Labour MP slams King Charles in video message to Joe Biden - 'Grotesque disparities'

A Labour MP has publicly invited Joe Biden to watch how own video criticising King Charles's alleged £1.8billion personal fortune at a time when three million children are living in poverty in the UK.

Clive Lewis, Labour MP for Norwich South and a long-standing republican, tweeted the American president as he headed to Windsor for an audience with the newly-crowned king.

The pair were believed to be planning to discuss climate change and environmental issues.

Biden had already met with Rishi Sunak in Downing Street earlier on Monday ahead of a Nato summit to discuss the Ukraine war.

Anti-monarchist Lewis appealed for the US president to watch the scathing video in which he describes the Royal Family as an institution "that makes grotesque disparities of wealth and power seem normal".

"Hey @JoeBiden," he wrote. "I heard you're meeting our very own King Charles today... Give this a watch, you'll be surprised how much you can learn in 94 seconds!"

The video has already accrued almost 100,000 views since it was first posted ahead of Charles' coronation in May.

In it, Lewis, who made the video to encourage people to sign his petition calling for an end to royal exemptions - where the monarch has immunity from British laws - says: "We've a monarchy that's exempted itself from 160 different pieces of legislation - everything from animal welfare to workers' rights."

He goes on to say that exemptions from tax meant Charles has amassed a fortune of almost £2billion, and adds: "And this at a time when almost three million children, his subjects, face abject poverty."

He continues: "Our monarchy isn't a social glue. Rather, it's a gilded veneer, that makes grotesque disparities of wealth and power seem normal."

He likened the pomp of the coronation to the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale The Emperor's New Clothes and asked people watching it to consider if they could "really afford not to care".

Lewis has been outspoken on his desire for the UK to move to having an elected head of state.

In May he wrote an article for the Guardian newspaper calling on Keir Starmer to commit to a reform of the monarchy if he gets into power.

Buckingham Palace previously said of the reports into Charles' wealth - that first appeared in the Guardian: "While we do not comment on private finances, your figures are a highly creative mix of speculation, assumption and inaccuracy.”