Big sighs of relief all round. We do still get a State Visit this summer. After Theresa May sprung a surprise election on everyone earlier this week (shock all round apart from Buckingham Palace where the Queen got the news the day before), the planned trip of King Felipe and Queen Letizia was in the spotlight again. With their State Visit in the diary for June 6th to 8th and the election on the 8th itself, there were questions about whether it could still happen as planned. Today's definitive answer was tiaras in July.
In light of the UK General Election, The Visit has been rescheduled and will now take place from 12th-14th July.— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) April 21, 2017
The King and Queen of Spain will now make their State Visit from July 12th to July 14th. It's about as late into the royal summer diary as it's possible to go. The Queen is due in Balmoral not long after that while Felipe and Letizia traditionally spend the start of August in Mallorca. The confirmation came in a tweet from Buckingham Palace this morning.
It's the second time this State Visit has been altered. Spain's king, who took the throne on June 19th 2014, had to postpone in 2016 because of political gridlock followed by fresh general elections in Spain. This will be the first Spanish State Visit to the UK since 1986 when Felipe's father, Juan Carlos, made a hugely successful trip. He gave an address at Parliament and the Spanish press speculated this week that a change in dates would have to happen after the UK election was called as one of the high hopes of this latest visit is that Felipe will follow in Juan Carlos' footsteps and do the same. That's back on the agenda with the new dates - but who will be the Prime Minister who helps welcome him to the UK remains to be seen.
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