Buckingham Palace Responds To Allegations Of Prejudiced Hiring Practices

Buckingham Palace has issued a statement addressing allegations of prejudiced hiring practices after a report from a British newspaper claimed that Queen Elizabeth II’s courtiers banned members of ethnic minorities and foreigners from holding certain positions in the royal household.

The Guardian published a report Wednesday alleging that newly discovered documents from the U.K.'s National Archives showed courtiers had banned "colored immigrants or foreigners" from serving clerical roles until at least the late 1960s and then only allowed them to work as domestic servants. The queen, 95, ascended to the throne in 1952.

“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,” a spokesperson for the palace said in a statement to E! News. “The principles of Crown Application and Crown Consent are long established and widely known.”

The Guardian report also claimed that according to the papers, Buckingham Palace negotiated with government officials in the 1970s to have clauses added to racial and sexual equality laws that would exempt the monarch's household from laws preventing race and sex discrimination. The clauses allegedly prohibit employees from suing for discrimination at work even up to this day, the report said.

Addressing these claims, the palace spokesperson said, "The Royal Household and the Sovereign comply with the provisions of the Equality Act, in principle and in practice. This is reflected in the diversity, inclusion and dignity at work policies, procedures and practices 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," the spokesperson continued.

E! News noted that Buckingham Palace did not go into detail about what this process entails.

The Guardian report came months after Meghan Markle alleged in her and Prince Harry's sit-down interview with Oprah Winfrey that unnamed members of the royal household had "concerns" and "conversations" about how dark Archie's skin color would be before he was born.

"In those months when I was pregnant, all around this same time, we have in tandem the conversation of he won’t be given security, he’s not going to be given a title, and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born," the Duchess of Sussex said in March.

Prince Harry corroborated his wife's account, though he later clarified that his grandparents, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, were not part of the alleged conversations.

In response, Buckingham Palace called the issues "concerning" and said they would be "taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately."

Following the airing of the interview, Prince William also told a reporter during a royal engagement, "We are very much not a racist family."