Overview

• The Times is serialising Valentine Low’s Power and the Palace, based on nearly 100 interviews, which attributes to the late Queen the remarks “We shouldn’t leave the EU” and “It’s better to stick with the devil you know” three months before the referendum.
• Sources quoted in the book say she regarded European integration as part of the postwar settlement yet expressed irritation with Brussels bureaucracy, reportedly calling some of it “ridiculous.”
• Buckingham Palace has refused to respond to the claims in line with its policy of not engaging with biographies, and the book is scheduled for full publication on September 11.
• The book reports that palace and Whitehall officials edited out overtly political phrasing from the Queen’s Speech, including the Brexit slogan “take back control,” with similar tweaks during Boris Johnson’s premiership.
• David Cameron is cited as having known of her private leanings but keeping them out of the Remain campaign; the coverage also revisits IPSO’s finding that The Sun’s 2016 “Queen Backs Brexit” headline was significantly misleading.