While Tom Parker Bowles is not royal, his mother is literally the queen consort of the United Kingdom. One would think that his mother’s position would ensure that her only son shows more restraint in expressing political opinions in public. That is not the case. Tom attended the Cigar Smoker of the Year Awards this week (which a real thing for posh blokes), and he railed against Britain’s current Labour government. Guess why? Because of taxes. Taxes which… his mother and stepfather do not pay. Taxes which support the Windsors.

The Queen’s son has attacked the “useless” Labour Government. Tom Parker Bowles said on Monday that Labour was implementing a “politics of envy” after raising taxes in the Budget last week.

Sir Keir Starmer insisted he and Rachel Reeves had not misled anyone over the size of the country’s fiscal shortfall before the announcement. The Prime Minister continuously defended the Chancellor against accusations that she lied to the public and the markets about the need for higher taxes. However, Sir Keir failed to convince Parker Bowles, who voiced his anger towards them while hosting the Boisdale Xerjoff Cigar Smoker of the Year Awards.

The food writer and restaurant critic told attendees at Boisdale in Canary Wharf, London: “We’re here, back again, bruised, battered and perhaps destroyed, almost, by the sovereign functions of a Government so useless, they cannot even be bothered to lie properly. We’re still standing, of course, as we smoke f-gs and cigars, and drink, we have a good time. We mustn’t let the politics of envy sully what is one of the most glorious and lovely nights of the year.”

He handed Randolph Leonard Spencer-Churchill – the great-grandson of Winston Churchill – the Cigar Smoker of the Year award at the event, succeeding Piers Morgan, last year’s winner.

On Monday, Sir Keir claimed that a shortfall of £16bn had contributed to the Chancellor’s decision to launch a £30bn tax raid. Sir Keir insisted there was “no misleading” despite Ms Reeves suggesting in the weeks before the Budget that she may have to raise income tax because of the dire state of the public finances. The Prime Minister also criticised the Office for Budget Responsibility and suggested its gloomy review of productivity had forced the Chancellor into making difficult decisions.

[From The Telegraph]

If I’m being honest, I think it would be very difficult to avoid politics as a royal-adjacent, especially when it comes to civil rights, women’s rights and reproductive rights. But it feels like Tom touched the third rail here – of all of the untouchable political conversations to have a royal-adjacent (the son of the queen consort, for goodness sake), he’s going to talk about TAXES? Given everything we know about royal finances and royal slumlord duchies and the royals profiteering off prisons, the NHS and vital emergency services? Given the vast amount of royal land which is inherited tax free? It’s insane. The Starmer government should introduce the Parker-Bowles tax on the royals and their estates.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.