The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, has backed the publicly funded £369m refurbishment of Buckingham Palace. Asked if the Queen should pay for the work, instead of the money coming from a 66% increase in the sovereign grant, he said: “She may well consider that. An online petition urging the royal family to fund the refurbishment of the palace privately has collected more than 50,000 signatures in less than 24 hours. Mark Johnson said in his petition, addressed to the chancellor, Philip Hammond, that the royal family should pay for the revamp themselves. The sovereign grant for the royal family is equal to 15% of the crown estate’s annual profits, which were £45.6m most recently.

Source: The Guardian November 19, 2016 15:15 UTC