Issued on: 25/12/2022 – 16:42
King Charles III has hailed the “heartfelt solidarity” of people across the recession-hit UK struggling with a worsening cost of living crisis, in his first Christmas Day message as monarch.
Addressing the country from the Windsor Castle chapel where his mother, Elizabeth II, was interred in September, the 74-year-old also thanked people for the “love and sympathy” expressed following her death.
Standing aside a sparkling Christmas tree, the sovereign noted in the annual royal message — broadcast at 1500 GMT — that it is a “particularly poignant time for all of us who have lost loved ones”.
He then turned to the impact of the country’s growing economic woes, as decades-high inflation eats into earnings and escalates strikes over pay across the public and private sectors.
“I…
