Around half of Britons do not think taxpayers should fund the coronation, a YouGov poll suggests, even though King Charles’s enthronement will be on a smaller scale than his predecessors.
The coronation occurs amid a cost-of-living crisis and public-sector strikes in the UK. The YouGov poll found one in two (51 per cent) of 4,246 adults surveyed on April 18 oppose government funding of the event.
Nearly a third, 32 per cent, said they supported funding the event, while around 18 per cent did not know.
The long weekend of celebrations includes a Westminster Abbey ceremony on Saturday, May 6, a Windsor Castle concert on Sunday, May 7, and an extra bank holiday on Monday, May 8.
Unlike weddings, which are paid for by the Royal Family, the event, including a vast security operation, could cost more than £50 million (US$62m, €56.8m).
The coronation of Charles’ mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, cost £1.5 million ($1.9m, €1.7m) in 1953 — £56.2 million ($70m, €63.8m) in today’s money, according to the Official Data Foundation’s CPI Inflation Calculator.
Charles’ grandfather George VI was crowned at the cost of £454,000 ($564.4m, €515.7m) in 1937, which is worth £39.5 million ($49m, €44.9m) in 2023.
A YouGov poll on April 13 found that just nine per cent of 3,070 adults surveyed “cared a great deal” about the forthcoming coronation. Another 24 per cent said they “cared a fair amount,” while almost two in three people -- 64 per cent -- cared “not very much” or “not at all.”
