Scrap sovereign grant that sees Queen ‘purring all way to bank’

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It is basically the equivalent of the royal family winning the lottery every single year

The Queen has faced an SNP demand for her funding to be slashed as activists claimed ordinary Scots are being “shafted by the rich elite”.

Delegates at the party’s conference backed scrapping the sovereign grant after it soared to £76 million this year, a 145% rise since 2012/13.

The SNP is calling for the extra cash to be spent on public services instead.

Julie Hepburn, who led the debate, said the resolution was about how public cash is spent and not about the royal family.

However another delegate, Graeme Mccormick, said that debate is “futile” and there should be one on the very future of the monarchy.

Ms Hepburn said: “It is basically the equivalent of the royal family winning the lottery every single year.

“There’s no need for the royal family to play Euromillions. With

the sovereign grant, Her Majesty is purring all the way to the bank.”

The funding system pegs royal household income to profits from the Crown Estate. That has seen the monarchy’s income through the sovereign grant soar from £31m in 2012/13 to £76m this year.

The resolution, which overwhelmingly passed at conference, said Crown Estate profits “should be spent on the wider public good”.

It calls for the Sovereign Grant Act 2011 to be repealed. Any such move would have to be done at Westminster.

Scottish Conservative deputy leader Jackson Carlaw said: “This is unsurprising given how extreme and out-of-touch so many elements of the nationalist conference delegation are.

“What they need to remember is people in Scotland like and respect the Monarchy and would disagree entirely with the conclusion of this vote.”