The Queen’s courtiers banned “coloured immigrants or foreigners” from working in clerical roles within the royal household until the 1960s, it has emerged.
Papers discovered at the National Archives also shed light on how Buckingham Palace insisted on clauses exempting the Queen and her household from laws that prevent race and sex discrimination.
In 1968, the Queen’s chief financial manager informed civil servants that “it was not, in fact, the practice to appoint coloured immigrants or foreigners” to clerical roles in the royal household, although they were permitted to work as domestic servants, the Guardian newspaper said.
Buckingham Palace told the newspaper its records showed people from ethnic minority backgrounds being employed in the 1990s, but before that decade it did not keep records on the racial backgrounds of employees.
The newspaper highlighted how, in the 1960s, government ministers sought to introduce laws that would make it illegal to refuse to employ an individual on the grounds of their race or ethnicity.
The Queen has remained personally exempted from those equality laws for more than four decades, but it is argued the exemption made it impossible for women or people from ethnic minorities working for her household to complain to the courts if they believe they have been discriminated against.
A Palace spokesperson said on Wednesday: "Claims based on a second hand account of conversations from over 50 years ago should not be used to draw or infer conclusions about modern day events or operations.
"The principles of Crown Application and Crown Consent are long established and widely known.
"The Royal Household and the Sovereign comply with the provisions of the Equality Act, in principle and in practise.
"This is reflected in the diversity, inclusion and dignity at work policies, procedures and practises within the Royal Household.
"Any complaints that might be raised under the Act follow a formal process that provides a means of hearing and remedying any complaint."
