The Tribune

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS

Tribune Staff Reporter

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

FOREIGN Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell cannot say how much King Charles III’s visit will cost taxpayers, but insists the spending will not “break the bank” as the monarch arrives in The Bahamas today.

Mr Mitchell, one of the country’s most outspoken advocates for a republic, said that as a government minister he is bound to receive the King, who remains head of state, despite his personal view that The Bahamas should drop the monarchy.

“I personally am for a republic,” he reiterated yesterday. “But the fact is, that’s the constitutional arrangement we have.”

Mr Mitchell said he found it ironic that these arguments were being made. He said the spending was appropriate for a visit by the King of The Bahamas, and that whatever was needed to make the visit a success would be done. That includes security fitting for an international figure and ensuring the country puts its best foot forward.

He could not give a total cost or say whether the expenses had been itemised.

“There’s no figure, and I’m not sure whether or not that’s been disaggregated or not,” Mr Mitchell said.

His comments come after Finance Minister Michael Halkitis told The Tribune last month that the government had yet to determine its contribution towards the visit. Mr Halkitis said government agencies were still calculating the expenses, and that costs were expected to be shared between the government and the Sovereign Grant, the British taxpayer-funded allowance that covers the monarch’s official duties. He could not say how much the government would pay.

The King’s Caribbean tour begins in The Bahamas today and runs until November 4. After leaving The Bahamas, he is scheduled to make a state visit to Guyana before travelling to Antigua and Barbuda, where he and Queen Camilla will attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

It will be King Charles’ first visit to The Bahamas since succeeding Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, and only his second visit to the country. He last came in 1973, when he represented his mother at the Independence celebrations.

The visit has drawn criticism from the Bahamas National Reparations Committee, which has opposed taxpayers funding royal visits in light of Britain’s history of slavery and colonialism. The committee has demanded an apology for slavery and colonisation, renewed its call for The Bahamas to become a republic, and urged the government to stop preparing for royal visits and leaving taxpayers to cover the bill.

Buckingham Palace said earlier this month that the King would not shy away from Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade during the tour, but would not formally apologise.

The cost has also been raised in Parliament. Last week, Killarney MP Michela Barnett-Ellis asked why it took the King’s visit to get roads repaired while Bahamians “keep begging for the basics”. Mr Mitchell responded satirically in the House of Assembly, telling her the King was coming to “his territory, so don’t complain”.

The government earmarked $636,194 for expenses associated with the March 2022 visit by Prince William and Catherine, then the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. The spending covered security, accommodation, events, charter flights and other arrangements.