‘Royal family members should fund themselves and not rip off taxpayers’

Members of the British royal family have often caught flak for receiving financial support from the public.

Graham Smith, CEO of anti-monarchist organization Republic, called out Queen Elizabeth’s grandchildren and other members for living off the UK taxpayers’ money.

He was quoted by Express, saying: "I think the only way you can solve the problem of the monarchy is to get rid of it. It is always a problem whether it is one person or fifteen people.”

"But while we have a monarchy what Republic has been proposing for some time is that we only pay for the head of state. It is there to give us one person which is the Queen as head of state,” he continued.

"We should therefore only pay for the Queen. The budget could be slashed from £345 million down to less than £10 million a year. The Queen should then be on a salary similar to the Prime Minister and we then fund an office to manage her engagement,” he said.

"The rest of them should go off and do their own thing, we do not owe them a living, we do not owe them any kind of position, title or status. It is time they were all told to go and earn their own way like the rest of us,” he added.