Princes may face block to standing in for the King

Lords to debate change in law that would go further than King Charles asked over Counsellors of State

THE House of Lords will debate a change in legislation that would effectively ban the Dukes of Sussex and York from being Counsellors of State.

The amendment to the Counsellors of State Bill, to be debated today, would look to exclude members of the Royal family who have “not in the immediately preceding two years undertaken Royal duties on a regular basis”.

The Duke of Sussex stepped down from royal duties on March 31, 2020. The Duke of York ceased to undertake public duties after his military affiliations and royal patronages were returned to the Queen at the start of this year. A Cabinet source told The Daily Telegraph it was neither the Government, nor Buckingham Palace’s position, that the proposal would remove either of the princes from being Counsellors of State.

Labour peer Viscount Stansgate, the son of party grandee Tony Benn, suggested in the House of Lords that it was the right moment to discuss “a sensible amendment” with the King.

He asked whether the Government was “happy to continue with a situation where the counsels of state and regency powers may be exercised by the Duke of York or the Duke of Sussex, one of whom has left public life and the other of whom has left the country?” The King made the specific request that the Princess Royal and the Earl of Wessex be made Counsellors of State, after he enacted a process agreed with his late mother to keep the family peace.

In a statement, read to both Houses of Parliament last week, the King signalled his wish for the Regency Act to be amended to allow his two siblings to deputise for him when required.

The move is designed to ensure the Duke of York and the Duke of Sussex will never act as official stand-ins, without having to formally replace them.

The statement read: “I would be most content, should Parliament see fit, for the number of people who may be called upon to act as Counsellors of State... be increased to include my sister and brother – the Princess Royal and the Earl of Wessex and Forfar.”

The monarch can appoint two such counsellors to conduct official business in their absence using letters patent.

They are the spouse of a monarch and the next four in line to the throne over 21. This would include the Queen Consort, Prince of Wales, Duke of Sussex, Duke of York and Princess Beatrice, only two of whom are working royals.

♦ The King’s former valet Michael Fawcett, 59, could face charges related to his alleged part in the cash for honours scandal after police handed evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service.

Prosecutors are expected to decide before Christmas if charges will be brought after the then Prince of Wales presented Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz a CBE after donations to royal causes worth £1.5 million, according to