Queen may be evacuated if there are riots after no-deal Brexit
LONDON — Should Britain stumble out of the European Union without a deal and riots erupt in the streets, officials have a plan: Evacuate Queen Elizabeth II from London, local news outlets reported on Sunday.
Reports of a scenario to save the queen and senior members of her family came to light as the deadline for Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union loomed. With fewer than 55 days until the formal divorce, now set for March 29, the country has been flooded with news of emergency preparations in the event no deal is reached.
Reports of Britons stockpiling groceries, medicines and other supplies have proliferated. Nissan Motor confirmed on Sunday that it would manufacture the new version of its X-Trail SUV in Japan instead of Sunderland, in northeast England, where Nissan has been making cars since 1986.
Sony announced in January that it would move its European headquarters to Amsterdam from Surrey; Airbus and Bentley called the prospect of a no-deal Brexit a “killer” and a “disgrace.”
But the report of an emergency exit plan for the 92-year-old monarch gave a different weight to the possibility of a nodeal Brexit. A spokeswoman for Buckingham Palace said on Sunday, “We’re not commenting on that at all.”
But according to The Sunday Times, such plans were originally laid out long ago in anticipation of events that might threaten the royal family’s safety.
“These emergency evacuation plans have been in existence since the Cold War, but have now been repurposed in the event of civil disorder following a no-deal Brexit,” the British newspaper quoted an unidentified Cabinet Office official as saying.
In a reflection of the deeply polarized mood that has prevailed in Britain since the 2016 referendum on the country’s withdrawal from the European Union, the report of the evacuation plans for the queen was received with equal measures of worry and ridicule.
Many questioned the premise of preparing for riots immediately after the Brexit deadline, and whether Buckingham Palace, or the queen, would be the target of the public’s ire in the case of no deal.