Queen role as 'Zoom monarch' analysed amid health concerns

Queen Elizabeth II is urged to officially pass on the crown to Prince Charles.

Royal expert Robert Jobson notes Queen's opting out of Maundy Day service signifies that the 95-year-old needs to shift powers to the heir-in-waiting Prince of Wales.

"I'm surprised he hasn't been named to be honest," he says. "With all respect to Her Majesty, you can't really be a Zoom monarch. There are roles you have to play. You have to be seen to be believed.

"There's enough scope within the Regency Act to make the Prince of Wales regent and I don't think it would be a bad thing – we've had two Popes," he adds.

"If it gets to be a situation a year down the line where we don't see the Queen at all and she can't do anything... None of us would want her to have to go through all of this at 96, 97."

Expert Kate Mansey added of Queen's recent engagements on Zoom: "If you can only see the Queen in mechanical form as she would say, on Zoom, you do wonder how this is going to go forward."