{"id":42904,"date":"2025-04-23T04:28:11","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T04:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/42904\/"},"modified":"2025-04-23T04:28:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T04:28:11","slug":"heres-what-would-actually-happen-if-britain-became-a-republic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/42904\/","title":{"rendered":"Here’s what would actually happen if Britain became a republic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nonetheless, support for the royal family is in steady decline. Back in 1983, 86% of Brits said that it was important for Britain to have a monarchy<\/a>, a proportion that has since reduced to a little more than a half.<\/p>\n

So what would a republic look like \u2013 and what would it mean for England and the union?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

How likely is it that the UK will become a republic?<\/p>\n

No major political party currently backs abolishing the monarchy. Without political will, a transition is very unlikely, but support for a republic has increased in recent years. Some 80% of those over 65 support the monarchy \u2013 but only 30% of 18\u201324-year-olds believe the royal family is good for Britain, a recent YouGov poll showed<\/a>, with 40% preferring an elected head of state.<\/p>\n

If we did vote for a republic, it would be a complex process. Legally, the UK would need to pass an act of parliament to end the monarchy and replace the head of state. This would likely require a public referendum first, given the scale of the change.<\/p>\n

The political system would have to be rewritten: powers currently exercised by the monarch \u2013 such as appointing the prime minister or dissolving parliament \u2013 would need to be reassigned, likely to a president or another figure, who would assume the symbolic duties involving treaties, the armed forces and the Church of England.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s complicated, but not impossible.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOur preferred model includes an elected head of state, one who has limited constitutional powers and responsibilities but not political power. They would be directly elected,\u201d said Smith. \u201cThe Irish model is closest to what we envisage and it\u2019s used in a number of European countries. Those republics work very well and they also give their citizens the chance to elect interesting and inspiring people like Michael D Higgins (a statesman and poet who is currently Ireland\u2019s president) or Iceland\u2019s Vigd\u00eds Finnbogad\u00f3ttir (the first woman in the world to be democratically elected president of a country).\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president would then take office on the first day of a republic. It\u2019s worth looking at the transition ceremonies in Barbados in 2022 as reference. If the decision includes a new constitution that would also be promulgated on the same day. Charles<\/a> and the family would move out of the palaces and the new head of state would move into their official residence.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what would happen to the palaces themselves?<\/p>\n

If Britain became a republic, most royal palaces would likely become public property. Buildings like Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, already owned by the state through the Crown<\/a> Estate, would probably be converted into museums, galleries, or state buildings. Privately owned residences such as Sandringham and Balmoral could remain the personal property of the former royal family, unless the government negotiated their transfer or imposed new taxes.<\/p>\n

They\u2019d probably become tourist attractions \u2013 Graham imagines \u201cturning the palaces into world class museums and galleries\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could imagine the Mall being pedestrianised,\u201d he added, \u201cand the whole area surrounding Buckingham Palace being used to celebrate British culture and history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth considering other uses. Last year, Big Issue crunched the numbers<\/a>, and found that Buckingham Palace alone could fit 1,974 studio flats into its 77,000 square metres. Using the same maths for Windsor Castle, Balmoral, the Palace of Holyrood and Sandringham, almost 3,500 people could have a home \u2013 making a not-insignificant dent in Britain\u2019s housing crisis.<\/p>\n

What would all this mean for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland? It\u2019s hard to say, says professor Gregor Gall of the University of Glasgow.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn Scotland, as the republican slogan has long been \u2018Citizens, not subjects!\u2019, this reflects a long held desire for a republic to also be about egalitarianism, so social justice<\/a> of some sort,\u201d he told Big Issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem is that in Scotland, the SNP \u2013 by far and away the largest and most successful but only now nominally pro-independence party \u2013 also favours retaining the monarchy and is not that radical in terms of social justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, the fight for a republic in Scotland does not feature heavily in domestic politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a republic in Scotland was to be achieved, it would be through independence given the position of Labour. It could then be quite radical but achieving it\/both is presently a very long shot,\u201d Gall added.<\/p>\n

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Indeed, abolishing the monarchy could help keep the union intact, speculated Smith.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe crown has been a symbol of division and English dominance in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. A republic would give us all a chance to choose a head of state, even choosing heads of state from different parts of the UK,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s quite possible Scotland would still become independent, and perhaps the head of state wouldn\u2019t make much difference, but it has the potential to reset relations between the constituent parts of the union.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, anyway, the royals aren\u2019t going anywhere. But the role of the monarchy in national identity feels increasingly open to debate. This St George\u2019s Day is a chance to reflect on that, says Smith \u2013 for England, and Britain more widely.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe already have plenty of myths and storytelling without the royals. Our modern foundational story is the second world war, and the royals don\u2019t really feature in that too much. Britain has a rich and complex history full of interesting, complicated and brilliant people who we can celebrate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this?\u00a0Get in touch and tell us more<\/a>.\u00a0Big Issue exists to give homeless and marginalised people the opportunity to earn an income.\u00a0To support our work buy a copy of the magazine<\/a>\u00a0or get the app from the\u00a0App Store<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Google Play<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nonetheless, support for the royal family is in steady decline. Back in 1983, 86% of Brits said that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[11246,748,393,4884,6333,1144,5105,519,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-42904","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-analysis","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-housing","15":"tag-northern-ireland","16":"tag-royal","17":"tag-royal-family","18":"tag-scotland","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114385394270851433","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42904","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=42904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}