Queen Elizabeth breaks silence on Brexit in her own queen-like way
- She told the king and queen of the Netherlands that Britain was looking ‘toward a new partnership with Europe’
- The queen is famously impartial on political matters
For the first time since the 2016 Brexit vote, Queen Elizabeth has spoken out on the contentious issue of Britain’s upcoming exit from the European Union.
But she did it in a very uncontentious way. This queen does not do politics. That’s the key to her staying power: she rules by not ruling.
And so it was that on Tuesday evening, she referred to Brexit in an oblique way. She told the king and queen of the Netherlands that Britain was looking “toward a new partnership with Europe” and that shared values between Britain and Europe are “our greatest asset”.
Was she expressing a tinge of Remainer regret? Or is she a confident Brexiteer? As ever with Britain’s inscrutable monarch, it was impossible to know. That didn’t stop people from assuming that she was on their side.
“The Queen’s a Leaver,” said one Twitter user.
Another wrote that: “The Queen, using carefully chosen words, has expressed her opinion on the brexit disaster that is being forced upon the UK.”