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Queen Elizabeth II, 94, is head of the Commonwealth and sovereign of 15 of its 54 countries, in addition to the UK. Barbados recently declared its wish to become a republic in a move that may have shocked royalists but it is unlikely to have surprised the Queen, a constitutional expert has claimed.

On Wednesday the Caribbean nation announced its intention to remove the Queen as its head of state next year in a speech written by Barbados’s Prime Minister Mia Mottley.

The address read: “This is the ultimate statement of confidence in who we are and what we are capable of achieving.”

And the country’s government said: “The time has come to fully leave our colonial past behind.”

This is not the first time Barbados has expressed its wish to become a republic.

The shift to independence has previously been made by other former British colonies including Guyana in 1970, Trinidad and Tobago in 1976 and Dominica in 1978.

Following Wednesday’s declaration, a Buckingham Palace source said it was a matter for the government and people of Barbados.

Asked how the Queen may be affected by the change a constitutional expert has claimed she will have to keep her personal feelings under wraps and put “constitutional necessity” first.

Constitutional expert Iain MacMarthanne told Express.co.uk: “Since the demise of the empire, multiple former colonies have become independent and republics.”

Mr MacMarthanne added:”Many have sought new relationships with the United Kingdom that recognise their colonial past whilst moving on to forge a new identity for themselves.

“Frequently this has amounted to these nations retaining an association through the Commonwealth.”

Mauritius was the last Caribbean nation to drop the Queen as its head of state in 1992.

According to the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent James Landale, the global Black Lives Matter movement sparked by the death of African American George Floyd could be part of the reason Barbados has now expressed its wish to “leave our colonial past behind.”

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However, many of the countries that have become republics in the past have kept up their ties to the Commonwealth.

Mr MacMarthanne said: “Given the frequency of nations doing this throughout the Queen’s reign it is unlikely to come as a shock, not least, because in the case of Barbados, it has been mooted as a possibility for decades.

“As was the case with Australia in 1999, it will be for the people of Barbados and their government to decide terms and when any split occurs.

“Whatever the Queen’s personal views might be on the matter they are secondary to the constitutional necessity of her following the advice of her ministers, both here in the United Kingdom, and in her other realms, which presently include Barbados.”

The Queen and Prince Philip, 99, recently arrived at Sandringham after holidaying for several weeks at their traditional summer haunt Balmoral Castle.

The Duke of Edinburgh has been based mainly at Wood Farm on the Sandringham Estate since his retirement from public life in 2017.

The couple are expected to spend two more weeks together in Norfolk before the Queen gets back to work next month.

The Queen is expected to make Windsor Castle her official base in future and the coronavirus pandemic makes Buckingham Palace in London as less viable option.

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