TOP secret plans to evacuate the Queen from London were drawn up over fears Brits could riot in the event of a No Deal Brexit.
Civil servants plotted the monarch’s escape to a private location earlier this year.
Government chiefs drew up plans to evacuate the Queen from London in the event of riots sparked by a No Deal Brexit, it was revealed
Whitehall officials planned to take the monarch to a top secret location if necessary
But today, Boris Johnson is preparing to announce a historic deal with the EU after years of negotiations
She’d have been joined by other senior royals, including her husband, if negotiations between the UK and the EU failed.
The Queen – who is politically neutral on all matters – has decamped from Buckingham Palace to Windsor Castle for much of the year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh are still in the historic royal fortress in Berkshire, being cared for by a reduced household of staff in ‘HMS Bubble’.
But Government chiefs had planned to rush the couple to safety if necessary.
The proposals were leaked last year – and led to accusations that Whitehall jobsworths has taken Project Fear to extraordinary new heights.
The scheme was a ‘re-purposed’ version of a secret operation dreamt up during the Cold War to move the royal family to safety should enemy forces land in Britain.
Royals would have been dispersed to country houses and even the royal yacht Britannia under that scheme – originally named Operation Candid.
Officials in the Civil Contingencies Secretariat, the Government department responsible for emergency planning, envisaged riots as a worst-case – but real – possibility.
At the time, leading Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg called the plans a “wartime fantasy”.
He said: “The over-excited officials who have dreamt up this nonsense are clearly more students of fantasy than of history.”
Officials predicted riots breaking out if shops ran low on staple foods as a result of No Deal potentially hampering shipments.
But today, Boris Johnson is expected to address the nation as the UK stands on the brink of a deal with the EU.
Negotiators went down to the wire over details on fishing.
The historic pact, set to be sealed hours before Christmas, will allow us to trade freely with the EU without tariffs or quotas and brings to an end four bitter years of wrangling.
The Queen and the PM usually speak every Wednesday, with the monarch able to “advise and warn” Mr Johnson when necessary.
The Queen was dragged into a constitutional row during her summer holiday in August 2019 amid Westminster’s bitter Brexit battles when Mr Johnson asked her to suspend Parliament for more than a month.
She spoke publicly about the split for the first time during a state visit by King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands in October 2018, telling him that “as we look toward a new partnership with Europe” the values shared by the UK and the Netherlands “are our greatest assets”.
The Queen will spend a quiet Christmas at Windsor Castle this year due to the coronavirus pandemic
Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh are being cared for by a reduced household of staff
