Gordon Brown tips UK for Scandinavian style monarchy under King Charles
The British monarchy will take on a more “Scandinavian” style under King Charles III, Gordon Brown has predicted.
The former Prime Minister today said the new King has “already indicated” that “the monarchy is going to be smaller” and more modern under his reign.
The former Prince of Wales was officially proclaimed King Charles III at St James’ Palace, after a meeting of the Accession Council yesterday.
He will now go on a tour across the UK with Prime Minister Liz Truss to lead the country’s mourning of Queen Elizabeth II.
Brown, Prime Minister between 2007 and 2010, predicted that the monarchy would function very differently under the new King.
Brown told the BBC: “I think what Charles has already indicated is that the monarchy is going to be smaller. It’s going to be more like a Scandinavian monarchy in the future I think – not in a bad way. In the sense that [it will be] more informal.”
“He stopped as he entered Buckingham Palace and talked to people in the crowd and that was a signal he was sending that he wanted people to feel he was approachable and he was not going to be absent from the public or be unapproachable.”
Theresa May said that any “change in the way things are done would be done gradually and very carefully”.
“If you look at the monarchy and the royal family, they have been steadily evolving a different approach, a different way of doing things, over time,” she said.
“I’m sure that King Charles will continue to take that forward. And of course he is a different person and he may want to change things in some ways.”
The new King said during his first address to the nation that he would no longer give “so much of my time and energies to the charities and issues for which I care so deeply”.
There have been previous concerns that Charles would interfere in political matters, after spending decades advocating for his pet causes.
Just a few months ago it was revealed in two publications that Charles thought the government’s Rwanda immigration plan was “appalling”, with speculation rife that his own aides briefed out the news.
Former Prime Minister David Cameron told the BBC that he was certain the new King would stay out of politics publicly and that he is already a “superb diplomat”.
“Charles III will be a very worthy successor in that regard,” Cameron said.