Royal Watch News

British royals spend 6.1m on travel

Jul 3, 2012, 12:01 GMT

Queen Elizabeth, Prince William and Duchess Catherine

The British royal family spent £6.1 million on travel last year.

Among the most expensive tours undertaken by the royals included a nine-day tour of the Middle East and Africa by Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla, which cost almost half a million pounds, while the Duke of York spent £350,000.

A one way trip by Prince William and his wife Duchess Catherine - in addition to seven accompanying staff - from Los Angeles to London with British Airways cost £51,410, for business-class tickets.

Train journeys undertaken by the royal family cost a total of £900,000 for 13 journeys, the most expensive of which was by Prince Charles for an overnight regional tour from Ayr through Middlesbrough to London, which cost £38,016.

Buckingham Palace accounts also reveal Queen Elizabeth's official expenditure overall increased by £200,000 on the previous years, bringing it up to £32.3 million.

In total, the monarch cost every British person 52p over the course of the year.

Anti-monarchy group Republic has hit out at the expense, comparing the cost to those of Prime Minister David Cameron.

Chief executive Graham Smith said: 'Compare these travel costs with those of the prime minister, who spent less than £500 travelling on Eurostar to a Paris meeting with the former French president last year and just over £2,000 on a visit to Afghanistan to meet forces and local leaders.'