A “high-level group” of Commonwealth leaders is meeting in London to review the governance of Commonwealth nations – amid reports that its members may also begin considering the succession to Queen Elizabeth.
The conference, at Marlborough House, the Commonwealth’s headquarters in London, brings together seven former ministers and senior officials from the global organisation.
While the group is tasked with developing policies on the future governance of the Commonwealth secretariat, according to a report by the BBC it will also examine who should take over on the Queen’s death.
In a formal statement the Commonwealth denied that the session would be examining the issue of succession – insisting that it “was not part of the group’s mandate”.
Succession to lead the organisation is not hereditary and will not pass automatically to the Prince of Wales. Buckingham Palace says the issue is a matter for the Commonwealth itself to resolve.
The Commonwealth statement said: “At their last Summit in Malta [in 2015], Commonwealth heads of government directed the Secretary-General to form the Group. Today members are discussing their scope of work and the areas of governance they will examine over the coming months.
“The process is open and the High Level Group reports to the heads. The issue of succession of the Head of the Commonwealth is not part of the Group’s mandate.”
The high level group is chaired by Anote Tong, who was president of Kiribati from 2003 to 2016. Other members include Lord Howel, the former British energy secretary, Louise Frechette, the former United Nations deputy secretary-general, Robert Hill, a former Australian defence minister, Dame Billie Miller, forrmer deputy prime minister of Barbados, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former Nigerian minister of finance, and Dr George Vella, a former foreign minister of Malta.
The next Commonwealth Heads of Government (Chogm) meeting will be hosted by the UK in April. The Commonwealth compromises 53 states and territories, mostly former parts of the British empire. They include Australia, New Zealand and Canada, in each of which the Queen remains head of state.
An agenda for the all-day meeting, seen by the BBC, tabled “wider governance considerations” for discussion – which insiders say is code for succession planning.
One source told the BBC: “I imagine the question of the succession, however distasteful it may naturally be, will come up.”
A second source told the BBC that the issue of who is to succeed Queen Elizabeth, who is 91, is expected to be discussed by Commonwealth leaders on the margins of the summit – particularly when they meet without officials “on retreat” at Windsor Castle.
The Guardian has spoken to a person with knowledge of the meeting who confirmed its existence but played down the succession discussion.
The source said the meeting was “a high-level group that has been commissioned to review the governing of the Commonwealth, but not so much who is going to succeed the Queen of England”.According to the BBC, the Queen is backing Prince Charles to succeed her and has sent senior members of her team around the world to campaign for his appointment by Commonwealth leaders.
At Chogm in 2015 the Queen told Commonwealth leaders she could not “wish to have been better supported and represented in the Commonwealth than by the Prince of Wales, who continues to give so much to it with great distinction”.
The decision and recommendations of the group would be presented at Chogm in April.
The Commonwealth is home to 2 billion people, 60% of whom are under 30.
According to his website, the Prince of Wales has visited 41 of the 52 Commonwealth countries, including Australia, New Zealand and Canada on numerous occasions.
Asked about who would be the next head of the Commonwealth, a spokesperson for Buckingham Palace said: “It is a matter for the Commonwealth to decide.”
The Foreign Office did not comment.