Like many, Britain’s queen will also not get a pay hike, at least till elections next year. According to the Daily Express, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has told the queen, she will have to wait until after the general elections to discuss her bid for a rise in her £7.9 million a year Civil List payment. Brown has decided not to fix a new 10-year deal covering the queen’s costs, fearing that the plea for a huge pay rise over the next 10 years could become an election issue, the report said.
Senior Royal aides have been pressing for a 100 per cent increase in the annual amount the queen receives, arguing that her spending on her official state duties is currently around £15 million a year. The queen has been repeatedly rebuffed in her bids for an increase in the additional £15 million a year she receives from the British government to maintain her crumbling palaces and deal with a £44 million repairs backlog.