Royal aides’ fears over £1m Brexit black hole
grants. They added that the Keeper of the Privy Purse, who looks after the Queen’s finances, would likely be sounding out Government figures – although no meetings are known to have taken place as yet.
Ministers are now under pressure to break their refusal to provide commitments for post-Brexit Britain and publicly say that the payments will be continued.
Estates and country houses across Britain as well as farmers benefit from Common Agricultural Policy [CAP] payments – the EU’s system of rural support.
The billions of pounds of subsidies will end when Britain leaves the EU, which on current time scales will be in spring 2019.
Ministers have sought to reassure the farming community by guaranteeing payments until 2020, but have refused to make commitments beyond that point.
Analysis by has revealed the full extent to which Royal estates benefit from the subsidies, totalling more than £1 million last year. In 2015, Sandringham received £665,000, the Royal Farms in Windsor got £298,000, the Duchy of Cornwall was given £129,000 and the Crown Estate got £350,000.
A source familiar with the royal finances warned that the loss of funding had caused concern before and after the EU referendum.
“I don’t think it was a budget-busting concern. But it was something that people were conscious of as a potential post-referendum impact,” the source said.
“I think that they were interested to find out what the Government’s view was as to what the replacement mechanism would be for the CAP