The Queen’s family Christmas at Sandringham could be off for the first time in 33 years.
Her Majesty is currently isolating at Windsor Castle with Prince Philip after leaving Norfolk for the month-long lockdown.
And one Sandringham insider has said: ‘We have been told not to expect them back for Christmas.’
It comes after a revolt among workers at the estate after they refused to quarantine away from their own families.
It led to the Queen, 94, and the Duke of Edinburgh, 99, spending two weeks together at Sandringham’s Wood Farm cottage last month rather than in the main house.
It is reportedly hoped that Prince Philip and the Queen both isolating at Windsor will help quell tension, after Sandringham estate workers revolted against a plan for them to stay in a coronavirus bubble there over Christmas.
A team of about 20 employees had been asked to remain on the monarch’s Norfolk estate without their families to support her, Prince Philip and other members of the Royal Family during the festive period.
But the group – said to involve cleaners, laundry and maintenance workers – are believed to have mutinied because they are unwilling to isolate from loved ones for four weeks.
A Buckingham Palace spokesman insisted: ‘No final decision has been taken on Christmas.’
Another insider said: ‘Nothing has been resolved as staff are still refusing to quarantine from their families.
‘So it’s looking almost certain they can’t have Christmas inside the big house at Sandringham.
‘It is possible, of course, to arrange a smaller one for Philip and the Queen at Wood Farm cottage.
‘But moving the Queen and Duke to Windsor, where they know the bubble works, makes it simpler to start planning to stay there for Christmas.’
The uprising means the Queen could be forced to spend Christmas at Windsor Castle for the first time in 33 years.
A royal source told The Sun: ‘The Queen is furious. The staff said enough is enough. It is absolutely unprecedented.
‘Everybody wants to stay loyal but they feel they’ve been pushed too far by being made to isolate from their families for Christmas.
‘Discussions are taking place with the team on operational matters but it is too early to speculate on implications for Christmas.’
The Queen typically spends her winter break at Sandringham, travelling up after the Christmas party for extended family members at Buckingham Palace in December.
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Source: Daily Mail
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