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The Queen and her courtiers are expected to raise money for the crown themselves “in various ways” to avoid taking more from taxpayers, according to a royal commentator. This comes after the monarchy’s annual expenditure report revealed a major shortfall in Royal Family finances this year. Richard Fitzwilliams spoke to Express.co.uk about why there had been such a drop in income for the Palace.

He said: “Yes, there will be a very substantial shortfall in the Buckingham Palace accounts.

“The expectation is that that will be met, so far as is possible, by various ‘efforts and efficiencies’, according to their own briefing.

“Broadly speaking, the anticipation is that the Palace will be some £35million short, but they won’t be asking for extra public money.

“Property rentals and facility management are part of the royal accounts that bring in £17.8million.”

Mr Fitzwilliams continued: “That income doesn’t come from the taxpayer, it comes from various amounts that the Palace is able to raise themselves in various ways.

“That is one of the ways they intend to plug this deficit.

“The accounts 2019 to 2020, didn’t really contain a great deal of the period which was covered by the pandemic.

“So what we’re doing is looking forward to 2021.”

The royal commentator added: “It is expected that the taxpayer won’t be paying extra.

“What we’ve found, with reference to the headlines on this, is that South Africa was the most expensive royal tour of the year.

“In the sense that that was news, royal tours abroad are expensive.”

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Mr Fitzwilliams gave further insight into the importance of royal tours, and, in particular, the Sussexes’ South Africa visit.

He told Express.co.uk: “In my opinion, it’s not too fair to pick that figure out.

“You basically represent the Queen, there’s the goodwill element.

“There’s a very important element with trade and a very important element with culture.

“In the case of this tour, Harry went to Angola and there was the homage to Diana.”

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex embarked on a tour of several African nations last October in what marked the last major event abroad they undertook on behalf of the Queen before announcing they would step down in March.

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