her Majesty, but I cannot think of three reasons why we should stay.”
Buckingham Palace declined to comment.
David Cameron yesterday made a TV plea to wavering older voters to back Remain.
In a live lunchtime address, he said he wanted to talk to undecideds aged over 50 and urged them:
“Think about the hopes and dreams of your children and grandchildren.”
But the PM’s Brexit-backing ex-aide Steve Hilton said the stunt was “weird.”