The Queen is cold on Turkey's bid to join the European Union, claims Labour minister's lover

The Queen said Turkey should be kept out of the European Union for a 'long time’, according to the girlfriend of Denis MacShane, the Labour Europe minister.

Throughout her 59 years on the throne, the Queen’s political views have remained strictly between her and her ministers.

Now, though, a Labour minister’s former girlfriend has made public what she claims is the monarch’s opinion of the expansion of the European Union.

“I was present when the Queen made a comment that was both reactionary and unconstitutional,” alleges Joan Smith, an author and broadcaster, who split up with Denis MacShane, a former Europe minister, last year.

“It was at a Christmas party at Buckingham Palace. It was mostly MPs and ex-ministers.”

Smith, who refused to make a curtsy for the monarch and the Duke of Edinburgh, tells Mandrake: “Before the Queen came in, a small group of us were asked to stand in the corner and wait to be introduced. I smiled and said 'hello’ and she looked at me with almost disbelief and passed on to the next person. It was a nice Conservative MP and his wife, who, he said, was Turkish. She immediately said: 'Philip and I have been on a state visit to Turkey.’

“The woman was very polite and said how pleased people were that she had visited. Then, the Queen turned to another person in the group and said: 'The EU is getting awfully big with 28 countries.’ They said that, actually, it was 27, 'but we are hoping Turkey will come in soon’, to which the Queen said, 'Oh, we don’t want Turkey to come in for a long time.’

“I thought it was very rude. The myth is that she is above politics, so it is interesting that she would express political views like that.”

Politicians from all three major political parties have argued for Turkey’s accession to the EU. The country, which has a mainly Muslim population of 78  million, applied to join in 1987 and has been an associate member of the organisation and its predecessors since 1963.

Turkey was officially recognised as a candidate for full membership in1999, but its bid is highly controversial because some European countries fear that the nature of the EU would change if it admitted a largely Muslim country.

Buckingham Palace declines to comment, but a courtier tells me: “While it is not beyond the realms of possibility that Her Majesty made such a comment, it may have been taken out of context.

“The Queen has a good relationship with Turkey and Miss Smith is, I believe, a prominent republican.”

The Telegraph