The background to all of this is migration. The Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, is hoping to conclude an agreement with President Macron under which France will take back migrants who have crossed the English Channel illegally in small boats; in return, Britain will accept asylum seekers from France on a “one in, one out” basis.
Starmer’s proposed deal with Macron is also facing opposition from other European Union member states who fear a sudden rush of migrants into their jurisdictions, as the EU’s Dublin III Regulation specifies that migrants can be returned to the EU country where they first landed. This means Spain, Italy, Greece, Malta and Cyprus are in the firing line.
Charles was heir apparent to the throne for more than 70 years, longer than anyone in British history. Inevitably from time to time he chafed at the role of simply waiting, and when he finally succeeded his mother, Elizabeth II, in 2022, there were anxieties that he might seek to express opinions in a way which would be too outspoken or controversial for a reigning monarch.
In fact Charles understood perfectly well that his approach would have to change when he was no longer Prince of Wales, but King. In 2018, in a BBC documentary to mark his 70th birthday, he said: “I’m not that stupid. I do realise that it is a separate exercise being sovereign. So, of course I understand entirely how that should operate. The idea somehow that I’m going to go on exactly the same way, if I have to succeed, is complete nonsense. Because the two situations are completely different.”
In addition, famously, Bagehot set out the remaining functional prerogatives: “The sovereign has, under a constitutional monarchy such as ours, three rights – the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, the right to warn.”
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Republicans may not like it, but the hints and allusions of a crowned head can sometimes have infinitely more import than the plainer remarks of an everyday politician. The King is being used in Bagehot’s “dignified capacity”, but he is also extending his right privately to encourage into the diplomatic sphere.
The monarchy still has star quality. It would take a man far humbler and more self-effacing than Emmanuel Macron – admittedly a low bar – to travel through Windsor in an open carriage with the Prince and Princess of Wales, be greeted by the King and Queen, inspect a guard of honour and be fêted at a grand banquet in St George’s Hall in Windsor Castle, and remain unmoved.
This is, in Bagehot’s terminology, the “dignified” part of the constitution supporting the “efficient” part, the hereditary monarch at the service of the elected government. It may not succeed fully in achieving the Prime Minister’s aims. But Starmer is entirely within his rights to try, and the King is quite correct to play his part.
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