The ten days of obsequies for Queen Elizabeth II in September cost British taxpayers £161.7m (200 million dollars / about 3 thousand 553 million Mexican pesos), according to figures published on Thursday by the United Kingdom Treasury.
The monarch died on September 8, 2022, at the age of 96, in her Scottish castle of Balmoral. From there, his coffin was transferred to the Scottish capital Edinburgh, for a first funeral chapel, before being exposed to the public in London for five days in Westminster Hall, the oldest room in the British Parliament, where hundreds of thousands of people filed through. .
The state funeral was held on September 19 at Westminster Abbey, before 2,000 guests., including hundreds of foreign dignitaries and leaders. Afterward, there was a private ceremony at Windsor Castle, some 25 miles west of London, where the queen was buried alongside her parents and her husband, Prince Philip.
According to a written statement by Principal Secretary of the Treasury, John Glen, to Parliament, the total cost was 161 million 743 thousand pounds. “The government’s priority was to ensure these events ran smoothly,” “while ensuring the safety of the public,” he said.
The largest expenditure item corresponds to the Ministry of the Interior, with 73.68 million pounds. Thousands of police officers were deployed across the UK during the 10 days of national mourning. They are followed by the Ministry of Culture and Media, with 57.42 million pounds, and the Scottish Home Rule Government, with 18.75 million pounds.
The figures related to the coronation of King Carlos III on May 6 have not yet been made public. The anti-monarchist group Republic calculated that it cost at least 100 million pounds to the public coffersat a time when British taxpayers are facing a serious cost of living crisis, due to inflation that does not fall below 10%.
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