Off the wire
• Top circuit court to retry doubtful rape, murder case  • Across China: All aboard the fasting train!  • Rio Tinto may spin off non-core assets: analysts  • WB approves 200 mln USD loan for power connections in Tanzanian  • China willing to work with new Philippine government to promote ties  • Urgent: Chinese enterprises have invested 14 billion USD in Belt and Road countries  • Senior officials urge China, U.S. to conclude investment treaty talks  • Major news items in leading German newspapers  • Saudi pledges distance education for one million Yemenis  • News Analysis: More financial support expected for China's real economy  
You are here: 　 Home

Spotlight: Queen Elizabeth II makes front pages as Britain prepares to decide on EU membership

Xinhua, June 22, 2016 Adjust font size:

Buckingham Palace was forced on Wednesday to insist that Queen Elizabeth II did not take part in politics after two of Britain's big selling morning newspapers brought the monarch into the Brexit discussion.

On the eve of the polling day in the British referendum on EU membership, both the Daily Express and the country's top selling tabloid, the Sun, published reports the monarch had been quizzing her dinner quests about the benefits of the European Union.

In what is the last day of campaigning ahead of Thursday's historic vote, both sides were making their final efforts to win over the millions of people yet to decide how to vote.

The Daily Express carries the headline "Queen issues EU challenge to dinner guests: Give me three 'good reasons' to stay in the EU'."

The paper said the Queen's biographer Robert Lacey revealed the monarch's alleged comments and said she had also been asking people "why Britain should be part of Europe?"

Lacey was quoted as saying, "the palace has been careful not to define her views, nor to deny that her sympathies might, on occasions, like those of many of her subjects, have veered towards Brexit."

A similar report made the front page of the Sun.

In response to the reports, a Buckingham Palace spokesman said Wednesday: "The Queen is above politics and acts on the advice of her government in political matters. The referendum is a matter for the British people to decide."

Meanwhile, more than 1,280 executives, including directors from 51 companies of the FTSE 100, Britain's benchmark stock market gauge, signed a letter published in the London Times newspaper, backing Britain's membership of the EU. The Remain campaign said the letter showed "unprecedented" support from across business and finance.

Leave supporter Daniel Hannan, a Conservative MEP (Member of the European Parliament) said Wednesday the business community in Britain was divided on EU membership, with the exception of the "mega banks and the large multinationals."

Most of the polling organizations continued to report that the outcome result of the EU debate was too close to call. Endit