The Queen cancels royal Christmas lunch as Covid cases continue to rise
16 December 2021, 11:45
The Queen has been forced to cancel her Christmas party due to rising Covid cases in the UK.
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The Queen has reportedly cancelled her annual Christmas lunch due to rising Covid cases in the UK.
While the monarch was weighing up whether she could hold the family get together next week, she has now decided to scrap the plans.
A senior palace source told the Mirror: “The pre-Christmas family lunch will not be going ahead.
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“The decision is a precautionary one as it is felt to put too many people’s Christmas arrangements at risk if it went ahead.
“While there is regret that it is cancelled, there is a belief it is the right thing to do for all concerned.”
It’s thought the Queen still intends on hosting her immediate family at Sandringham on Christmas Day.
The Queen’s lunch is usually a grand affair, with around 70 members of The Royal Family attending 2019's festivities.
And Mike Tindall, husband of the Queen's granddaughter Zara Tindall, previously revealed some sweet details about the lunch.
Speaking on his podcast, he said: "I was on Prince Charles's table, it was lovely."
He later added: "This is the family lunch, there were seven tables so there must have been about 70 of us there.
"The kiddies have their own little one in a different room."
This comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson assured England that he wasn’t bringing in any more Covid restrictions yet at his latest Covid briefing.
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But the Prime Minister did say it was going to be increasingly important that ‘people take more precautions’.
Professor Chris Whitty urged people to be responsible and help halt the spread of the virus by ensuring ‘really good ventilation’, meeting outdoors and taking tests before seeing friends and family.
He said: "Don't mix with people you don't have to for either work or family things, only for things that really matter to you."
Meanwhile, the Queen will still be heading to Sandringham, Norfolk, where she is due to spend Christmas Day with her loved ones.
This will be the first year she will not have Prince Philip by her side, after the royal sadly passed away in April this year.
