London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 15, 2025

As the jubilee bunting comes down, what next for the Queen’s reign?

As the jubilee bunting comes down, what next for the Queen’s reign?

Analysis: the Queen’s age means a reduction in duties, and succession planning is well under way

As the bunting comes down after the long weekend of platinum jubilee celebrations, many in Buckingham Palace will breathe a sigh of relief that the increasingly frail 96-year-old Queen made it to the extra bank holiday declared in her honour.

But behind the scenes, succession planning is well under way. It was ever thus. There are few other jobs in public life where the incumbent knows who will replace them before they even start, but that has been the Queen’s reality since she gave birth to Prince Charles in 1948.

Unlike the Queen, Charles has known from birth that he will be the monarch, with the late Spike Milligan jokily referring to him as the “trainee king”.

His mother’s age has meant a significant reduction in her royal duties and appearances over the past year. Scaling back the ceremonial duties is relatively straightforward with a large enough rota of royals to go on state visits, give out the honours and open the libraries.

Winding down the constitutional duties is less straightforward. Only the Queen can, for example, give assent to parliamentary bills or meet the prime minister every week. They are purely formal duties, in that the Queen would never not sign a parliamentary bill, but they are hugely important.

“It would be a revolutionary act to refuse assent,” said Vernon Bogdanor, professor of government at King’s College, London and author of The Monarchy and the Constitution. “But nevertheless no bill passed by parliament becomes law until the Queen gives assent. Only she can do it.”

Among the options for how things might play out is that the Queen abdicates to see her son become King Charles III.

Not one royal expert thinks that is on the cards. She lived through the abdication of 1936 when her uncle gave up the throne in order to marry Wallis Simpson. She saw her adored, reluctant, unprepared father become King George VI and it was “very traumatic” for the whole family, said Bogdanor.

No one can see the Queen doing what her uncle did, even if the circumstances are vastly different. Not least that once you say being monarch is a matter of choice then the whole thing loses its reason for being.

“It would be a bit like having a president,” said Bogdanor. “Who is the best person to be president? We’re not asking, in our system, who is the best person to be head of state. It is beyond argument.”

She also made an often repeated oath on her 21st birthday, in 1947: “I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.”

Bogdanor said: “She is a very strong Christian believer and she does not break an oath she has made.”

One of the reasons it has been difficult for the Queen to come to terms with Prince Harry standing down as a working royal is, experts say, because she does not see it as a role you can simply stop doing.

Another alternative would be a regency, again unlikely. For that to happen three of four people – the lord chancellor (Dominic Raab), the Speaker of the House of Commons (Lindsay Hoyle), the lord chief justice (Lord Burnett of Maldon) and the master of the rolls (Sir Geoffrey Vos) – would have to declare in writing that they are satisfied the monarch is “by reason of infirmity of mind or body incapable for the time being of performing the royal functions”.

A regent, presumably Charles, could then perform those duties.

The Queen, 96, is experiencing episodic mobility problems but no one is saying she is losing her mental capacity.

The most likely scenario, said Bogdanor, is the use of mechanisms that exist in the case of temporary incapacity of the monarch. These allow members of the council of state – the four adults closest in line to the throne, so Charles, William, Harry and Andrew – to carry out duties including giving assent to bills and appointing ambassadors.

It could not have blanket powers, though: the council of state is not able to, for example, give the royal assent to any matter in which provision is made in the Act of Settlement, dating from 1701.

By far the most likely and obvious scenario in the game of “what next” is that Charles succeeds to the throne after the death of his mother.

“Unlike the Queen, he has known from birth that he would be king and is, therefore, in my view, extremely well-prepared for it,” said Bogdanor.

That is in stark contrast to his grandfather, George VI, who had not even read a state paper before becoming king.

“I think the affection for the Queen and the respect for her will transfer to the Prince of Wales when he becomes king. His speeches and actions will all be on advice.

“He won’t be able to make controversial comments about architecture, shall we say. He will say what ministers advise him to say.

“The role of the monarchy will change a bit because he is a different person.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Erika Kirk Delivers Moving Tribute at White House as Trump Awards Charlie Presidential Medal of Freedom
British Food Influencer ‘Big John’ Detained in Australia After Visa Dispute
ScamBodia: The Chinese Fraud Empire Shielded by Cambodia’s Ruling Elite
French PM Suspends Macron’s Pension Reform Until After 2027 in Bid to Stabilize Government
Orange, Bouygues and Free Make €17 Billion Bid for Drahi’s Altice France Telecom Assets
Dutch Government Seizes Chipmaker After U.S. Presses for Removal of Chinese CEO
Bessent Accuses China of Dragging Down Global Economy Amid New Trade Curbs
U.S. Revokes Visas of Foreign Nationals Who ‘Celebrated’ Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
AI and Cybersecurity at Forefront as GITEX Global 2025 Kicks Off in Dubai
DJI Loses Appeal to Remove Pentagon’s ‘Chinese Military Company’ Label
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Australian Prime Minister’s Private Number Exposed Through AI Contact Scraper
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Australia Faces Demographic Risk as Fertility Falls to Record Low
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
×