Senior aides at Buckingham Palace are scrambling to devise a strategy for managing the Queen’s workload after being accused of misleading the public over her health.
Sir Edward Young, the Queen’s private secretary, last night faced calls to ‘be ruthless’ and purge the Monarch’s diary of functions not central to her role as head of state.
Officials are understood to be drawing up a ‘core’ list of key events that the Queen will prioritise in the next 12 months, including the Platinum Jubilee to celebrate her 70-year reign in June.
Senior aides at Buckingham Palace are scrambling to devise a strategy for managing the Queen’s workload after being accused of misleading the public over her health
Her attendance at the UN climate change summit in Glasgow on November 1 remains in the diary, but a final decision will not be made until later this week.
Meanwhile, the Palace’s communications team is under pressure to be more candid should the 95-year-old Monarch require further visits to hospital.
The Queen’s courtiers faced extensive criticism last week for failing to inform the public that she had been admitted to King Edward VII’s Hospital in London on Wednesday and stayed there overnight for tests.
The Queen at a reception for the Global Investment Summit in Windsor Castle, October 19, 2021
The media was told that she was resting at Windsor Castle and aides revealed the hospital stay only on Thursday night after news leaked out.
The controversy has shone a spotlight on the growing challenge faced by the Palace in balancing the Queen’s desire to be an active head of state with needing to protect her health.
Royal sources say the easing of Covid restrictions has resulted in a logjam of public events, adding pressure on the Queen’s diary.
According to Buckingham Palace’s Court Circular, she has held 13 separate audiences or meetings, attended seven major events and travelled almost 900 miles since leaving Balmoral on October 1.
In addition, every day she still reads Government papers, delivered to her in red boxes, and has a long list of private meetings.
‘They have to find some kind of balance,’ said Sally Bedell Smith, who has written a bestselling biography of the Queen.
It is understood the trip to the private King Edward VII's Hospital in London (pictured) on Wednesday afternoon was expected to be for a short stay for some 'preliminary investigations'
The Queen (right with Boris Johnson) at a reception for the Global Investment Summit in Windsor Castle, October 19, 2021
‘I hope they have learnt from the pretty punishing pace she kept over the course of a month that that is maybe just too much.’
While Prince Philip retired from public life, aged 96, in 2017, the Queen has been determined to carry on working and has been on sparkling form at engagements since his death in April.
She has, however, accepted some changes in recent years.
She stepped back from long-haul travel in 2013, and other senior royals have helped to hand out knighthoods and other honours at investiture ceremonies.
But royal commentators say the Queen’s taxing schedule of commitments will have to be reduced further to reflect her advancing years.
The Queen arriving to attend the ceremonial opening of the sixth Senedd, in Cardiff, Wales on October 14, 2021
‘She doesn’t want to end up constantly in hospital because she is exhausted,’ said royal biographer Ingrid Seward.
‘She will have to do all the big events. It’s the smaller events that she can hand over.’
Ms Seward urged Prince Charles to shoulder the responsibility of ensuring the Queen is not overworked, adding: ‘They can divide the duties between other members of the family but Charles has to take a stand and say to his mother, “Enough is enough.”’
Dickie Arbiter, a former press secretary to the Queen, challenged her senior courtiers to insist that the monarch becomes more selective.
‘The private
