Embarrassment for Sunak as King wears Greek flag tie

Oh dear, lifelong environmentalist King Charles got a little too political at COP28 today and appears to have undermined the Prime Minister, which is most unconstitutional.

Several days after Rishi Sunak caused a diplomatic row with Athens by declining at the last moment to meet the Greek PM in London, the monarch greeted Sunak in Dubai today sporting a tie that was emblazoned with the flag of, you guessed it, Greece.

On Wednesday, Sunak refused to meet his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis, a fellow Nato member and economic ally, in order to make a “stand” over the Elgin Marbles. 

The Elgin Marbles is the name commonly used for a collection of ancient Greek treasures from the Parthenon in Athens which were bought and brought to the UK by British diplomat Lord Elgin in the early nineteenth century. The sculptures reside in the British Museum. Sunak insists they will stay firmly there. After all, the 1963 British Museum Act prohibits the removal of objects from the institution’s collection.

But Athens is demanding that the much-admired pieces are returned to their rightful owner or at least loaned. The Greek leader, who returned from London in a huff following the snub from Sunak, even went so far as to compare the artifacts’ original removal from Greece to cutting the Mona Lisa in half.

Which brings up back to King Charles. Was his pointed tie deliberate or pure coincidence? The Palace will presumably say there was no intention to embarrass the PM.