King Charles's '£530m jewellery collection' fuels coronation criticism

An anti-monarchist group has hit out at King Charles's "vanity parade" coronation, after claims the monarch has a personal fortune of £1.8bn.

According to an extensive investigation by The Guardian, Charles's private wealth includes 54 jewels, many of which were acquired by Queen Elizabeth's grandmother Queen Mary, which are worth an estimated £530m. It also includes racehorses, private property, investments, a fleet of cars, and art.

A spokesperson for the King has dismissed the newspaper's estimate of the his personal wealth as "highly creative".

Campaign group Republic, which aims to abolish the British monarchy, said people looking at the report would likely be asking why they were expected to bear the cost of the 6 May coronation during a cost of living crisis when the Royal Family are more than capable of covering it themselves.

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"The coronation is pointless, it is his own vanity parade, and comes at an estimated cost of £100m, which he could easily pay given his personal wealth – which he doesn't pay inheritance tax on," Republic's Graham Smith told Yahoo News UK.

"There's more to it than money, but it does keep on costing us a lot of money. People will look at this figure and say, 'why do we put our hands in our pockets when you have so much money of your own, and you have that because you don't pay the taxes we do?' So it will annoy and upset a lot of people."

The coronation of King Charles and Queen Camilla is expected to cost around £100m, while Queen Elizabeth's coronation in 1953 cost £1.5m.

"In today’s money the 1953 coronation cost around £50m but estimates for King Charles’s are twice that because of things like security, which weren’t such a big issue back then," a source told The Sun.

“But worldwide TV rights will more than cover the cost and it will be a massive boost to tourism. Hotels are already being booked out for the coronation weekend.”

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And despite the huge financial outlay, a new poll suggests more than half of Brits aren't interested in the coronation.

The recent YouGov poll showed 52% of the public said they were not interested in the coronation, 29% said they were fairly interested and 15% said they were very interested.

A palace spokesperson also told the Guardian: "While we do not comment on private finances, your figures are a highly creative mix of speculation, assumption and inaccuracy."

The palace also said the king's personal finances should “remain private, as they do for any other individual”.

Yahoo News UK has contacted Buckingham Palace and the Guardian for comment, but neither has chosen to respond.