Even the Queen's summer break is in doubt

EXCLUSIVE: LOCKDOWN LIFE OF THE ROYALS

- Richard Palmer Royal Correspondent

THE Queen is considering cancelling her annual summer stay at Balmoral for the first time in her 68-year reign.

She and the Duke of Edinburgh still have their plans on ice while they await developments in Government guidance for people of their age.

There is a growing feeling inside their circle that the monarch’s usual 11 or 12-week stay on the 50,000acre estate on Royal Deeside in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, will not happen this year.

Other members of the Royal Family have holes in their diary where a visit to the Highlands might have been pencilled in and some courtiers still believe that flying the 94-year-old monarch and Philip, who celebrated his 99th birthday earlier their month, up to Balmoral in a helicopter or small plane remains feasible.

But the arguments in favour of staying at Windsor Castle, where the Queen and Philip have been with a group of around 20 isolating staff in a bubble since March 19 because of the coronavirus pandemic, are increasingly holding sway.

There is the worry of upheaval for the couple, who are in a vulnerable age group and expected to avoid social contact as much as possible.

But there is also the need for the court to move up to Aberdeenshire with them, a complicated process that takes some organisation and usually involves transporting equipment and possessions in removal vans. However, the key factor is what the Queen and Philip will do when they get there.