![\"Prince](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1343482_7390797_Untitled-2_updates.jpg\")
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Prince William\u2019s bold talk on challenging ministers may rattle Westminster<\/p>\n
Prince William could find himself sailing into \u201cconstitutionally choppy waters\u201d if he follows through on private remarks about how he might one day approach the role of monarch, a leading royal author has suggested.<\/p>\n
In his new book Power and the Palace, Valentine Low points to a 2021 Sunday Times profile that reported William had confided to friends that, once King, he would take a more \u201crobust\u201d line in questioning the advice of prime ministers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to the profile, William hinted that his reign would see \u201cmore private, robust challenging of advice\u201d compared to the famously hands off approach of his late grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, who remained strictly above politics throughout her 70 year reign.<\/p>\n
The suggestion of a more assertive monarch is said to have emerged from the stormy days of 2019, when the Prime Minister Boris Johnson sent Jacob Rees-Mogg to Balmoral to secure the Queen\u2019s consent to prorogue Parliament.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That episode left the monarchy caught in political controversy that William may be keen to handle differently when his turn comes.<\/p>\n
Speaking to GB News, the royal author reflected on the claim\u00a0that William told friends he would bring \u201cmore private, robust challenging of advice\u201d once on the throne.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, that\u2019s what he has supposedly told friends,\u201d Low said, before recalling the reaction of one senior Whitehall figure. \u201cThey said, If you think about it for just 30 seconds, that\u2019s a stupid thing to say.\u201d<\/p>\n
Low questioned whether William had run the comment past his advisers, noting that in Britain\u2019s constitutional framework, a prime minister\u2019s advice to the sovereign is not mere guidance but an instruction.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you start questioning it or saying, Why are you advising me that? I think that could cause all sorts of problems. It could certainly lead to a very bumpy relationship between King and Prime Minister, King and Government,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n
The potential fallout, he added, would depend on the balance of power at the time. \u201cIf the monarchy has the upper hand, and they start challenging advice, that could be really, really stormy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But if the Government\u2019s strong, there\u2019s no way they could challenge advice. They\u2019d just have to do what they\u2019re told.\u201d<\/p>\n
By contrast, King Charles III has gone \u201cout of his way to be accommodating\u201d to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, Low noted keen to counter his earlier reputation as a \u201cmeddling Prince of Wales.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prince William\u2019s bold talk on challenging ministers may rattle Westminster Prince William could find himself sailing into \u201cconstitutionally…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[7709,7714,7713,533,2832,532,2831,7710,519,7711,7712],"class_list":{"0":"post-422802","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-british-royal-family","9":"tag-catherine","10":"tag-catherine-middleton","11":"tag-kate-middleton","12":"tag-prince-of-wales","13":"tag-prince-william","14":"tag-princess-of-wales","15":"tag-royal-families","16":"tag-royal-family","17":"tag-uk-royal-family","18":"tag-william"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115200755238043733","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}