Queen Elizabeth is said to have experienced a setback in her Christmas plans after it emerged that her staff refused to self-isolate with the monarch at her seat in Norfolk, Sandringham, for four weeks, which has forced the Queen to spend Christmas at Windsor Castle for the first time in 33 years.
The Queen’s housekeeper at Sandringham, Patricia Earl, has quit her job “embarrassed” by the staff’s refusal to self-isolate with the monarch, the Sun reported.
The 56-year-old senior member of staff worked for the Queen for 33 years, including 14 years in the housekeeper’s capacity.
The paper quoted a Buckingham Palace spokesman as saying that her departure was “completely amicable”.
The resignation comes amid drama with members of the royal household who reportedly boycotted the British monarch’s plan to have them self-isolate with her at the Sandringham estate for four weeks. The staff – said to be cleaners, laundry, and maintenance workers – believe they were “pushed too far by being made to isolate from their families for Christmas”.
The drop in COVID-19 cases allowed the UK Government to return to its three-tiered COVID-19 alert system, which was originally introduced in October before the one-month nationwide lockdown. Each tier has its own rules regarding household mixing and work of certain public places. However, both Windsor and Norfolk are in Tier 2 and therefore Sandringham and Windsor Castle are subject to the same restrictions.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
