The Queen may have to deliver another speech before long – and not for the Tory party

Editorial: Being drafted into an election launch is a new nadir for the reigning monarch. How embarrassing to think it may all have been for nothing

In the past, Britain’s political parties have recruited some unlikely personalities to front or appear in their party political broadcasts: John Cleese (SDP/Liberal Alliance); Martin Freeman (Labour); Sean Connery (SNP); and, most disturbingly, an endorsement from Jimmy Savile for the Liberals (it was the Seventies).

Never before, however, has a reigning monarch been co-opted. But such has been the fate of Elizabeth II in the 67th year of her reign. It is some small mercy she was not required to utter the phrase “get Brexit done”, but otherwise she was reading from a script that may well have had something to do with Dominic Cummings. A new low.

The Queen’s Speech is only the latest piece of Britain’s constitutional furniture to be upended by the Johnson government. Usually, the speech arrives after a general election, not before. It presents a programme for a government endorsed by the electorate, not seeking to win an imminent contest. This was electioneering, and the palace ought not to have agreed to it – but then again, it has bigger battles to fight and win with Mr Johnson than this.