Gavin Grey: UK & Europe correspondent on angry crowds throwing mud at Spanish King and UK Royals finances revealed

Angry crowds of people have confronted Spanish King Felipe VI in Valencia, a town that has been severely affected by flash floods.

A hostile crowd threw mud at him and shouted “murderer”, in response to what they say has been a woeful response to the tragedy that has killed at least 210.

UK & Europe correspondent Gavin Grey tells Ryan Bridge many are angry that weather warnings came too late.

Meanwhile, details about the UK Royal Family’s finances have been revealed – including rent received from the NHS, schools and the armed forces.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're going to Gavin Gray are UK and your correspondent
this morning. Angry crowds have confronted the Spanish King in
Valencia this after all the floodingvin What are they saying?

Speaker 2 (00:10):
A green At times, actually it looked like the sort
of security ring that was supposed to be put around
the King in Queen of Spain was not going to
cope when they turned into one particular sort of pedestrian
street that were absolutely set upon by protesters who were
shouting murderer and shame on them and also flicking and
throwing mud at them. Of course, mud is plentiful in

(00:31):
and around the region of Valencia at the moment, following
those floods this week, in which more rainfall fell in
eight hours than they normally get in an entire year.
The death toll has also risen in the last forty
eight hours. It's now said to be two hundred and seventeen.
But the police are continuing to check underground car parks
tunnels as well for people who have died in their cars,

(00:53):
and it is thought many many more are still missing.
I have to say, I think King Philip and Queen
Letitia they felt they had to go they were consoling
members of the crowd. They did act extremely sort of
calmly to this that they faced, but frankly, you know,
there were members of the Valencian Parliament saying the King's
visit was a very bad decision. They didn't listen to
the warnings, and people there are angry that the warnings

(01:14):
about the weather came too late and then they've not
been given enough help.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Yeah, I mean, you can understand where they're coming from.
County and two hundred people, as you said, have lost
their lives in that region. Let's move to the UK.
So King Charles and Prince William have huge estates and
it turns out that they're charging public institutions even cherities
rent to use the buildings that they own.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yes, so this is slightly complicated because of the structure
of how it's dealt with. But they run a couple
of organizations, the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall. Now they
do not form part of the Crown Estate. The Crown
Estate is something separate and the Crown of State profit
is used basically to calculate the funding given by the

(01:59):
government and that is taxed. These particular things seem to
be far more relaxed, and it's said that the deals
they have with National health service organizations, public bodies and
charities are worth roughly one hundred million New Zealand dollars
a year to them now. A spokesperson for the Duchy
of Lancaster, the private estate of King Charles, said, and

(02:20):
I quote it complies with all relevant UK legislation and
regular whose standards applicable to its range of business activities.
But this has been splashed across the Sunday Times. There's
a documentary on television as well coming and it doesn't
look good for the Royals on all this. The Duchy
of Cornwall, which is Prince William's separate entity, the Duchy
of Lancaster is the King's. Both hold very large amounts

(02:43):
of land, including quite a lot of commercial property in
England and Wales, and this is the property that they've
been renting out. The estates are not subject to corporation
tax which the rest of us have to pay, and
the Royals do not pay capital gains tax that's a
tax on a increase in value of an asset you sell.
But they do voluntarily pay income tax on the SOB.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yeah, that's what it is because there was some confusion,
so they voluntarily pay the income tax. That's the difference. Yes, Gavin,
thank you very much for clarifying that. Gavin Gray, our
UK europe correspondent.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
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