King Charles and family cancel engagements following election announcement – live

The royal family has postponed engagements “which may appear to divert attention or distract from the election campaign” after Rishi Sunak called a surprise summer General Election.

Buckingham Palace said the King and Queen sent their “sincere apologies” to those affected, after Charles agreed on Wednesday to the Prime Minister’s request to dissolve Parliament for an election – for the first time in his reign.

The King and Queen’s D-Day 80th anniversary appearances in Portsmouth and Normandy in June are expected to go ahead as scheduled, but the announcement of a 4 July vote disrupted other events in the carefully planned forthcoming royal diaries.

A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said: “Following the Prime Minister’s statement this afternoon calling a General Election, the royal family will, in accordance with normal procedure, postpone engagements that may appear to divert attention or distract from the election campaign.

“Their Majesties send their sincere apologies to any of those who may be affected as a result.”

Declan Donnelly “broke” royal protocol when he told King Charles why Ant McPartlin was not present at today’s reception for Prince’s Trust award winners.

“I don’t know whether I broke royal protocol by giving that information,” he laughed.

Hemp, 23, was made an MBE at Windsor Castle today for her services to football, having served on England’s Lionesses team when they emerged victorious at the 2022 women’s European Championship.

“It was nerve-wracking, to be honest,” she told PA News Agency.

“We sat in a room and we got taught how to curtsy and what we needed to do to greet the prince, and I think just standing there and seeing him and being the next one to go was pretty scary.

“I managed to do my first-ever curtsy.”

The footballer, who also plays for Manchester, said they had a “really good” conversation about the sport.

“He’s really interested in football which is obviously great,” she said.

Sonia Boyce was made a dame at Windsor Castle today (22 May) after becoming the first black woman to be elected to the Royal Academy of Arts.

While accepting the honour, she took the opportunity to praise the arts as being “integral to everyday life”.

She told PA News Agency: “It’s (the damehood) a recognition of work that not only myself have done but has been done over the decades to just acknowledge and, I suppose, reward the contributions that many have done.

“So I feel very privileged – slightly shocked still – to be in this position and also to be an advocate for the arts.

“We so need that at the moment – the arts are just incredible, they’re not an add on, they’re integral to everyday life.

“The arts is really about if you’ve got something to say, or you’re envisaging something you’re in a dialogue with everybody about it, and so it really is about ‘Come and take part, come and add to the conversation, come and dream your dreams’.”

The poor weather in London did not dampen spirits at the most recent Buckingham Palace garden party.

The guests included farmers from the Dutchy of Cornwall, Julie and Matthew Hall, who Prince William sheltered under his umbrella.

Mrs Hall, from Bloomers Farm in north Dorset, later said: “We’re farmers, we’re used to the rain, and when we left this morning Dorset was in sunshine. It’s all the seasons in one day sometimes.”

The artist behind the newly unveiled portrait of Kate Middleton has explained why it has a blue background.

British-Zambian artist Hannah Uzor said the new portrait, which features on the upcoming edition of Tatler magazine, has a blue background to reflect the colour of Kate’s eyes.

The Princess of Wales is also a keen rower, and Uzor said this was something she also wanted to reflect in the painting.

“All my portraits are made up of layers of a personality, constructed from everything I can find about them,” she said.

The new portrait of the Princess of Wales from Tatler has had a mixed reaction online.

Painted by British-Zambian artist Hannah Uzor, it features the Princess in the white dress and accessories she wore to King Charles’s first state banquet.

The portrait is said to be inspired by the “courage and dignity” Kate showed when announcing her cancer diagnosis in March.

“Doesn’t look like Catherine at all,” wrote one Twitter (X) user. “[If] she wasn’t wearing that dress I’d have no clue as to who it’s meant to be.”

A second added: “This is dreadful – somehow, I’m not sure the artist is a fan of the Princess – it looks like a bad GCSE project!”

“I agree with the sentiments of strength and dignity but the portrait lacks any resemblance to the Princess of Wales,” wrote a third.

Kate, 42, is depicted by British-Zambian artist Hannah Uzor in the clothes she wore to the first state banquet of King Charles’s reign.

The artist said he was inspired by Kate’s poignant video announcing her cancer diagnosis in March.

The admission was made by royal biographer Angela Levin and relates to the King’s lifelong passion for the environment, which has extended to a love of gardening.

“They love going to garden centres and they do it a lot during the year,” she told GB News. “Camilla doesn’t interfere with [Charles’s] garden at Highgrove.”

This comes after the couple recently visited the Chelsea Flower Show on Monday ahead of its official opening yesterday.

Prince William has highlighted the ongoing homelessness problem in the UK by inviting members from his homelessness project to the latest Buckingham Palace garden party.

Rowan Aderyn, a member of the Homewards team, took the opportunity yesterday (21 May) to gift the Prince of Wales a self-penned children’s book about a boy called Jack who finds himself experiencing homelessness.

William said: “This is great, so inspirational. I’ll read this to Louis tonight at bedtime.”

The book was one of only 10 copies ever printed.