A new royal biography has claimed that Queen Elizabeth II quietly preferred Britain to remain in the European Union, despite her lifelong commitment to political neutrality in public.
According to the book Power and the Palace: The Inside Story of the Monarchy and 10 Downing Street by veteran royal correspondent Valentine Low, the late Queen expressed her concerns about Brexit in private conversations ahead of the 2016 referendum.
Three months before the vote, she reportedly told a senior government minister: “We shouldn’t leave the EU.” She is also said to have added: “It’s better to stick with the devil you know.”
The revelations, published in The Times, offer a rare glimpse into the Queen’s private views on one of the most divisive political issues of her reign. While she was said to have been frustrated at times with Brussels bureaucracy, insiders suggest she regarded the EU as part of the postwar settlement that encouraged peace and cooperation in Europe.
Former Prime Minister David Cameron, who worked closely with the Queen, reflected on her attitude: “She was so careful never to express a political view, but you always sensed that, like most of her subjects, she thought European co-operation was necessary and important, even if the EU institutions could be infuriating.”
These claims stand in stark contrast to the infamous Sun headline in 2016, “Queen Backs Brexit,” which alleged that she favoured leaving the bloc. Buckingham Palace lodged a complaint at the time, and Britain’s press watchdog ruled the headline “significantly misleading.”
As ever, the Palace has declined to comment on Low’s claims, maintaining its long-standing policy of staying silent on royal biographies.
Others who worked closely with the monarch have offered different perspectives. Former chancellor George Osborne recalled her candour in private conversations: “I was constantly astonished by how candid she was and that none of this ever came out. She’d be very forthright about individuals, even within her own family, and about what was happening in the country.”
Yet a senior royal source pushed back against the book’s claims, insisting that nobody—“not even her closest advisers”—ever truly knew what the Queen thought about major political questions like Brexit. They suggested that such reports often reflect the views of those recalling the conversations, rather than the Queen herself.
The issue of her neutrality flared again in 2019, when then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson advised the Queen to suspend Parliament in a bid to push Brexit through. The Supreme Court later ruled that prorogation unlawful, and questions were raised inside the Palace about whether the monarch had been fully briefed on the political and legal risks.
Whether or not she truly leaned toward Remain, what is clear is that Queen Elizabeth II managed, even through one of the most turbulent political eras in modern British history, to preserve her public image as a monarch above the political fray. Photo by ChiralJon, Wikimedia commons.
