Queen’s Christmas lunch cancelled due to Covid fears

The cancellation comes amid the rapid spread of Omicron, the new Covid-19 variant

Kate Ng
Thursday 16 December 2021 14:45 GMT
Comments
Related video: The Queen counts down to Christmas at Sandringham

Your support helps us to tell the story

This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.

The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.

Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.

The Queen has cancelled her traditional pre-Christmas family lunch next week.

It is understood the decision was a precaution amid the rapid spread of Omicron, the new variant of Covid-19.

ITV’s royal correspondent Chris Ship has suggested the event could put too many people’s Christmas arrangements at risk if it went ahead.

He added: “The Queen is said to regret the decision to cancel the traditional pre-Christmas lunch with her family. But it was decided it was the right thing to do.”

It comes after the UK recorded its highest daily number of positive Covid-19 cases since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

On Wednesday, 78,610 new cases of coronavirus were recorded, more than 10,000 more than the previous record for daily infections.

The previous record came during the peak last winter, when 68,053 infections were reported on 8 January.

The Queen, who usually holds a pre-Christmas family lunch each year for her extended family, was set to go ahead with the traditional meal on Tuesday 21 December.

The lunch is attended by her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, as well as her cousins the Gloucesters, the Duke of Kent and the Michaels of Kent. The lunch takes place before she departs Buckingham Palace for her annual Christmas stay in Sandringham.

Last year, the lunch was cancelled due to lockdown restrictions.

This Christmas will be the Queen’s first since her husband, Prince Philip, died in April this year.

The Queen and Philip spent Christmas Day 2020 together at Windsor, without the rest of the family, after spending most of the year being cared for by a reduced number of staff in what was dubbed “HMS Bubble”.

The decision to cancel this year’s pre-Christmas lunch also comes after Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, urged the public to cut back on socialising in the run-up to the big day.

In a Downing Street press conference on Wednesday alongside the prime minister, Boris Johnson, Whitty said: “Don’t mix with people you don’t have to.

“I really think people should be prioritising those things – and only those things – that really matter to them,” he added.

“Because otherwise the risk of someone getting infected at something that doesn’t really matter to them and then not being able to do the things that matter to them obviously goes up.”

The Independent has contacted Buckingham Palace for a statement.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in