King Charles visit could trigger public holiday as decision on day off to be made in just hours
The trip will conclude just a day before the State Opening of Parliament
PA
King Charles and Queen Camilla's tour to the Channel Islands could see locals handed a public holiday in celebration of the "rare and historic" occasion, Jersey's Chief Minister has said.
Jersey's parliament, the States Assembly, is set to debate the proposal later today - with Chief Minister Deputy Lyndon Farnham calling the royal couple's visit a "wonderful opportunity to celebrate our longstanding and loyal relationship with the Crown".
The King and Queen will visit Jersey on July 15 - a first trip by a British monarch for almost 20 years - before island-hopping to Guernsey, which is also proposing a public holiday, the following day.
Jersey's government said Charles and Camilla will visit a special sitting of the States Assembly and the Royal Court, as well as a "large-scale, open-air exposition" in capital St Helier which will "showcase the best" of the Crown Dependency.
The trip will conclude just a day before the State Opening of Parliament
PA
Chief Minister Farnham said: "The visit of Their Majesties is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate our longstanding and loyal relationship with the Crown, and we are proposing a public holiday to mark this special occasion and to enable as many Islanders as possible to enjoy the day."
While Lieutenant-Governor Jerry Kyd said he was "absolutely delighted" about the upcoming visit.
Meanwhile in Guernsey, the island's Bailiff, Sir Richard McMahon, said: “It will be a great privilege to welcome Their Majesties to the bailiwick for the first time as King and Queen; the year after their Coronation.
"Their visit this summer shows just how special the relationship between the Crown and the islands is."
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The then-Duke and Duchess of Cornwall have visited the Channel Islands before
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While representatives from smaller Channel Islands, Alderney and Sark, will be present at the festivities, the King and Queen are not scheduled to visit the two due to "time restraints" on their travel.
And just the day after the King returns from the English Channel archipelago, he is due to the deliver the King's Speech on July 17 as part of the State Opening of Parliament following July 4's General Election.
The trip is due to be the pair's first since the King was diagnosed with cancer in February.
The last time a reigning British monarch visited the Channel Islands was Queen Elizabeth II's trip in 2005 - and while this visit will not be Charles's first to the dependency, it will in his capacity as King.
The late Queen visited the Channel Islands in 2005
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The British monarch, regardless of gender, is known informally as the "Duke of Normandy" in the Channel Islands - a peculiar historical hangover from the Crown's jurisdiction over the now-extinct Duchy of Normandy, of which the islands were a part, and now exist as a sort of rump state.
And while the King is slated to make the brief trip across the Channel in less than a month's time, he and Queen Camilla are due to journey halfway round the globe to visit Australia and Samoa for a Commonwealth summit in October.
Additional legs of the trip to fellow South Pacific states New Zealand and Fiji had reportedly been canned as the 75-year-old monarch continues his treatment for the illness.
But New Zealand's PM, Christopher Luxon, extended an "open invitation to King Charles" for what would be his first visit there since 2019.