TOP secret plans to evacuate the Queen from London were drawn up over fears Brits could riot in the event of a No Deal Brexit. Civil servants plotted the monarch’s escape to a private location earlier this year. She’d have been joined by other senior royals, including her husband, if negotiations between the UK and […]
TOP secret plans to evacuate the Queen from London were drawn up over fears Brits could riot in the event of a No Deal Brexit.
Civil servants plotted the monarch’s escape to a private location earlier this year.
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She’d have been joined by other senior royals, including her husband, if negotiations between the UK and the EU failed.
The Queen – who is politically neutral on all matters – has decamped from Buckingham Palace to Windsor Castle for much of the year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh are still in the historic royal fortress in Berkshire, being cared for by a reduced household of staff in ‘HMS Bubble’.
But Government chiefs had planned to rush the couple to safety if necessary.
The proposals were leaked last year – and led to accusations that Whitehall jobsworths has taken Project Fear to extraordinary new heights.
The scheme was a ‘re-purposed’ version of a secret operation dreamt up during the Cold War to move the royal family to safety should enemy forces land in Britain.
Royals would have been dispersed to country houses and even the royal yacht Britannia under that scheme – originally named Operation Candid.
Officials in the Civil Contingencies Secretariat, the Government department responsible for emergency planning, envisaged riots as a worst-case – but real – possibility.
At the time, leading Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg called the plans a “wartime fantasy”.
After a nail-biting year of trying to negotiate a Brexit deal, here are the key points in this final slog to the finish.
JANUARY 8: EU chief Ursula von der Leyen visits No10 and warns the timeline for trade talks is “very, very tight”. The PM vows there will be no extension to transition period.
JANUARY 9: The PM gets his Brexit withdrawal agreement through the Commons.
JANUARY 31: Britain formally leaves the EU at 11pm.
MARCH 2: Michel Barnier and David Frost kick off the trade talks in Brussels.
MARCH 12: Negotiations move online due to the pandemic.
JUNE 12: No10 formally tells the EU we will not sign up to a transition extension.
JUNE 29: Physical talks resume in Brussels.
JUNE 30: Both sides miss a deadline for completing deals on fish and financial services.
SEPTEMBER 10: Brussels then threatens the UK with legal action over deal breaches.
OCTOBER 16: The PM walks away from talks, accusing the EU of making “unacceptable” trade demands.
OCTOBER 21: Talks resume after Mr Barnier agrees both sides need to compromise.
OCTOBER 31: Negotiators miss the first deadline for a deal.
NOVEMBER 7: The PM and Mrs von der Leyen agree to “redouble” their efforts.
NOVEMBER 15: The second deadline comes and goes.
NOVEMBER 19: A third deadline is missed.
DECEMBER 9: The PM and Mrs von der Leyen hold a disastrous dinner at the EU’s HQ.
DECEMBER 20: Negotiators blaze through an EU Parliament deadline for the deal.
DECEMBER 24: Deal done?
He said: “The over-excited officials who have dreamt up this nonsense are clearly more students of fantasy than of history.”
Officials predicted riots breaking out if shops ran low on staple foods as a result of No Deal potentially hampering shipments.
But today, Boris Johnson is expected to address the nation as the UK stands on the brink of a deal with the EU.
Negotiators went down to the wire over details on fishing.
The historic pact, set to be sealed hours before Christmas, will allow us to trade freely with the EU without tariffs or quotas and brings to an end four bitter years of wrangling.
The Queen and the PM usually speak every Wednesday, with the monarch able to “advise and warn” Mr Johnson when necessary.
The Queen was dragged into a constitutional row during her summer holiday in August 2019 amid Westminster’s bitter Brexit battles when Mr Johnson asked her to suspend Parliament for more than a month.
She spoke publicly about the split for the first time during a state visit by King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands in October 2018, telling him that “as we look toward a new partnership with Europe” the values shared by the UK and the Netherlands “are our greatest assets”.
