Queen lobbied for law change to conceal her ‘embarrassing’ wealth from public

Queen Elizabeth II is facing the wrath of the public after recent claims emerged about her concealing her wealth by getting the law changed.

According to a report by The Guardian, unearthed 1970s letters from the National Archive show the monarch’s private lawyer Matthew Farrer lobbying the government to make an alteration in an upcoming piece of legislation that would help her hide her wealth.

Through a parliamentary procedure which is referred to as the Queen’s consent, the sovereign halted her true wealth from being made public after ministers added a clause in the Companies Bill, per the new report.

Prior to any legislation being brought before the Parliament, the Queen’s consent must be sought if it relates to private interests of the monarch or could in any way affect the royal prerogative.

The 1973 documents show Farrer speaking to a civil servant named CM Drukker who wrote: "I have spoken to Mr Farrer. As I had recalled he – or rather, I think, his clients – are quite as concerned over the risk of disclosure to directors of a company as to shareholders and the general public.”

“He justifies this not only because of the risk of inadvertent or indiscreet leaking to other people,” he had written.

Ministers were then informed by civil servants and in a month’s time period, a proposal was drawn.

Geoffrey Howe, the then-trade secretary had written to another minister about how solutions had been drawn regarding the Companies Bill.

Howe wrote: "My department have discussed this solution with the legal advisers to the Queen.”

“While they cannot of course commit themselves to using the suggested new facility, they accept that it is a perfectly reasonable solution to the problem which they face, and that they could not ask us to do more. I am therefore arranging that the necessary provisions should appear in the bill,” he added.

As per The Guardian, this entire process helped Queen Elizabeth hide her private shareholdings which remained concealed till 2011.