The Queen successfully lobbied the government to change a draft law in order to conceal her “embarrassing” private wealth from the public, according to documents discovered by the Guardian. A series of government memos from the National Archives reveal that Elizabeth Windsor’s private lawyer pressured ministers to alter proposed legislation to prevent her shareholdings from being disclosed.
Following the Queen’s intervention in the 1970s, the government inserted a clause into the law granting itself the power to exempt companies used by “heads of state” from new transparency measures. This effectively created a state-backed shell corporation that placed a veil of secrecy over the Queen’s private shareholdings and investments until at least 2011.
The documents were uncovered as part of a Guardian investigation into the royal family’s use of an arcane parliamentary procedure known as Queen’s consent, which gives the monarch advance sight of bills and the ability to secretly lobby for legislative changes. Constitutional experts say this reveals influence over legislation that lobbyists would only dream of.
In November 1973, the Queen feared that a proposed companies bill would allow public scrutiny of her finances. Her private lawyer, Matthew Farrer of Farrer & Co, visited civil servants to press for an exemption. Internal correspondence shows Farrer argued that disclosure of the Queen’s shareholdings would be “embarrassing”.
