King Charles gets a major upset after the public snubs the monarch’s free offer after a ‘shameful waste of money’.
An official portrait of the king was unveiled in January after the Cabinet Office announced prior year that special funds were set aside for provide the portrait for public bodies.
However, the royal family was brutally snubbed after only 40 out of 1,454 applied for their free picture of King Charles to replace the previous portrait of late Queen Elizabeth, per The Sun.
The report stated that less than three percent of hospitals and only 82.7 percent of government departments and local authorities in England applied for the offer.
Meanwhile, mere 15.6 percent of equivalent bodies in Wales did. And just 35 out of the UK’s 475 universities — or 7.4 per cent — wanted one.
When the scheme was introduced, the anti-monarchy campaign group Republic called the initiative a “shameful waste of money”. When more than 20,500 framed photos were sent out in September, the taxpayers paid about £2.7million — with the typical picture costing £132.
Graham Smith, the chief executive of Republic, at the time slammed the government for the offer especially when public service sector, especially hospitals and schools, were struggling.
“They need to scrap this scheme and direct the money where it’s really needed,” he said at the time.
The blow to the monarch comes after an investigative documentary, The King, The Prince & Their Secret Millions, exposed King Charles and Prince William of earning millions from their private estates.
The Sunday Times claimed that the royal duchies were making money “by charging the army, the navy, the NHS [National Health Service], the prison service and state schools to use their land, rivers and seashores.”